Upgrading your computers?

Issue: BCMJ, vol. 51, No. 7, September 2009, Page 294 News

Since the Electronic Recycling Association (ERA) was launched in 2003, they have prevented thousands of computers, laptops, and electronics—parts of them toxic—from going to waste in a landfill. 

Instead, ERA wipes the data, refurbishes the equipment, installs new operating systems, and donates them to charities and nonprofits. Those who cannot afford a computer can earn (by volunteering) or receive free computers.

Due to the current economic downturn, the number of computers donated has dropped drastically while the number of requests for computers has increased. ERA has made an appeal for any electronic equipment—even just one laptop, one computer, or one server. 

Donating computers to the ERA can benefit your local community, charities, and nonprofit organizations, as well as the environment. ERA (www.era.ca) can offer donation-in-kind receipts for large corporate donations. They will send a truck to pick up your computers, erase the data, provide serial numbers, and in cases of large donations, provide tax receipts.

Contact Emily (emily@era.ca) with any questions or to arrange a pick-up, drop-off, or to inquire how large your tax receipt would be for your donation.

. Upgrading your computers?. BCMJ, Vol. 51, No. 7, September, 2009, Page(s) 294 - News.



Above is the information needed to cite this article in your paper or presentation. The International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE) recommends the following citation style, which is the now nearly universally accepted citation style for scientific papers:
Halpern SD, Ubel PA, Caplan AL, Marion DW, Palmer AM, Schiding JK, et al. Solid-organ transplantation in HIV-infected patients. N Engl J Med. 2002;347:284-7.

About the ICMJE and citation styles

The ICMJE is small group of editors of general medical journals who first met informally in Vancouver, British Columbia, in 1978 to establish guidelines for the format of manuscripts submitted to their journals. The group became known as the Vancouver Group. Its requirements for manuscripts, including formats for bibliographic references developed by the U.S. National Library of Medicine (NLM), were first published in 1979. The Vancouver Group expanded and evolved into the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE), which meets annually. The ICMJE created the Recommendations for the Conduct, Reporting, Editing, and Publication of Scholarly Work in Medical Journals to help authors and editors create and distribute accurate, clear, easily accessible reports of biomedical studies.

An alternate version of ICMJE style is to additionally list the month an issue number, but since most journals use continuous pagination, the shorter form provides sufficient information to locate the reference. The NLM now lists all authors.

BCMJ standard citation style is a slight modification of the ICMJE/NLM style, as follows:

  • Only the first three authors are listed, followed by "et al."
  • There is no period after the journal name.
  • Page numbers are not abbreviated.


For more information on the ICMJE Recommendations for the Conduct, Reporting, Editing, and Publication of Scholarly Work in Medical Journals, visit www.icmje.org

BCMJ Guidelines for Authors

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