Southwest Educational Development Laboratory
Volume 4, Number 3, 1999
Expanding Our Dissemination Options: A Word From the Director
Disability Research and the Media
→ Publishing on the Internet: Possibilities and Problems
The role and influence of refereed journal publications are changing due to the emergence of the Internet and the World Wide Web. Research information can be posted on Web sites for immediate review, printing, or downloading. With these innovations come controversies over Internet publishing of non-refereed research, how the peer review process may differ, and how quality may be maintained given the increasing volume of research information provided on the Internet.
Such prestigious publications as the New England Journal of Medicine, The Lancet, the British Medical Journal, the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA), and the Medical Journal of Australia have all presented concerns about Web publishing (Wouters, 1999). Posting research information on the World Wide Web provides opportunities to quickly display new medical treatments or concerns before they appear in print editions. Such rapid posting includes a quick turnaround time for submission, review, revision, and online publication. Rapid submission and review strategies typically speed up traditional means of manuscript submission and review through mail, express mail, or faxes. However, new strategies are being developed including restricted Internet submission of manuscripts and review via online forms, and the use of electronic mail in the review process.
The main purpose of quick posting by these well-known sources is a reduction in reliance on nonrefereed, and potentially dangerous, medical information that is increasingly appearing on the Internet. By providing fast review and publication these journals serve as sources for urgently needed medical information. A faster turnaround time from medical research to publication has a significant value in speeding medical interventions to physicians, and to patients, with the caveat that safety requires a thorough review.
The New England Journal of Medicine and the Journal of the American Medical Association have developed strategies for speeding the turnaround time for publication of urgent medical research articles. The editorial policy of the New England Journal of Medicine states that "For studies submitted to us that have immediate health implications, we will continue our efforts to see that dissemination of urgent medical information is not delayed by either peer review or the publication process" (Kassirer & Angell, 1995, p. 1710). This policy means that certain urgent articles will receive immediate attention by reviewers and will be published in the online edition weeks before appearing in the print edition. According to Jerry Kassirer, M.D., the Journal’s editor,
Only very specific papers that have urgent medical implications are rushed through the peer review process and can then be published on the Internet weeks before they otherwise would have been. Our peer review process normally takes not more than two weeks, our accelerated procedure is a matter of days. In short, the Internet is very useful to get information out quickly, but its content must be guarded very carefully. If not, it will promote medical rumors instead of diffusing dispassionate scholarship. (Kassirer, 1998)
The Journal of the American Medical Association takes a similar approach with JAMA-EXPRESS: Rapid Peer Review and Publication. JAMA-EXPRESS follows their editorial contention that "With the speed of communication afforded by the Internet both before and after publication, the option of rapid review and publication is not just possible but essential for a biomedical journal" (Winker & Fontanarosa, 1999). JAMA has targeted a turnaround time of four weeks from submission to posting on the JAMA Web site for extremely important articles, and six weeks from submission to print publication of EXPRESS articles. Initially, editors screen articles before formal submission and contact peer reviewers about incoming articles. Using the same rigorous peer review and editorial evaluation as for other articles, EXPRESS articles are reviewed within 48 hours, with editorial review and request for revision completed in 72 hours. Authors then make their revisions within 48 hours and return final proofs within 24 hours. Finally, editors, copy editors, and production staff complete the same quality steps as for JAMA, but much more rapidly.
NCDDR staff searched the World Wide Web to learn about journals' online presence. The Compendium of Products by NIDRR Grantees and Contractors-FY 1996 (NIDRR, 1997) was reviewed to identify journals that published articles from NIDRR grantees. A database of 264 journals was developed, and of these, 238 were found to have some type of online presence. This may be an individual Web site, or as a part of an associations’ or publishers’ Web site. Some general variations appear across the presentations of these journals on the Internet.
Several journals now have some form of rapid online submission, review, and publication process. The online journal Brain Research Interactive (BRI) uses a program called "Smart Works" < http://smart.scripps.edu:8000/smart.html> [link no longer active] that provides authors the option of using the "Smart Submitter," which provides a set of online forms for submitting a manuscript. The work is reviewed by peers who have been invited to review articles using the online "Smart Reviewer." The "Manuscript Review" feature allows an author to enter a code number to access the reviewers’ comments. Following the online review, the author can quickly make revisions and submit the revised manuscript online, allowing journal staff to quickly publish the article both online and in the next available print edition. According to Smart Works (1997) "Advantages are greatly reduced time-to-review, time-to-publish, and time-to-read periods."
