Excerpta Medica Communications

Update 8 May 2009, see some better analysis than mine here from Laika’s MedLibLog. (Thanks Christina Pikas for the pointer).

Is everything published by Elsevier subsidiary medical PR firm”Excerpta Medica Communciations” a ‘fake’ publication? I have no idea.

But here’s what WorldCat has published by them. The online free worldcat.org does not let you search by ‘publisher’,  but I used FirstSearch platform WorldCat to search the ‘publisher’ index.

The phrase “excerpta medica” alone seems to be used by Elsevier in all sorts of contexts that I’m not confident are a medical PR firm. (That’s what the “EM” in EMBase stand for).  Searching for that gets you thousands of hits, presumably all Elsevier, but not necessarily from the Excerpta Medica PR firm subsidiary.

So this is a phrase search for “excerpta medica communications” in publisher  field.

I’m currently only seeing 22 hits, mostly all journals. I could swear that yesterday I saw 50, some of which were conference proceedings (from real or fake conferences? I dunno), but maybe I did a slightly different search then.

These are of course just titles that happen to have wound up in WorldCat somehow, it’s not necessarily an exhaustive list. Most of these titles have no holdings in WorldCat. Not sure how they ended up in WorldCat, but  most records have a note “ISSN prepublication record.” Sounds like someone did get them from the ISSN authority? Still wonder why they don’t show in Ulrichs.

I think all of these records were specifically published in Australia: “Chatswood, N.S.W. : Excerpta Medica Communications.” Excerpta Medica Communications itself is not specifically an Australian operation, but then, the fake Merck journal wasn’t targetted only at Australian doctors. Maybe they use their NSW subsidiary for journal publishing? I dunno.

Australasian journal of general practice 1444-5255

Australasian journal of cardiology.
1446-3652

Een nieuwe heup

Cognition & schizophrenia

Australasian journal of bone & joint medicine
1447-5529

Australasian journal of cardiovascular medicine
1444-044X

Australasian journal of paediatrics
1446-4004

Australasian journal of obstetrics & gynaecology
1446-4012

Australasian journal of dentistry.
1446-4055

Australasian journal of infectious diseases
1446-4063

Australasian journal of pain management.
1446-4071

Australasian journal of respiratory medicine.
1446-408X

Australasian journal of sexual health.
1446-4101

Australasian journal of psychiatry.
1446-3768

Australasian journal of asthma.
1446-411X

Australasian journal of gastroenterology.
1446-4136

Australasian journal of hospital pharmacy.
1446-4144

Reviews in clinical neurology.
1447-7491

Australasian journal of depression.
1446-4152

Core journals in oncology.
1447-7521

Oncology update.
ISSN: 1447-753X; Other format’s ISSN: 1447-7548

Some more

Ah, I figured out what I did yesterday. Search ‘publisher’ index for <<Excerpta Medica Communications>> without the quotes. Finds 30 more, it looks like mostly from Dutch “Excerpta Medica Medical Communications.” I’d assume this is the Dutch division of the same PR firm, but I’m not really sure.

I’m having to cut and paste these, so I’m not going to give you all 30, but a sampling.

7th United European Gastroenterology Week
13-17 November 1999, Rome, Italy. Abstracts.
Computer file
[Proceedings from a ‘sponsored’ conference maybe?]

XIIIth World Congress of Cardiology
April 26-30, 1998, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil : abstracts of original contributions.
American College of Cardiology.
1998
English Book Book Computer File Computer File 1 computer optical disc ; 4 3/4 in.
Amsterdam : Excerpta Medica Medical Communications,

[Did the American College of Cardiology have a ‘legitimate’ conference they simply paid EMMC to publish the proceedings of?  I couldn’t say. The ontological issues of what’s “legitimate” in a medical field awash with pharmaceutical money in the first place is a complicating issue.]

Vessels (serial)
ISSN: 1381-4893; National Library: 9605406; SR0088010; LCCN: sn 96-39914

Antagonisme calcique & motricité intestinale /
RW McCallum
1989
French Book Book 48 p. : ill. ; 28 cm.
Amsterdam : Excerpta Medica Medical Communications, ; ISBN: 9021998742 9789021998749

New trends in rheumatology.
1987-
English Serial Publication Serial Publication : Periodical
Amsterdam [etc.] : Excerpta Medica, Medical Communications Division,
(no ISSN, OCLCnum 72757772)