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Continuous Publishing

Radiology Online is now in its 3rd year of availability via HighWire Press at Stanford University. The electronic medium offers our readers a number of features that are not found in the printed version of the Journal. Features that are or will become available include: search archives (Radiology, RadioGraphics, and other HighWire journals), search all journals (based on user-selected criteria), search Medline/PubMed, links to related articles, browsing by subspecialty or category of article, links to full text of other HighWire online journals, Citetrack alerts (e-mail notification of new articles that match your search criteria), downloading to Citation Manager program (allows you to assemble your own database of article citations), e-mail notification of new table of contents, view future table of contents, eLetters (letters to the Editor published only online), and faster access to the journal contents for our international subscribers (obviates mailing delays). Moreover, the online version affords us the opportunity to include supplemental material that enhances the information available in print. The supplemental materials include items such as detailed appendices, additional images, studies demonstrating motion, and extensive tabular information. These items are important additions to an author's scientific work and are thus identified, in the printed version, as being available in the online version for a given published article. We identify such items in view of our commitment to ensure that our readers who prefer to review the printed version of Radiology will be aware of these supplements (1). As noted in a prior Editorial, I urge our readers, as well as our authors and reviewers, to use Radiology Online as it provides flexibility in the learning process and will continue to expand the features that offer that flexibility (2).

I am delighted to now introduce another feature that has been implemented with the November 2001 issue of Radiology—continuous publishing. Continuous publishing is the term we use to denote publication of materials in Radiology Online in advance of their appearance in the printed version of the Journal. Other terms for the same are "publish before print" or "publish ahead of print." With continuous publishing, scientific material will become available to our readers several weeks in advance of print—currently a potential of 5 weeks prior to the mailing of the printed issue. For example, a number of articles appearing in the November 2001 issue of Radiology were actually published online weeks before the printed journal. The date of online publication is, therefore, the publication date for those articles, as the National Library of Medicine considers Radiology Online the version of our journal that it records. As soon as a manuscript is edited by one of our manuscript editors, it will be sent to the corresponding author for approval. The sooner we receive a reply from the author allowing us to "finalize" the manuscript, the sooner it will be published online. Thus, we will be publishing continuously. An author's work will now be published online sooner than in the past, when "finalized" manuscripts would have to wait for others still being readied for an upcoming printed issue.

What will the reader of Radiology Online encounter when viewing these articles published in advance of print? How will they be different than those now viewed? Articles published online before print will not have page numbers. Instead, each article will use the "digital object identifier" (DOI)—a series of numbers that are unique to the article and that will remain with it. For citation purposes, the DOI can replace the year, volume, and page numbers for a given article. Note that in the printed August 2001 issue of Radiology we began using the DOI in the gray column along the left side of the first page of a given article, where the more familiar reference citation to that article is also included. Once the article has made its appearance in the printed journal, then the volume, year, and page numbers will be added to the DOI. Just as the Radiology Online site at radiology.rsnajnls.org has a link for the "current issue," so will it have a link for articles appearing as part of our program of continuous publishing. A reader who clicks on this link will be able to view such articles published in advance of print. Once the printed issue of Radiology is mailed, these articles published online before print will move to the "current issue" link. We have given substantial thought to our process of continuous publishing, and our RSNA staff in Oak Brook, Illinois, have expended considerable time and effort to ensure a smooth transition to the same. Readers should be aware that unlike some other journals that publish various versions of a given article in advance of the final version, we will publish weeks in advance of the printed article only the same version of the article that appears in print—namely, the final version that has been peer reviewed, revised, edited by our manuscript editors, and finally approved by the authors. Thus, we will not be publishing "updated" or "corrected" versions of articles. As Editor, I believe this is the correct approach to take for Radiology, in spite of our enthusiasm for the many advantages of the electronic medium. This will help prevent the possibility that readers of our journal might act on information or conclusions appearing in a preliminary version of an article, with the possibility that this information and these conclusions may then change in the final version of the article. We encourage our readers to take advantage of continuous publishing by reviewing Radiology Online for published information in advance of the monthly printed version of the Journal. As always, we welcome your feedback, as we are committed to maintaining Radiology as a journal responsive to the needs of its authors, reviewers, and readers (3).

Anthony V. Proto, MD, Editor, Radiology

References

1. Proto AV. Radiology 2000—explore the new millennium. Radiology 2000; 214:1–2.

2. Proto AV. Radiology 2001—the upcoming year. Radiology 2001; 218:1–2.

3. Proto AV. Radiology 1999—new features. Radiology 1999; 210:1.