Rapid responses are electronic letters to the editor. They enable our users to debate issues raised in articles published on thebmj.com. Although a selection of rapid responses will be included online and in print as readers' letters, their first appearance online means that they are published articles. If you need the url (web address) of an individual response, perhaps for citation purposes, simply click on the response headline and copy the url from the browser window. Letters are indexed in PubMed.
N Manassiev (1) is perhaps wrong to criticize rapid responses. These
may not always be neat and pristine, but they would seem very democratic.
Scientists can tend to be an off- putting elite, a baffling priesthood.
Many people often feel they are not being given a voice in medical debate.
Rapid responses are a potentially untidy forum where all sorts of
individuals- ordinary GPs, even mere patients such as myself-trespass upon
the Temple of Research. The results are bound to be ragged and
unpredictable, as with radio phone-ins, yet any journal will stagnate if
it does not permit free and equal discussion.
REFERENCES:
(1) Pico research for pico doctors. N. Manassiev. BMJ 2009;339:b3631.
Dr Manassiev derides rapid response posting as "resembling radio
phone-ins , where people take up time without having much to say".I wonder
if he includes himself in this definition as I see he has made 10 rapid
responses on various topics according to the BMJ search-engine.Presumably
these are exceptions to the rule.
Just to clarify some basic science - he implies that nano is smaller
than pico.Wrong way round ; though the femto he correctly implies is a
thousandth of a pico.
I think it is important that we have a sound grasp of SI units is we use
them;I would rather have a nano-brain that a pico-brain .
Democracy tends to be untidy
N Manassiev (1) is perhaps wrong to criticize rapid responses. These
may not always be neat and pristine, but they would seem very democratic.
Scientists can tend to be an off- putting elite, a baffling priesthood.
Many people often feel they are not being given a voice in medical debate.
Rapid responses are a potentially untidy forum where all sorts of
individuals- ordinary GPs, even mere patients such as myself-trespass upon
the Temple of Research. The results are bound to be ragged and
unpredictable, as with radio phone-ins, yet any journal will stagnate if
it does not permit free and equal discussion.
REFERENCES:
(1) Pico research for pico doctors. N. Manassiev. BMJ 2009;339:b3631.
Competing interests:
None declared
Competing interests: No competing interests