Page 3 - Journal of Special Operations Medicine - Fall 2017

from the
PUBLISHER and EDITOR

It was great to see so many of our readers at The burden of the JSOM’s success is hav-
MHSRS in Orlando, FL, in August. ing more to publish, more that is urgently
needed to be disseminated immediately to
s many of you know, the JSOM started the audience. Therefore, to get the science
Aas a USSOCOM-SG publication in 2000 Michelle DuGuay Landers into the hands of those who use it as soon as
as a means to communicate SOF medicine. possible, in this issue we are debuting a new,
Through an arduous application process, the JSOM, an academic compact, efficient journal style. Your feedback is welcome.
peer-reviewed journal, was accepted by the National Library of
Medicine to be indexed in PubMed. In 2011, the JSOM tran-
sitioned to being published by Breakaway Media. Breakaway
Media was a startup company with the sole intent to keep the
JSOM and its training supplement, now called the JSOM Ad- The 2017 National Tactical Medicine Competition was held
vanced Tactical Paramedic Protocols Handbook, in publication. at the Charlotte Fire Training Academy in Charlotte, NC, on
Funding of these publications is solely through subscriptions and Sunday, 21 May 2017, hosted by Special Operations Aid &
advertising, so we sincerely thank you for your support. Rescue, Ltd. (SOARescue). The event was held just prior to the
Special Operations Medical Association Scientific Assembly
I want to take the opportunity to discuss the differences be- Conference. In total, 12 two-man teams competed. This year’s
tween a journal and a magazine. Journals, like the Journal competitors came from across North America, from California
of Special Operations Medicine, are scholarly peer-reviewed to New Hampshire and included one international team from
periodicals aimed at researchers or specialists in a particular Laval, Quebec.
field. The articles in a journal are directed to an audience who
is well educated in the specialty field and it is assumed that the Each team was tasked with a grueling four-stage course that
intended audience is already familiar with general principles. was both mentally and physically challenging. The stages tran-
A magazine is a non–peer-reviewed periodical whose audience sitioned the competitors through each of the Tactical Emer-
is of a general readership that can easily understand the ar- gency Casualty Care phases of care.
ticles in the magazine.
Stage 1 of this year’s competition begin with a story of the
Additional differences between a journal and a magazine are: team providing a protective security detail for a local religious
group traveling via in vehicles that was suddenly attacked by
• Journals contain original research articles, while magazines an antigovernment extremist group. Each team started the
contain articles pertaining to current events, general inter- course rapidly assessing and treating several critically injured
est topics, news, opinion, and personal narratives. patients in the convoy of vehicles.
• Articles in a journal include an abstract and a bibliography,
unlike a magazine article. On Stage 2 of the course, competitors were faced with triaging
• Journals provide in-depth discussion of the topic, while ar- an overwhelming number of patients with varying injuries fol-
ticles in a magazine are usually brief and give broad over- lowing a secondary explosion at a local building. Teams sort
views of the topic. through the chaos to treat the sickest patients first and work
• The language of journals uses special terminology and “jar- toward those who are least injured.
gon” and often requires prior knowledge of the topic. On
the other hand, the language used in a magazine is under- On Stage 3, teams were given critical patient’s requiring advanced
standable to everyone. level medical care including surgical airway management, life-
• A jury of experts always reviews a journal article before it saving medication administration, and mechanical ventilation
is published, whereas articles in a magazine are generally and introduced several concepts of prolonged field care.
reviewed or edited by the staff editors and not by peer re-
view or subject matter experts. Finally, on Stage 4 of this year’s competition, teams were
• Journals are more likely to contain charts and graphs mag- tasked with rigging a high angle rope rescue system capable of
azines have eye-catching graphics. raising and lowering a patient. The patient had to be moved to
• Journals cite sources on which their research is based; mag- the hoisting location and secured in a SKED. The competitors
azines rarely do so. then used the TRACE system from CTOMS, a sponsor from
this year’s competition. Each team was given a set time frame
The JSOM has an editorial team of consists of present and to complete as much of the course as possible, and a standard-
past leaders in their fields. As well, that many of our authors ized grading rubric was used to score each team throughout
are current or upcoming leaders in their fields. their run.
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