Medical Journals on the Internet Biomedical Journals On The Internet by Elizabeth Leef Jacobson, MD, and Michael Jacobson, MD, MPH Cardiology and Internal Medicine New York, New York Editor, Journal Club on the Web accepted for publication in Medical Computing Today April 1997. Originally posted on Journal Club On The Web . Presented here unedited other than changes in HTML formatting. The World Wide Web, which greatly facilitates the distribution of information, poses a challenge to traditional forms of publishing, including printed biomedical journals. Although in the near future medical journals are unlikely to be replaced by author-posted papers on the Web, journals will need to adapt to significant changes brought on by widespread access to the Internet.
Medical journals are complex entities with multiple functions.
Journals as distributors of medical news Most medical developments reach the profession, the media and the public after appearing in one of the major journals. Journals have maintained control over the release of information primarily through the Ingelfinger rule . Developed by a former editor of the New England Journal of Medicine , the Ingelfinger rule stipulates that a journal will only print material not previously published elsewhere. Although presentations at medical meetings are exempt and the press can report on them, the rule remains an effective brake on non-journal reporting of medical developments. The Internet now threatens the journals' control over the release of medical news, a threat amplified by several concurrent factors.