The integrated publication system: a new concept in primary publication

Conventional means of producing primary journals involve a number of problems, two of the most serious of which are publication delays and fragmentation of the literature into more and more specialized journals. Secondary publications are at best a palliative in this situation; significant advances can come only from a rethinking of the basic structure of the primary literature. An alternative to the conventional journal is the integrated publication system, in which original papers over a wide field can be accepted by a single agency, classified, and disseminated in a variety of forms to meet specialist needs. Such a system is the International Research Communications System, IRCS, which exists to publish short research communications in the biomedical field. Communications accepted for publication are made available to subscribers in a variety of forms, including a series of specialist journals, a selective general‐interest journal, a classified list of titles and a complete edition on microfilm. The advantages and disadvantages of such a system to authors and readers will be discussed, and its implications on the whole information‐transfer process considered.