Pleasing both authors and readers

BMJ 1999;319:579 ( 28 August )

Letters

Pleasing both authors and readers

From ELPS to hypER papers

Editors' reply

From ELPS to hypER papers

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

EDITOR $---$ The idea of introducing a dual publishing strategy $---$ a short version in the paper journal and a longer version in theelectronic journal¹ $---$ is a move in the right direction, but inits present form at the BMJ new problems arise. How should thesedifferent versions be cited or indexed? Which sections of thelong paper should be deleted for the abridged version? Will therebe multiple electronic versions of a single paper aimed at differentreaderships? Does this all really save time, or will readers eventuallyhave to browse through two or more versions of the same paperto find the information they are lookingfor?

Rather than publishing simultaneously two or more "linear" versions of the same paper I suggest going one step further andusing the full power of the medium of the world wide web withhypertext to enrich a short paper (hypertext enriched . . . [Full text of this article]