Journal of Orthomolecular Medicine
Orthomolecular Medicine News Service, September 18,
2012
Public Library Censors Nutritional Research
U.S. National Library of Medicine is Biased and Taxpayers Pay
for It
Most medical journals are easy to access on the internet through a huge
electronic database known as Medline or PubMed. (http://
"Selective indexing" is a nice name for censorship. After over 40 consecutive
years of publication, the Journal of Orthomolecular Medicine is still not
indexed by Medline. The Journal has just been censored, again, after its most
recent application. This marks the sixth time since 1989 that JOM has been
rejected for Medline indexing. The decision is made by a review committee
privately preselected by NLM. There are no hearings. No public input is allowed.
What are the consequences of such exclusion from Medline? In a nutshell, it
stops the public from using their computers to quickly access many of the
scientific research and clinical reports demonstrating the effectiveness of
nutritional therapeutics (orthomolecular medicine). It also greatly hampers
professionals from seeing pro-vitamin studies. Have you ever wondered why your
doctor simply does not know about vitamin therapy? Well, wonder no longer. He or
she can't find what isn't indexed. Since the vast majority of journals indexed
by Medline are pharmaceutical-friendly, and nutritional research is censored,
what do you expect?
If we want an informed public, we have to have free access so we can all learn.
That's the idea behind public schools. It is the idea behind public libraries.
The National Library of Medicine is a public library. Your taxes should be
helping you gather information, and not paying a closed-doors bureaucracy to
limit access.
"The National Library of Medicine refuses to index the Journal of Orthomolecular
Medicine, though it is peer-reviewed and seems to meet their criteria."
(Psychology Today, Nov-Dec 2006)
The Journal of Orthomolecular Medicine has a review board of medical doctors and
university- and hospital-based researchers. Since 1967, it has published over
600 papers by renowned authors including Roger J. Williams, Emanuel Cheraskin,
Hugh D. Riordan, Carl C. Pfeiffer, Abram Hoffer, and Nobel Prize winner Linus
Pauling. You should be able to access abstracts (concise summaries) of these
papers, instantly, via Medline.
Well, you can't.
As public libraries should be free to rich and poor alike, so public access to
scientific knowledge should not be screened or censored. Our taxpayer-paid
government owes the public full disclosure of all new nutritional research that
can help people. Your taxes should not be used to fund censorship in a public
library, especially the largest medical library on the planet. It is
un-American. And unhealthy.
(Andrew W. Saul taught nutrition, health science and cell biology at the college
level. He is the author of Doctor Yourself and Fire Your Doctor! and coauthor of
four books with Dr. Abram Hoffer. Saul is on the Editorial Board of the Journal
of Orthomolecular Medicine.)
Action available:
If you'd like to write to Medline and tell them what you think, their general
email contact is custserv@nlm.nih.gov or
http://apps2.nlm.nih.gov/
You can also call NLM Customer Service at
1-888-FIND-NLM
( 1-888-346-3656 ).
Remember to be polite, because, after all, they are the "World's Largest Medical
Library."
http://www.nlm.nih.gov/
NLM's customer service representatives are typically hired contractors whose
knowledge about this issue may be near zero. Scripted or form-letter replies are
to be expected.
If you feel that your tax dollars deserve more than a canned reply, you may
prefer to directly contact the people in charge:
Ms. Joyce Backus is Deputy Associate Director and in charge of MEDLINE. Email:
joyce.backus@nlm.nih.gov
Ms. Betsy Humphreys is Deputy Director of the National Library of Medicine.
Email: betsy.humphreys@nih.gov
OMNS would be interested in receiving a copy of NLM's correspondence with you.
If your comments are selected for OMNS publication, your name will not be used.
omns@orthomolecular.org
For further reading:
Four decades of papers from the Journal of Orthomolecular Medicine are now
online for you to read, Medline or no Medline, at
http://orthomolecular.org/
How to Fool All of the People All of the Time (A satirical look at information
censorship)
http://orthomolecular.org/
Want to be a MEDLINE Information Censor? (A humorous self-test)
http://orthomolecular.org/
Nutritional Medicine is Orthomolecular Medicine
Orthomolecular medicine uses safe, effective nutritional therapy to fight
illness. For more information:
http://
Find a Doctor
To locate an orthomolecular physician near you:
http://orthomolecular.org/
The peer-reviewed Orthomolecular Medicine News Service is a non-profit and
non-commercial informational resource.
Editorial Review Board:
Ian Brighthope, M.D. (Australia)
Ralph K. Campbell, M.D. (USA)
Carolyn Dean, M.D., N.D. (USA)
Damien Downing, M.D. (United Kingdom)
Dean Elledge, D.D.S., M.S. (USA)
Michael Ellis, M.D. (Australia)
Martin P. Gallagher, M.D., D.C. (USA)
Michael Gonzalez, D.Sc., Ph.D. (Puerto Rico)
William B. Grant, Ph.D. (USA)
Steve Hickey, Ph.D. (United Kingdom)
Michael Janson, M.D. (USA)
Robert E. Jenkins, D.C. (USA)
Bo H. Jonsson, M.D., Ph.D. (Sweden)
Thomas Levy, M.D., J.D. (USA)
Stuart Lindsey, Pharm.D. (USA)
Jorge R. Miranda-Massari, Pharm.D. (Puerto Rico)
Karin Munsterhjelm-Ahumada, M.D. (Finland)
Erik Paterson, M.D. (Canada)
W. Todd Penberthy, Ph.D. (USA)
Gert E. Schuitemaker, Ph.D. (Netherlands)
Robert G. Smith, Ph.D. (USA)
Jagan Nathan Vamanan, M.D. (India)
Andrew W. Saul, Ph.D. (USA), Editor and contact person. Email: omns@orthomolecular.org
Readers may write in with their comments and questions for consideration for
publication and as topic suggestions. However, OMNS is unable to respond to
individual emails.
http://orthomolecular.org/