Many villages have their own newspaper.These are different in quality
from national papers; more colloquial and accessible to their audience.
bmj.com has created its own global community. In reaching a wider
audience, Internet journals need a less formal structure that can be read
by people not from a scientific background and those for whom English is a
second language. This new kind of article is a good illustration of how
that should be done.
Of course, taken to its logical conclusion this approach leads to the
review style exemplified by Scientific American.
However, the Internet allows the best of all worlds. In the same way
that a melody hovers above the base line, scientific data can be folded
into articles through hypertext links while the main thread of the
argument is in the text of the essay.
Rapid Response:
The global village
Dear Dr Smith,
Many villages have their own newspaper.These are different in quality
from national papers; more colloquial and accessible to their audience.
bmj.com has created its own global community. In reaching a wider
audience, Internet journals need a less formal structure that can be read
by people not from a scientific background and those for whom English is a
second language. This new kind of article is a good illustration of how
that should be done.
Of course, taken to its logical conclusion this approach leads to the
review style exemplified by Scientific American.
However, the Internet allows the best of all worlds. In the same way
that a melody hovers above the base line, scientific data can be folded
into articles through hypertext links while the main thread of the
argument is in the text of the essay.
Rather like Editor's Choice in fact !
Yours sincerely,
Dr John Hopkins
Competing interests: No competing interests