The Journal of Neuroscience has a large section in the online edition devoted to Rapid Communications articles, providing authors with the option of quickly publishing their articles on the Web site only. In the opinion of G.M. Shepherd, the Journal’s editor,
The first advantage will be a significant reduction in the delay between the time that a manuscript is approved by the editors to the time that it is published in the online Journal. The aim is to reduce that time to less than one month while still maintaining the high standards of copy editing and data presentation that are associated with the Journal. This represents a considerable improvement over the time in press for the hard copy version, two to three months, as in other journals (Shepherd, 1999).
Information Technology and Disabilities (ITD) is an online journal to which authors submit their manuscripts electronically in a PC format, via disk or email. ITD is the journal of Equal Access to Software and Information (EASI) and must remain accessible to all persons who review ITD on their Web site <http://www.rit.edu:80/~easi/itd.html> (EASI, 1996).
Guidelines for submissions. In the NCDDR review of online journals, 164 were found to provide author guidelines on their Web sites. In specifying a standard manuscript or reference style, 83
journals require American Psychological Association style (APA, 1995); 21 journals require Uniform Requirements
for Biomedical Journals (ICMJE, 1997); 9 journals require the Council of Biology Editors Style Manual (CBE, 1995); and 9 journals require American Medical Association style (AMA, 1997). The 42 remaining
journals require other styles or have developed their own unique requirements.
It is extremely important to obtain the publisher’s author guidelines and have a knowledge of their preferred style before developing a manuscript. Guidelines may specify a standard style yet provide additional requirements which may modify or contradict aspects of the standard style. Many of the journals’ online author’s guidelines do not specify a standard style but provide extensive individual style instructions and examples. This practice is particularly prevalent in British and European journals. Authors should review the online guidelines, if available, and it is advisable to contact the publisher or editor for the most up-to-date version of the guidelines before proceeding.
Exclusive publishing concerns and copyright. In addition to speeding information transfer, the Internet also provides a medium for authors to directly publish their work. The APA (1999) has identified three major problems with publishing on the Internet:
The APA has a revised "interim policy" that allows prior Internet publication of an article, provided it is labeled as a draft that has not been peer reviewed. Upon acceptance for publication the article’s copyright is transferred to the APA and the full text of the article must be removed from the author’s or other Web sites. The APA further states that "Many of the legal issues surrounding the Internet, online services, service providers, and copyright and privacy in the electronic world are murky, confused, in the courts or soon to be there, and, of course, rapidly changing" (APA, 1999).
Online and print journals approach these issues in a variety of ways, from an outright ban on publication of an article’s information in any form through any medium, to allowing publication of abstracts or less complete descriptions of the information presented in an article, to freely allowing prior and re-publication of complete articles.
Some journals allow authors to retain the copyright for their articles. However, in most cases, the journal either assumes the copyright under their name through an explicit statement in their author’s guidelines or requires that the author transfer the copyright in writing (See Copyright Statement Sample). Several journals have online copyright transfer forms that can be printed from the journal’s Web site or downloaded.
It is imperative that authors carefully review a target journal’s author guidelines, paying particular attention to exclusive publishing stipulations and copyright requirements. The exclusive copyright requires that the article has not been, nor will be, published in other journals or print and online media. This means that authors are not allowed to republish the article on the Internet or in books and other journals.
Citing Internet Sources. Many journals have specifications for citing and referencing Internet sources. Authors should also be aware that instructions for citing and referencing Internet sources are available on the American Psychological Association (APA) Web site at <http://www.apa.org/journals/webref.html>. Information about citing and referencing for manuscripts to biomedical journals and others may be found on the Himmelfarb Health Sciences Library Web site at <http://www.gwumc.edu/library/eresources/inetres.cfm?subject=Internet%20Information>.
With the increasing speed of information transfer, the role of refereed journal publications will continue to change. Research information is often posted on Web sites for immediate review, printing or downloading. Research activities are more customer-driven with an explicit need for the research information to be immediately relevant to and understood by people with disabilities. With these innovations a divergence of publishing activities may occur where researchers in medical fields will continue to rely on print and online publication in refereed journals to validate their research results.
Researchers in direct service or advocacy fields are also discovering the Internet as a medium for publishing their research information directly, without peer review, and in refereed journals. Current and future developments will continue to expand the use of the Internet and both refereed and nonrefereed research information will reach wider Internet audiences.
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