BMJ 2002;324:1171-1172 ( 18 May )

Editorials

Twenty thousand conversations

Rapid responses suggest new models of knowledge creation

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

Conversation is a meeting of minds with different memories and habits. When minds meet, they don't just exchange facts: they transform them, reshape them, draw different implications from them, and engage in new trains of thought. Conversation doesn't just reshuffle the cards; it creates new cards.1

Four years ago we added a feature to bmj.com, which we called "rapid responses."2 The feature allows readers to respond to articles directly via the website as they are reading them. We don't regard them as second class letters: they are just as eligible for inclusion in the paper journal as letters received in other forms. In fact, most of the letters to the editor that we now print in the paper journal started life as rapid responses.

Our original intention was to post all but the libellous, gratuitously rude, trivial, irrelevant, or incomprehensible on the website within 72 hours.We hoped that, at the very . . . [Full text of this article]
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Relevant Articles

Revitalising rapid responses
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BMJ 2005 330: 1284. [Extract] [Full Text] [PDF]

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This article has been cited by other articles:

  • Davies, S., Delamothe, T. (2005). Revitalising rapid responses. BMJ 330: 1284-1284 [Full text]  
  • Vasenwala, M. (2004). Joy of rapid responses. Readers read articles more closely when they can respond.. BMJ 328: 645-645 [Full text]  
  • Lewis, W, Savulescu, J (2003). Electronic submissions to the Journal of Medical Ethics* Editor's response. J. Med. Ethics 29: 120-121 [Full text]  
  • Davies, S. (2003). New edicts for letters to the editor. BMJ 326: 63-64 [Full text]  
  • Wedzicha, J A, Johnston, S L, Mitchell, D M (2003). New year: new editors. Thorax 58: 1-2 [Full text]  
  • Allen, R. (2002). Bravo, brave BMJ, for the rapid response section. BMJ 325: 223-223 [Full text]  

Rapid Responses:

Read all Rapid Responses

Rapid responses
Sri S Varman
bmj.com, 17 May 2002 [Full text]
Blogger me
John Hopkins, et al.
bmj.com, 17 May 2002 [Full text]
Twenty thousand conversations
Michael O'Donnell
bmj.com, 18 May 2002 [Full text]
Sucessful gamble
B.C. Rao
bmj.com, 20 May 2002 [Full text]
The Age of Enlightenment. Bravo brave BMJ
Roger KA Allen
bmj.com, 21 May 2002 [Full text]
Rapid responses offer great benefits, but at a cost
James Mapstone
bmj.com, 22 May 2002 [Full text]
Rapid Response Review
Timothy Philip Nunn
bmj.com, 23 May 2002 [Full text]
BMJ = British Medical Journal
Pamela Ben-Eliezer
bmj.com, 23 May 2002 [Full text]
Modern Medicine and Politics are bed-fellows and Pandora is out of her box.
Roger KA Allen
bmj.com, 24 May 2002 [Full text]
splendid editorial
Joseph Watine
bmj.com, 24 May 2002 [Full text]
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