Electronic publishing-lessons learned

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Growth Hormone and IGF Research, 1998, 8, 361

EDITORIAL

Electronic learned

publishing

This issue of Growth Hormone & IGF Research contains five articles published previously in the 1997 volume of Growth Regulation, but which appeared in electronic format only via the World-Wide-Web. Although at the time our decision to dispense with the print format seemed logical as we embraced a new means of distributing journal articles, there are still benefits to retaining a print version. A common problem for authors was that although their articles were available widely on the Web, they were not easily citable as they were identified only by a URL fl there were no page numbers. Additionally, it has since been brought to our attention that none of the 1997 articles has been abstracted or indexed in either ISI's Current Contents or the NLM's Medline services. By republishing these papers we will provide the authors with page numbers for their articles, a definitive

1096-6374/98/050361 +01 $18.00/0

- lessons

reference for citation, and guaranteed coverage by both Current Contents and Medline. For 1998, we have reinstated the print version of the Journal that publishes alongside the electronic version. We will continue to offer an exceptionally rapid review and publication vehicle, and hope that authors will benefit from the appearance of their work in both media. We would welcome comments and feedback on the subject of electronic publication of articles from both authors and subscribers, and look forward to hearing from you. Peter S o n s k e n Editor-in Chief Europe & Rest o f World Derek Le Roith Editor-in-Chief The Americas

9 1998 Churchill Livingstone