Editorial 1 Editorial LETTER FROM THE EDITOR Jeri W. Dunkin, PhD, RN Editor The Online Journal of Rural Nursing and Health Care is the official journal of the Rural Nurse Organization. We are proud that we are now listed in the Cumulative Index of Nursing and Allied Health Literature (CINAHL). We are in the process with Medline as well. The editorial and support staff of the Online Journal of Rural Nursing and Health Care has worked diligently to expand the features of each issue to respond to reader needs. This issue has both a student paper and continuing education program. The Online Journal of Rural Nursing and Health Care has been developed and operated through support of The University of Alabama, Capstone College of Nursing, where the website and webmaster reside. All have given generously of their time and talents to make the journal an ongoing reality. In addition, the managing editor, Dr. Steve MacCall, has brought to bear his tremendous knowledge and talents in information management to create and maintain our digital library and the electronic referencing feature of each article in the journal. We would not have been able to do it without all the support for both the online journal and the Rural Nurse Organization. We are always open to input on the presentation style and content of the journal. Please contact me with suggestions or interest in either RNO or the journal. It seems that every state in the U.S. and areas of Canada are currently facing budgetary deficits and economic hard times. That is true in Alabama as well and as a result the amount of time and effort that the Webmaster and information management staff can contribute is in serious jeopardy. It is clear that we will have to begin compensating them for their work. This is very difficult, as the journal has no revenue- generating capacity of its own, and RNO needs additional funds to provide this level of financial support to the journal. Currently, the Online Journal of Rural Nursing and Health Care is open to all readers, and we do not require that authors be members to publish in the journal. The board of RNO made this decision as a way to provide support for rural nurses and health care practitioners because resources are always less available in rural areas as compared to urban. However, we are revisiting that decision. This is one of the few organization- based journals that are open to non-members. Other journals are supported by member dues, where members freely access to the journal, and non-members must pay for access or they are subscription based. Additionally, many of the medical related journals have an advertising department where they solicit paid advertisements to assist with support of the journal. The Rural Nurse Organization governing board and the editorial board of the journal are wrestling with the need for revenue, and our mission to support rural practitioners. It appears that we are either going to have to limit the opportunity to publish in the journal to members only or limit the reading of the journal articles to members only. We do not want to limit readership and will probably start with limiting Online Journal of Rural Nursing and Health Care, vol. 3, no. 2, Fall 2003 2 the opportunity to publish to those who hold membership. We may possibly have to limit access to the journal to members only at some time in the future. It is in that spirit that I ask our readers to consider supporting the online journal by joining the Rural Nurse Organization. The membership application can be accessed and printed at www.rno.org. Mail it and your check for $55.00 to RNO at Rural Nurse Organization Administrative Offices, c/o Letterman Lanning, P.O. Box 248 Spokane, Washington 99210-0248, USA. My email address is jdunkin@bama.ua.edu. You may also email the administrative offices at rno@bama.ua.edu. Please let us hear from you. Online Journal of Rural Nursing and Health Care, vol. 3, no. 2, Fall 2003 http://www.rno.org/ mailto:jdunkin@bama.ua.edu mailto:rno@bama.ua.edu