Six months have already passed since the last edition of the International Medicine Review. During this time period we have received the assessment from the Literature Selection Technical Review Committee (LSTRC) of the National Medical Library in Bethesda, USA. LSTRC makes judgement on the suitability of medical journals to be included in the MEDLINE international database. The inclusion of a journal in MEDLINE usually increases the reputation of the given publication and attracts contributions from well-known researchers.
The chance of being recognised has been slim and unfortunately the committee temporarily suspended the inclusion of our journal. The main points of criticism were the unsatisfactory quality of English of our articles; the lack of declaration of ethical standards of human and animal experiments and it was suggested that the journal should get articles from a wider range of authors in scientifically important areas.
It may surprise some of our readers that the American committee considered the journal as a predominantly Polish publication, mainly relevant in Poland. This interpretation is due to the relatively high proportion of contributions coming from our hard working chief editor and relatively small amount of material coming from other Esperanto-speaking medical practitioners.