Journal Sustainability and Business Operations Workshop, Malawi, 2007

This workshop took place from the 2nd to 4th February 2007 at Nkopola Lodge, Mangochi, Malawi. It was hosted by the Malawi Medical Journal with support from INASP, WHO Special Program for Research and Training in Tropical Diseases (TDR), Forum for African Medical Editors (FAME) and Africa Health Journals Partnership Project (funded by the US National Institutes of Health with support from the Council of Science Editors).

The objective of this workshop was to assist the participants in evaluating their existing publishing business strategy and to provide a methodology for developing tighter controls and procedures, ultimately improving the sustainability of their journals. Representatives from 11 journals attended and at the end of the workshop each journal had a draft 3-year strategy which the participants took away with them to discuss and implement.

Participants represented the following journals:

1. African Health Sciences (Uganda)
2. African Journal of Medicine and Medical Sciences (Nigeria)
3. East African Medical Journal (Kenya)
4. Ghana Medical Journal (Ghana)
5. Journal of COSA-CMF (Journal of the college of Odonto-stomatologies Africain et Chirurgie Mzcxillo-faciale) (Burkina Faso)
6. Malawi Medical Journal (Malawi)
7. Mali Medical (Mali)
8. Psychopathologie Africaine (Senegal)
9. Revue Internationale des Sciences Medicales (RISM) (Cote d'Ivoire)
10. Sudanese Journal of Public Health (Sudan)
11. Tanzania Health Research Bulletin (Tanzania)

The programme included modules on planning and developing strategy, copyright, promotion and online publishing.

For more information, please e-mail Sioux Cumming