Biomedical research on the internet: divorcing selection from publication

Fiona Godlee
Editorial Director (Medicine)
BioMed Central
London,UK
www.biomedcentral.com
Fiona.Godlee@biomedcentral.com

What do authors want from publication? Wide dissemination. What do users want? Easy access.
New initiatives in biomedical publishing (such as www.biomedcentral.com) now offer both, in the form of free access to peer reviewed biomedical research. But what are the implications of these initiatives for quality control, indexing, and targeting of information to the appropriate audiences. This talk will explore in particular the transformation of peer review from a single, closed event in the life of a manuscript to an ongoing and open process, with the result that selection will be divorced from publication, and high quality information can be more closely targeted to the people who need it.