Personal subscriptions FAQs

1. Will I be able to choose a user name and password?
   Yes, to complete the subscription process, you must choose a user name and password. Your user name can be an email address or a memorable word and is case sensitive. Passwords are case sensitive.
   
2. May I share my user name and password with friends?
   No, you are the only one licensed to use this user name and password. Sharing user names and passwords is prohibited according to our terms and conditions.
   
3. What if I do not know or forget my customer number?
   Your customer number appears on the mailing label of the print version of your journal. If you no longer have your mailing label, or do not have a print subscription, please contact Subscriptions Customer Services
   
4. What if I forget my user name or password?
   Retrieve your user name or your password
   
5. What do I get for my Personal subscription?
   • Access to the full text of all available issues, and PDF versions
   • Tables of contents
   • Abstracts or 'extracts' - an extract is the first 150 words of an article, automatically generated for all articles that do not have abstracts
   • Citetrack (will alert you by email whenever new content on the online journal or a participating journal is published that matches criteria based on the topics, authors and articles you want to track)
   • Download images as PowerPoint slides for teaching purposes
   • Use of the 'My Folders' feature where you can save searches and articles
   • Full text of the 'Editor's Choice' for the current issue
   • Email alerts for the table of contents as it goes live, articles published ahead of print, and other BMJ Group related announcements.
   • Search/browse features including access to the legacy archive (back to Volume 1 Issue 1) of a journal where available
   • Search across >1000 HighWire Press journals
   • Future contents – the table of contents for the next issue as soon as it is available
   • Direct access to Medline/CrossRef
   • Certain web extra features e.g. conference announcements, or video reports
   • eLetters (except on Thorax and Gut) – lively correspondence about recent articles
   • Instructions to authors and other information about the journal
6. How can I tell if my Institution has subscribed? How do I get my Institution to subscribe?
   If you are currently accessing the site from one of your institution's terminals, this will be indicated at the top left of a full text article, or Table of Contents under the HOME button If your institution does not subscribe and you would like them to, please contact your librarian.
   
7. Why am I constantly asked to re-enter my user name and password when going from article to article, or downloading PDFs, when I haven't left the site?
   This may be due to one of two reasons:
   
   • To access our sites, we store a cookie on your computer so that we can recognise you from one visit to the next, ensuring that you do not have to continually re-enter your user name and password. If the old cookie (for a previous access) is still stored on your workstation and then the expiration date or password for your subscription changes, the old cookie acts as an obstacle to resolve the current attempts to log in.
     Cookies are stored in a file (varies from browser to browser). If you are using Internet Explorer, there is an option to have the software delete the cookies file for you, which you should do to allow access.
     For Netscape users, finding the cookies file through Windows Explorer and then deleting it works best (look for a file named MagicCookie). Though it says not to edit it, you can find the lines with the journal reference name and remove them. Or if you don't want to keep other cookies just delete the whole file.
     Mozilla/Firefox users should choose the 'Clear private data' option under the Tools menu
   • You will notice that the URL that you type in, changes once you access the homepage of your site e.g. www.archdischild.com changes to http://adc.bmj.com. The first address is an 'alias'. Sometimes our sites will not recognise the alias as the site to which you have subscribed. Try to access the site from our main page instead.
   • Many institutions provide access to the internet via a Firewall or Proxy server which act as added security and offer you greater protection from harmful viruses or content on the internet. Some firewalls and proxies have been known to break authentication systems which causes users to constantly re-enter their user names and passwords. In this case you should contact your institution's Technical Support for further information.

If you have any Evidence-Based Nursing queries, please contact:

RCN Subscriptions Department
Email: RCNDirectJournalsTeam@rcn.org.uk
Fax: +44 (0) 29 20 54 64 01

EBN subscriber number assistance
Email: ebnhelpdesk@rcn.org.uk