Will traditional scientific journals follow newspapers into oblivion, asks former BMJ editor

Richard Smith is a former editor of the BMJ and chief executive of the BMJ Publishing Group. He is well-known for provocative editorials. Here is an excerpt from one, published recently in The Scientist:

"Elsevier, the world’s largest publisher of scientific journals, has seen broadly stable revenues (€2,236 million in 2006, €2,370 million in 2010) but growing profits (€683 million in 2006, €847 million in 2010).

Scientific journals remain very profitable. Few industries manage a profit margin of 35.7% (that for Elsevier in 2010), but then few industries are given their raw material—in this case, scientific studies—not only for free, but also in a form that needs minimal processing."

It is nice to see that the current and a former editor of the two most famous British medical journals, The Lancet and BMJ, are now on Twitter:

Why has the Cochrane Collaboration never quite taken off in the US?

— richard horton (@richardhorton1) April 5, 2012

Any symptom in an elderly person should be considered to be a drug side effect until proved otherwise. Jerry Avern

— Richard Smith (@Richard56) April 2, 2012

References:

Reading Into the Future | The Scientist, 2012.
The scientific journal throuh the centuries - a little bit of history from Health Librarian (HL) Wiki http://buff.ly/WZqP2S

Former FDA commissioner on the killer combination of salt, fat and sugar - our food

David A Kessler, former commissioner of the FDA (the US Food and Drug Administration):

"Our favourite foods are making us fat, yet we can't resist, because eating them is changing our minds as well as bodies

For example, KFC's approach to battering its food results in "an optimised fat pick-up system". With its flour, salt, MSG, maltodextrin, sugar, corn syrup and spice, the fried coating imparts flavour that touches on all three points of the compass while giving the consumer the perception of a bargain – a big plate of food at a good price."

The ranks of overweight adults and children continue to increase. For the first time in history, overweight persons actually outnumber those who are malnourished. Obesity now kills more men and women in developed nations than war, terrorist attacks, or climate changes. On average, obese individuals forfeit about 9 years of life.

More on the same topic in the video below:



"Fake foods are more affordable. It's enticing people to eat more because they think they're saving money when they're really just buying heart disease." 10 Questions for Jillian Michaels. TIME, 2010.

References:

Obesity: The killer combination of salt, fat and sugar | David A Kessler. Guardian.

JAMA - Fat, Gluttony and Sloth: Obesity in Literature, Art and Medicine, July 7, 2010, Miksanek 304 (1): 101 http://goo.gl/eEos
Sweat Bees prefer sweaty people because the human diet is so salty that their perspiration is saturated with that essential nutrient. WSJ, 2012.