Mayo Clinic Proceedings Announces Request for Proposal for New Publishing Agreement

Tuesday, October 19, 2010

ROCHESTER, Minn. — Mayo Clinic Proceedings, a leading peer-reviewed medical journal, announced today that it is seeking a new commercial publishing agreement aligned with Mayo Clinic's goal to further champion its flagship journal's ascendance among general medical journals.

Mayo Clinic Proceedings has had a long-term service agreement with Dowden Health Media and now Quadrant HealthCom, which purchased the rights for the agreement currently in force through Dec. 31, 2011. The Request for Proposal (RFP) will be distributed by the end of the year to interested publishers with the goal to have a publishing agreement in place prior to January 2012.

Bruce Polsky, a publishing consultant and formerly the CEO of American Academy of Neurology (AAN) Press, will manage the RPF process. Questions about the RFP should be directed to him at polsky.bruce@mayo.edu or 651-214-7169. This RFP process is part of Mayo Clinic Proceedings' journey over its 84-year history from an in-house periodical for publication of Mayo research to a top-tier medical journal with contributions from a distinguished array of national and international authors. Physicians across a number of specialties have identified Mayo Clinic Proceedings as one of the top five most essential journals in medicine, according to a 2009 Essential Journal Study conducted by The New England Journal of Medicine.

"We are pleased to recruit Bruce Polsky to study the journal and offer counsel on progressive initiatives aimed at improving the journal's quality and sphere of influence," says William Lanier, M.D., editor in chief of Mayo Clinic Proceedings and a Mayo physician. "His oversight in selecting the journal's publisher is just one aspect of his many contributions in helping us improve the journal."

Mayo Clinic Proceedings is among the most widely read and highly cited peer-reviewed journals in clinical medicine. Published since 1926, Mayo Clinic Proceedings, is sponsored by Mayo Clinic but welcomes submissions from authors worldwide. The primary goal of the Proceedings is to promote the advancement of clinical medicine that results from integrated progress in medical practice, research and education. The journal has an impact factor of 4.973.

"These current initiatives acknowledge the tremendous improvements in the journal over the past decade. The journal seeks to use these advances as a foundation for future successes," Dr. Lanier says. "These are indeed exciting times for the authors and readers who rely on Mayo Clinic Proceedings for the dissemination of important information related to the improvement of general internal medicine."

###

About Mayo Clinic

Mayo Clinic is a nonprofit worldwide leader in medical care, research and education for people from all walks of life. For more information, visit MayoClinic.com or MayoClinic.org/news.

Journalists can become a member of the Mayo Clinic News Network for the latest health, science and research news and access to video, audio, text and graphic elements that can be downloaded or embedded.