Search the website

Help with using this web site

Updated November 2006

• Browser compatibility
• Registering to use the web site
• Search help

Browser compatibility
The BMA web site is designed to be compatible with the following platforms and browsers which support accessibility.

For Windows PCs, versions 2000 and later
Internet Explorer 6 and above
Netscape 7 and above
Opera 7 and above
Mozilla Firefox 0.9 and above

For Macintosh OS 9 and later
Internet Explorer version 6

Optimum screen resolution is 1024 x 768.

Registering to use the web site
The web site has a registration system which allows us to target information at distinct categories of users. This helps us to provide information and services exclusively for members as a benefit of membership as well as other users who have an interest in the BMA.

The user categories are:

• BMA members (doctors and students).

On registration, a member's web name and password will remain current for as long as their membership of the BMA is current. Members can change their name, password, email address and other details at any time by going to the Edit my details section of the site after logging in.

If a doctor or student membership lapses, the web account will be automatically downgraded to Non-member status. If they rejoin the web account will automatically be upgraded.

• Non-member doctors who have a registration with the General Medical Council

Non-members can join the BMA using our online form. Under normal circumstances a new member can register for a full member web account 24 hours after receiving their membership number.

• Guest users registered at our discretion.

These include non-medical staff working in the NHS or related professions, staff from voluntary and governmental organisations. Certain parts of the site contain information which is useful for them in working alongside doctors and students.

• Press users who have been authenticated by our press office

This facility is available only to journalists or researchers working for the print or broadcast media including online news services.

Embargoed information is held on the BMA site. Press users who register for access will be held to have agreed to abide by the embargo set. The BMA reserves the right to remove from the list of registered users any person who breaks an embargo.

• Library associate members from medical and health libraries worldwide

Current members include postgraduate medical centre libraries, medical charities, pharmaceutical companies, research organisations and university libraries.

Our annual subscription rates are:

1. Public sector (eg health service and academic libraries) £67.00 + VAT
2. Film and video services only £67.00 + VAT (See important notice on film competition and video services)
3. Single-issue charity (at the Librarian's discretion) Free
4. Private sector (eg pharmaceutical companies) £670.00 + VAT

The subscription runs from April to March although organisations can join at any time during the year. Private sector members may try out our services for a three month trial period without paying a subscription. To qualify for free membership, charities must be small and be able to provide proof that they are unable to support their own information service.

• Other users with access only to the publicly available pages.

Large parts of the site are open access to give general information on topics such as what the BMA does, what its policies are, advice on taking up a career in medicine and how to use the services which doctors provide.

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Search help
Basic search
Enter your search keywords, separated by a space, and click the go button. This will find all documents containing all of your keywords.

There is no need to put AND between your keywords.

The search is not case sensitive – entering the keywords doctor, DOCTOR, Doctor or dOCTOR will produce the same results.

Example: The search expression doctor physician will find all documents containing both doctor and physician.

Advanced searches
OR keyword search
Putting OR between your search keywords will find all documents containing any of your keywords.

Example: The search expression doctor OR physician will find all documents containing either doctor or physician or both.

AND NOT search
Putting AND NOT in front of a keyword will exclude that keyword from the search. Any documents containing the excluded keyword will not be included in the search results.

Example: The search expression doctor AND NOT physician will find all documents containing doctor but not documents containing physician or both doctor and physician.

Phrase search
You can search for complete phrases by enclosing them in quotation marks.

Example: The search expression “end of life” will find all documents containing that phrase.

Advanced phrase search
You can also use phrase searches in combination with the keyword searches described above.

Example: The search expression “end of life” OR euthanasia will find all documents containing either the phrase end of life or keyword euthanasia or both.

Please note that the search function does not cover the following areas of the BMA website.

• All discussion forums.
• BMA news magazine.
• Online news archive.
• Press release archive.

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