Time lapses in information dissemination: research laboratory to physician's office.

To illustrate the extent of time lags from manuscript submission to journal publication certain "core" journals in neurology and general medicine have been surveyed. The clinical journals experience less time lag, but more of a problem with backlogs of manuscripts, than basic research journals. Most editors of the journals surveyed cited the following as the major causes for publication delay: failure of authors to follow journal requirements, slowness of editorial and referee reviews, and author revisions. After reviewing the results of the journal survey and articles concerning information dissemination, it seems that the role of the journal is changing. Publication speed in a journal is not of vital importance to members within an "invisible college" but is important to those conducting research in fields outside of their "invisible college" contacts. Distinctions will have to be made between the archival function and the rapid dissemination function if efficient and effective modes of information dissemination are to be developed.