Medical publishing turns on the afterburners

In this editorial, CMAJ Editor John Hoey points out that the recent SARS outbreak provided a look at what the future holds for medical publishing. He says scientific publishing is now occurring so quickly that 6 weeks after the first SARS case was described, 108 articles on the disease had been indexed in MEDLINE. CMAJ alone fast-tracked and published 12 SARS papers in the weeks following the outbreak, including a commentary that was published online 4 hours after its receipt. Dr. Hoey concludes that "early release of new scientific and medical discoveries can lead to earlier application and a higher impact both on science and on human health."

p. 1637 Scientific publishing picks up speed -- J. Hoey

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