Mission Statement
WestJEM focuses on how the systems and delivery of emergency care affects health, health disparities, and health outcomes in communities and populations worldwide, including the impact of social conditions on the composition of patients seeking care in emergency departments.
What is WestJEM?
Western Journal of Emergency Medicine (WestJEM): Integrating Emergency Care with Population Health (WestJEM) is the premier open-access Medline-indexed EM journal in the world. As the official journal of California ACEP, American College of Osteopathic Emergency Physicians (ACOEP), and the California chapter of American Academy of Emergency Medicine (AAEM), the journal focuses on how emergency care affects health and health disparities in communities and populations. Additionally, WestJEM focuses on how social conditions impact the composition of patients seeking care in emergency departments worldwide. WestJEM publishes six full-text online issues per year in addition to special issues throughout the year. WestJEM actively supports scholarly publishing from junior faculty by devoting additional space, consideration, and editorial support.
Where is WestJEM indexed?
WestJEM is indexed in all major medical databases such as MEDLINE/Index Medicus, PubMed, PubMed Central, and Clarivate’s (formerly Thompson Reuters) Expanded Index. For a complete list, please visit: http://westjem.com/indexing-information-2
Where is the journal repository of papers?
Published articles appear on eScholarship (http://escholarship.org/uc/uciem_westjem) as a PDF, on our main site (www.westjem.com) as an HTML, and on PubMed/PubMed Central as both. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/?term=western+journal+of+emergency+medicine and https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/journals/874/. We also provide electronic full-text issues through ISSUU.
How do I submit a paper to WestJEM?
Submit articles through eScholarship: https://submit.escholarship.org/subi/directSubmit?target=uciem_westjem
Submitted papers must follow submission guidelines: http://westjem.com/submission-guidelines
What is the average time from submission to publication for papers submitted to WestJEM in 2015?
Submission to first decision: 6 weeks
Acceptance to electronic publication: 6 additional weeks
Submission to electronic publication: 4.5 months
What are WestJEM’s total subscription and distribution circulation numbers?
Total 19,000 bimonthly electronic subscriptions.
What are the department sponsor benefits for subscribing to WestJEM?
All departments that subscribe to WestJEM have up to 2 article processing fees waived for department members if the author is listed as the first or last author. All faculty and residents of department subscribers receive six electronic full text issues by email. In addition, departments advertise for Continued Medical Education (CME) conferences and open faculty and fellow positions on www.WestJEM.com, and, on a space-available basis, in electronic issues free of charge. All departments’ open access support is acknowledged in each electronic issue and online.
What is WestJEM’s article processing fee?
There is never a charge to submit an article. The article processing charge (APC) is $1250 regardless of article type. However, if the first or last author of the accepted article is a full-time member of a WestJEM department supporter, this charge is waived up to two manuscripts per academic year. WestJEM waives the APC after acceptance upon application of authors from low or lower middle income countries, on a case by case basis. Please contact sales@westjem.org to request this charge waiver after acceptance.
As a completely open-access journal, WestJEM authors retain their copyright, and can reuse their material at will. Full manuscripts from WestJEM are immediately freely available on the internet in perpetuity to all readers. Open-access publishing costs are covered by the APC, as well as academic department sponsorships. WestJEM’s APC is among the lowest in the world, much lower than other open access EM journals ($2,000-4000 per paper). WestJEM’s indexing profile, and membership in legitimate indexes of open access journals (OASPA and DOAJ) guarantees it is not among the predatory open access journals.
Why do Open Access journals charge for publication?
There are two major economic models for journal publication, subscription and open-access. Subscription journals rely on revenue from libraries and individuals, as well as advertising revenue in print and online. Newer, open-access publishers have few if any individual subscribers, and advertising revenue is limited or absent. Both types perform legitimate peer review, and have publication costs for online and perhaps print publishing. The cost to publish an average research article is $1500-2000 or more. WestJEM defrays costs with academic department and society sponsorships, so our APC for accepted articles is among the lowest in the world, but not free. Subscription journals are “free” to the author, but charge consumers (readers of your work) to access the full manuscript, typically $35. If you belong to the journal’s sponsoring society, you receive the journal as a member benefit. In addition, authors of papers published in subscription journals typically sign away their rights to their own intellectual property as a condition of publication. With open-access publishers, the authors retain their own copyright. So you can sign your rights away for “free” publication, or retain them and pay a modest APC with WestJEM.
Why is WestJEM Open Access?
The founding principle of the WestJEM is free dissemination of research and best practices to the world. We believe that each author owns their intellectual property, and should not need to sign it away as a precondition to be published. We thereby encourage free exchange of ideas and scholarship as a public resource. Our authors’ work receives increased visibility, leading to a more valuable impact.
Updated February 2023