Electronic Publishing in Anesthesia and Intensive Care Medicine

Electronic publishing is undergoing a revolution. Computers and word processing programs have enabled authors to create electronic files of their articles and streamline their work more efficiently. The Internet gave everyone the opportunity to post articles and other content to be viewed by others at any time and from everywhere in the world. Electronic academic publishing might even be a threat to the traditional print publishing. This lecture discusses a variety of issues involved in electronic publishing and introduces the reader to some of the technology that will soon impact the way we distribute educational content. WHAT IS THE WEB ANYWAY? Is it a new technology that is changing our society or the way we communicate.... or is it a monster that not only destroys old established values but tries constantly to commit suicide (see the recent fallout of dotcom's) ... or is it just a toy that is fun to play with? The web certainly started off being a very serious endeavor: an independent crash-protected communication line for the military and later, the research-enhancing network for scientists. Today, well-established hierarchies created by scientists and researchers have been thrown upside-down and the masses have taken over what was originally intended to serve only a few. The web has become a source for instant, free-of-charge (?), high quality (?), and credible (?) information for everyone. IS THE MEDICAL WORLD CONNECTED TO THE INTERNET? According to the American Medical Association (AMA) in 2000, only 37 % of US physicians were connected to the Internet. Most of them used the web for E-mail, information gathering, for fun or for online trading. Interactive tools make it possible to search thousands of web sites within seconds for specific information. However, after a few seconds, the user is left with an overwhelming amount of web addresses pretending to offer the most up-to-date information on the requested topic. Nevertheless, never before was it possible to get such instant information around the clock. It is estimated that the web usage among physicians around the world will substantially grow over the coming years and that doctors already using the net will expand their professional online activities. ELECTRONIC PUBLISHING WHAT'S THAT? Medical electronic publishing is the presentation of medical content in one of many digital formats. It can be retrieved from computers, CD-ROMs, floppy disks, TV, Palm pilots or pocket PCs, from Intranet's or from the plain “ old” Internet. It can be digested in its digital multimedia format or simply printed from computers and handled the traditional way by reading from a piece of paper. However, there are many advantages of epublishing: digital platforms usually have no or little restrictions in regard to color images, sound files, or movies. Turnover times for articles submitted to online journals are much shorter and its content can be retrieved 24/7 from all around the world. The visibility for authors is enormous and the publishing content is searchable, making it easy to be found by other physicians seeking about this specific topic. The times in which endless shelves are filled with enormous amounts of paper requiring lots of space and personnel or the need for photocopy machines to reproduce that little fraction of assembled information may come to an end. Interactive online search and printing of selected full text articles on the scientists Electronic Publishing in Anesthesia and Intensive Care Medicine 2 of 8 home/office printers 24/7 may replace the time consuming drive/walk to the library and ultimately save time and money. It really seems that electronic publishing is the way to go. Why are then electronic journals not more popular (yet)? It appears that there are a few more questions in need of answers. ADVANTAGES VERSUS DISADVANTAGES