Survey results: BCMA Annual Report 2012–2013

Issue: BCMJ, vol. 55, No. 8, October 2013, Pages 367-368 News

The BCMA Annual Report was distributed to members as an enclosure with the May issue of the BCMJ. This year’s annual report had a new look and format, and readers were surveyed to find out what they thought. While the number of survey respondents decreased this year and the number of members who read the report also decreased slightly, the percentage of respondents who read the entire report increased by 5% from the previous year. The overall opinion of the report’s format was positive. Readers liked the visual appeal of the report, and indicated that the report contributed to their confidence in the management and accountability of the association. After reading the report, the majority of readers felt well informed about the association’s activities. 

More readers (46%) felt that this year’s report length was too long than did readers of the previous year (34%), while 54% of this year’s readers felt the report length was just right. 

When rating sections of the report, readers were most interested in the highlights of 2012, the financial reports, and the report of the president. 

In comments, readers praised the report’s visually appealing format and easy-to-read graphics, though a few read-ers commented that the formatting appeared expensive or unnecessary. 

Environmentally conscious members requested that the report be made available in electronic format only, to save paper and eliminate printing and mailing costs. The BCMA is considering this suggestion for next year’s report.

Survey respondents were entered into a draw to win two $75 Lululemon gift certificates for providing their feed-back on the annual report—congratulations to Drs Junella Lee and Patrick Chan on winning the draw.

. Survey results: BCMA Annual Report 2012–2013. BCMJ, Vol. 55, No. 8, October, 2013, Page(s) 367-368 - News.


Above is the information needed to cite this article in your paper or presentation. The International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE) recommends the following citation style, which is the now nearly universally accepted citation style for scientific papers:
Halpern SD, Ubel PA, Caplan AL, Marion DW, Palmer AM, Schiding JK, et al. Solid-organ transplantation in HIV-infected patients. N Engl J Med. 2002;347:284-7.

About the ICMJE and citation styles

The ICMJE is small group of editors of general medical journals who first met informally in Vancouver, British Columbia, in 1978 to establish guidelines for the format of manuscripts submitted to their journals. The group became known as the Vancouver Group. Its requirements for manuscripts, including formats for bibliographic references developed by the U.S. National Library of Medicine (NLM), were first published in 1979. The Vancouver Group expanded and evolved into the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE), which meets annually. The ICMJE created the Recommendations for the Conduct, Reporting, Editing, and Publication of Scholarly Work in Medical Journals to help authors and editors create and distribute accurate, clear, easily accessible reports of biomedical studies.

An alternate version of ICMJE style is to additionally list the month an issue number, but since most journals use continuous pagination, the shorter form provides sufficient information to locate the reference. The NLM now lists all authors.

BCMJ standard citation style is a slight modification of the ICMJE/NLM style, as follows:

  • Only the first three authors are listed, followed by "et al."
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For more information on the ICMJE Recommendations for the Conduct, Reporting, Editing, and Publication of Scholarly Work in Medical Journals, visit www.icmje.org

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