Some effects of delay in publication of information in medical journals, and implications for the future

This study was designed to assess the effects of delay in publication of information in medical journals. The case study concerned the natural history of an article that appeared recently in a medical journal. The particulars of this article from the time of its conception through its consecutive submission to, and rejection by, four major medical journals, and its eventual publication, instead, in a minor medical journal have been studied. The subject of the article was a new form of treatment for Amanita verna poisoning. The period of delay between clinical treatment and publication of the article was 21 months. During this period, however, information about this clinical case received general publicity through newspapers, magazine articles, radio, and telephone. These details then were considered in the context of the medical journal's traditional roler to communicate information that sometimes may be urgent. The effects of delays and breakdowns in the information system that links medical authors with medical readers by way of medical journals and the influence of other media on medical communication also have been considered. To remain effective as channels of communication in an information-conscious society, medical journals must reassess their traditional methods of transmitting information by becoming aware of faults in this specialized communication system and by ensuring that information that is primarily of medical interest does not, by default, have to be transmitted by other chanels.