Medical Journal Websites Include Online-Only Content Plus Intriguing and Unique Features

Do you own a computer, a tablet, or a smartphone?

There’s some pretty cool stuff on our Arthroscopy; Arthroscopy Techniques; and Arthroscopy, Sports Medicine, and Rehabilitation (ASMAR) websites, including content that is available only online. Every time we visit the websites, we discover new content and features worth exploring.

Exploring a website is like wandering through a new city. It’s interesting but takes time, and sometimes you get lost. Thus, as a service to our readers, we’ve done the investigative work for you, and here, we reveal what we’ve mapped.

Before we delve into details, check out just one example of what a tour of the websites reveals (Fig 1). We had no idea that we have readers from Antigua to Iceland, and from Senegal to New Caledonia. Visit the map online, zoom in, and you can more closely explore the worldwide reach of our journals.

Next, here’s something you probably didn’t know. The symbol near the upper right of the web pages for each of our journals with the 3 horizontal lines (Fig 2), a symbol that indicates that a side menu or “navigation drawer” containing a list of links, is called a “hamburger.” The explanation for the nickname is seen in Fig 3.

Having completed our preamble, let’s officially begin our tour:

We’ll start with Arthroscopy or, for today’s purposes, https://www.arthroscopyjournal.org. From the top of the homepage (of each journal), users can “Submit” articles, “Log in,” “Register” (in order to customize journal preferences for content updates, article reading lists, and more), “Subscribe,” or “Claim” online access (for first time users or with a “Special Promotional Offer”).

From the homepage, users can “Explore” the “Podcast Library,” the “Infographic Library,” the “Cover Gallery,” the “Visual Abstract Gallery,” and the ASMAR Special Issue: “Rehabilitation & Return to Sports in Athletes.” Under the “Publish” tab, authors can directly “Submit Article(s)” or access and study our journals’ “Aims and Scope,” as well as our Instructions “For Authors” while exploring our “Supports Open Access” options. Readers can “Connect” to sign up for “Alerts” (such as e-mail notifications of new content); connect to our Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn pages and profiles; or link to “Membership” to learn about joining AANA. Also, above the fold (an age-old newspaper term, here indicating what users see on a webpage before scrolling down) are links to the “Current Issue” table of contents, our “Articles in Press,” “Past Issues,” and “Current Features” (highlighting and directly linking to selected articles from the current issue). Finally, we’d be negligent if we failed to acknowledge our advertising partners whose “banner ads” provide links where users can click to “Learn More” about products or services; moreover, we must acknowledge the link to our home organization, AANA.

Before we scroll down, let’s not forget to take a bite of the hamburger. Pardon the metaphor, and a click of the hamburger reveals myriad options for additional navigation. A click on “Articles and Issues” links users to “Articles in Press,” the “Current Issue,” a “List of Issues” (dating to Volume 1 from 1985), “Supplements,” and “Meeting Abstracts” from our AANA Annual Meetings. “Collections” links users to our “Research Pearls” articles, “Research Awards” articles, “Meeting Abstracts,” and again, the “ASMAR Special Issue,” as well as the “ABOS Web-Based Longitudinal Assessment Program 2022 Knowledge Sources.” A “Multimedia” option also links to our “Cover Gallery,” “Infographic Library,” “Podcast Library,” and “Visual Abstract Gallery.”

The “Authors” tab includes our “Ethics in Publishing Statement,” “Instructions for Authors,” “Permissions” (for information on and requests for reuse of published materials), and our all-important “Checklists” and “Templates,” which guide reviewers and authors through the key elements required for successful publication of original scientific articles, or of systematic reviews and meta-analyses. For authors who strive for the best chance of acceptance of their submitted articles for publication, a careful review of our Instructions for Authors, Checklists, Templates, and Research Pearls provides an insider’s guide.

The “Reviewers” tab includes a link to the “Journal Review Course” PowerPoint presentation, a link for “CME Credit for Reviewers,” a link to “Sign Up to Review,” and helpful “Guidelines for Reviewers.” The “Journal Info” tab includes “About the Journal,” “Contact Information,” a list of our “Editors and Editorial Board” and “Journal Board of Trustees,” and “Info for Advertisers.” A “Society” tab links AANA and ISHA, and there are links to Arthroscopy Techniques and ASMAR. That is quite some hamburger!

