[Citing electronic sources in scientific articles]

In 1995 a reference to an electronic source of information first appeared in this journal. Such sources are neither permanently available nor unchangeable. Both qualities are of central importance to the progress of scientific knowledge. Readers must have the opportunity to check the information referred to in scientific publications. It is scientifically useless to refer to a source that readers may not be able to find or where they find something else than the authors did when they wrote their article. However, electronic media, volatile as they may be, can be a very useful means of alerting readers to medical scientific developments. Therefore the editors of this journal have chosen to accept references to electronic information by way of a 'written communication' in parentheses in the text, until electronic scientific information is stored in an unalterable and generally accessible permanent form. The list of references at the end of scientific articles will be reserved to generally available paper and CD-ROM sources.