This Article Full Text Full Text (PDF) Alert me when this article is cited Alert me if a correction is posted Services Email this article to a friend Similar articles in this journal Alert me to new issues of the journal Download to citation manager Request Permissions Citing Articles Citing Articles via Google Scholar Google Scholar Search for Related Content

(Circulation Research. 2001;88:545.)
© 2001 American Heart Association, Inc.

Editorials

Announcing Online First

Posting of Scientific Articles Before Publication in Circulation Research

The Editors

From the Editor in Chief and Associate Editors, Circulation Research.

Correspondence to Circulation Research Editorial Office, 2700 Lighthouse Point East, Suite 230, Baltimore, MD 21224. E-mail circulation.research@circresearch.com

Key Words: electronic publishing • intellectual property • early online posting • embargo date

	Introduction

 
Rapid advances in electronic publishing have created the expectation of virtual immediacy in access to scientific information. It is now commonplace to post articles online in advance of publication in the print issue; the standards vary widely from journal to journal, from the extreme of posting unedited manuscripts within days of acceptance (eg, Journal of Biological Chemistry), to the peripatetic early release of selected studies (witness the treatment of the human genome project articles by Science and Nature). The obvious benefits of immediacy must be weighed against the potential pitfalls. Unedited PDF versions of manuscripts leapfrog the quality control conferred by the copyediting and composition processes. More importantly, the absence of a preestablished embargo date complicates the authors’ ability to protect their intellectual property.

Circulation Research, in consultation with the Scientific Publishing Committee of the American Heart Association, has chosen to initiate an experiment with early online posting. Our middle-ground approach debuts coincident with this issue. All original scientific articles that will appear in the next print issue, dated April 13, 2001, became accessible online when the current issue was released. Individual and institutional subscribers can now log on to www.circresaha.org and access full-text and PDF versions of the Original Contributions and Reports that will appear in the next issue. These are final versions of the articles, fully citable with definitive volume number and pagination. Henceforth, all Original Contributions and Reports will be posted online one issue in advance of the print version. This strategy will effect . . . [Full Text of this Article]