Finally, scroll down beneath the fold, past the “Current Features,” which typically include both the current Editorial and Infographic, and next we see “Featured Podcasts,” followed by “Articles in Press,” more banners (linking information on “AANA Lab Courses” and recognizing the “AANA Education Foundation”), links to AANA, links to our “Companion Journals,” and a table of Metrics highlighting our journal “Impact Factor.” Next, find links to additional “Journal Metrics,” to various measures of our “Reach” (including but not limited to the map introduced above), to “Review Speed,” to “Top Social Media Articles,” and, to “Time to Online Publication.”

Keep scrolling and find articles “Most Read (Last 30 Days),” a listing of “Affiliated Societies” (ISHA (International Society for Hip Arthroscopy); ISAKOS (International Society of Arthroscopy, Knee Surgery and Orthopaedic Sports Medicine); the Polish Arthroscopy Society: and the Columbian Society of Orthopaedic Surgery and Traumatology), then “Most Cited (Previous 3 Years)” articles, and then “Tweets by @ArthroscopyJ.” Finally, when you get to the bottom of the page, many of the links above are recapitulated in case you missed them the first time.

Moving on to Arthroscopy Techniques (ATech) and ASMAR, we won’t repeat redundant information. Suffice it to say that similar features, metrics, and links are found on the home pages for ATech and ASMAR. We will add that the ATech hamburger includes convenient drop-down menus for each area of the body in which a reader might be interested (knee, shoulder, hip, elbow, foot & ankle, and hand & wrist), and we will add that each area is broken down for an expedient, Arthroscopy Techniques search. For example, under elbow, users will find sub-menus for “Cartilage,” “Distal biceps,” “Epicondylitis,” “Fracture,” “Instability,” “UCL,” and “Other” elbow techniques. (Anyone up for an “Arthroscopic Elbow Osteocapsular Arthroplasty”?)

Another very helpful online feature at ATech is that once users select and view a specific article (and related video), a click among options on the left side of the page will link to “Related Articles.“ (Anyone up for additional arthroscopic elbow arthroplasty techniques?)

Of course, speaking of “Search,” the top of every single online page (for each journal) features, most prominently, a search engine which is easily identified by the magnifying glass icon (Fig 4). What is more, all search results feature an “Advanced Search” option, whereby users can search for articles of interest in an—you guessed it—“Advanced” manner by entering custom “Search Terms,” “Content Types” (e.g., “Article Title “or “Authors”), and “Publication Dates” including recent or “Custom Ranges,” and also by article type such as “Editorial,” “Research Article,” or “Review Article.” And there’s more (as readers have probably figured out by now). The search function also allows readers to narrow their search results in terms of “Articles” or “Figures and Multimedia.” Readers then have the option of check boxes allowing selection, from their list of searched material, of specific content in which they are most interested, thus allowing “Export” of the results (with further options of exporting either the full article PDFs or the article citations).

Finally (yes finally), when users ultimately arrive at a specific article online, there are an abundance of additional features. A PDF icon obviously allows readers to link to a PDF of the article in which they are interested. The PDF appears exactly like an article in print and may be read online or downloaded to one’s device. There’s a Folder icon that allows users to “Add to Online Library,” “Add to My Reading List” (we didn’t even know we had personal online libraries and reading lists), “Export Citation” for the article, or “Create Citation Alert” (such that users would be notified anytime in the future if the article they are reading is cited in another article). There’s a “Share” icon allowing readers to e-mail the article to a colleague, or to post the article to one’s Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, and/or Sina Weibo (the Chinese social media) feed, and there are links to purchase “Reprints” or make “Copyright Requests.” There are links allowing readers and users to directly email an article’s Corresponding Author. And, each article referenced in the primary article includes a link to “Scopus” (showing how many times and in what other articles each reference was cited), as well as useful links from each referenced article to that references “Abstract,” “Full Text,” “Full Text PDF,” “PubMed” citation, “Google Scholar” citation, and/or “Crossref” (which similarly displays links for each and every publication that has cited the reference of interest); here, dedicated readers or researchers can really “go down the rabbit hole,” and for better or worse, you cannot do this in print. Below the References, the online version of each article includes a list of “Related Articles” plus links to various “Supplementary Material” such as the article authors’ “Disclosures” (of potential, commercial conflicts of interest), and in the case of ATech, our venerated “Technique Videos.”

Tired? We acknowledge that we’ve discovered and shared quite a lot. There is more than we expected, suspected, or realized was available. Like walking through a new city, we’re both enthralled and exhausted by our tour. But if you’ve read this far, our efforts were worth it; we’ve saved you the trip, and now you are well informed on how to find anything and everything you might need at Arthroscopy, ATech, and ASMAR.

No wonder it’s called WWW, the “World Wide Web”!