Epileptic Disorders covers all aspects of the epilepsies and includes basic investigation and clinical reports. The majority of original articles, in the four issues examined for this review, are case reports, with few research studies or clinical trials of new therapeutic agents. The wide range and relevance of topics covered in the journal are excellent, but the substantiveness and comprehensiveness of article content and the quality of the research and methods reported are variable. A modified structured abstract format is used by some of the authors, but consistency is lacking, and some abstracts are poorly organized or too brief to be sufficiently informative. Each issue generally includes a review article, five to six original articles, two to three short reports, letters to the editor, and occasional book reviews.
Illustrations are plentiful and well reproduced.
Supplements are planned and will be routinely mailed to subscribers. VHS teaching courses, first introduced in the June 2000 issue, will be issued as supplemental educational material. Although the Instructions for Authors state that all submissions are peer reviewed, no details are given about the process. We applaud the introduction of videotape to the epilepsy literature as an aid in the diagnosis and classification of epileptic diseases and a tool in teaching about these diseases. Other advantages of DVD are easier shipping and handling and better image quality.