Are we on a voyage to the unknown?
Further development of the web may take over as the medium of choice to establish worldwide viewing and dissemination of knowledge
What is the role of the British Journal of Ophthalmology? We serve, as editors of an academic journal, to deliver and disseminate knowledge fairly, accurately, and without discrimination throughout the world. This can only be done in tandem with publishers, but publishing has changed and continues to develop radically. Present systems of disseminating research through journals have many failings,1 not least of which is what the journals give the authors in return. Also, with so many journals and publishers, it is often difficult for readers to retrieve information. This is exemplified by the common and expensive task of retrieving all relevant studies for systematic reviews (even without entertaining the thought of bias as to why some studies were never published). Traditionally, although articles were considered to be published once they appeared in a paper journal, it was generally agreed that the academic community could have prior knowledge (often several months) of the work, from presentations at meetings, abstracts, and proceedings, etc. So why have eprints not been enticing? We have a moral duty to disperse information globally, allowing translation of work from all continents and generating a two way …
