Virginia Commonwealth University is now the only academic medical center in the country with free on-line access to one of the nation s leading medical journals, The New England Journal of Medicine. The university is part of a pilot program designed to help the NEJM determine electronic access requirements for major U.S. academic medical centers. Wenzel proposed that VCU s MCV Campus be used as a beta-testing site for a period of one year. In exchange for free access, NEJM will monitor VCU s usage to learn what parts of the journal are accessed the most, what time of day they are accessed and other usage information.
Free access is a wonderful benefit.
It saves the cost of the journal and enables rapid access to peer-reviewed research. The online version of the NEJM features full text articles with images, as well as a topical archive of research articles. Access to the e-journal is now available both on and off campus. Off-campus users should set their computer s web browser to recognize VCU Libraries as the proxy server. Then follow the instructions for on-campus access.