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BMJ No 7123 Volume 315 Education and debate Saturday 20/27 December Christmas 1997 issue Length - and other strengths Lisa Bero The main advantages of online publication are less concern about page limits, the possibility of hypertext links to other sources of information, the ability for interaction, and imagery. So, in five years' time, scientific papers may be very long. With a click of the mouse button, the real data behind the tables could appear and readers will be able to critically appraise a paper on the basis of more complete information. Overall, reporting should improve because all methodological details of the published research will be available. An unanticipated side effect of better reporting may be that fewer papers are accepted by journals, as peer referees will know when an author is trying to pull the wool over their eyes. Hypertext links will make each individual scientific paper a gold mine of supporting information. Readers will be able to click on references as they are cited and learn whether the references actually support the point made by the author. Authors will also be able to link to their own, and others', relevant previous work - and readers will be helped to put new research in the context of what has come before. Data that were previously available only by request from the authors or from data storage services, such as the National Auxiliary Publication Service, will be accessible through hypertext links. Online publication offers the opportunity for interaction. In five years' time, letters to the editor will be replaced by letters to the author. Authors will respond to comments that are submitted electronically by readers - and if they don't, their lack of response will be noted. Each scientific paper will become a living document that evolves in response to readers' feedback, as is currently seen in the Cochrane Library.(1) Readers will have to learn to revisit papers in order to keep up to date with new interpretations of the research. The imagery and interaction available through online publication will allow readers to manipulate data to test the assumptions made by authors. For example, readers could test the robustness of a finding by using an option to recalculate data using different statistical tests. Or, readers could select graphical display of data as percentage change versus absolute change to determine whether the authors' conclusions depend on the type of presentation. Such transparency in data analysis could well lead to more letters to the author. Lastly, let's not forget about the authors and imagery. In five years' time, the credit system of authorship will be widely used. In addition to reading a description of what each author contributed to the paper, the reader will also be able to link to pictures of the authors in action. For example, one author may have contributed thinking (image: feet up on desk, gazing into space), while another may have contributed statistical expertise (image: statistician arguing with principal investigator). Thus, the potentially cold and impersonal world of online communication will take on a more human face. Material that is supplementary to a published paper may be stored electronically and obtained by the reader of the paper for a small fee through the service provided by the National Auxiliary Publication Service c/o Microfiche Publications, PO Box 3513, Grand Central Station, New York, NY 10163-3513, USA. Institute for Health Policy Studies, University of California, San Francisco, 1388 Sutter Street, San Francisco, CA 94109, USA Lisa Bero, associate professor email: bero@cardio.ucsf.edu References 1 www.cochrane.co.uk (Up to date information on access to internet versions of the Cochrane Library.) Home | Current issue | Past issues | Classified ads | Career Focus | Feedback Collections | About this site | About the BMJ | BMA | Medline