6 Editorial Assessment and Processing

The principal goals of editing biomedical publications are to select, improve, and disseminate information that will advance the art and science of the discipline covered by the publication. For example, biomedical publications are a major source of information for the improvement of medical care. In addition to initial transmission to readers at the time of publication, information from journal articles is often carried by the public media. Published articles influence educators and opinion leaders, who transmit the information to many persons who do not read the original publications. Medical journal articles can also be subsequently accessed by clinicians and researchers seeking information about particular topics. Such searches are facilitated by online search engines (see 25.0, Resources) and provide the information essential to practicing evidence-based medicine,1 in which patient-care decisions are informed by acquiring and assessing the relevant medical literature. These myriad uses of biomedical literature indicate the importance of the procedures to improve quality involved in editorial assessment and processing...Less