The electronic journal for dentistry

Electronic publishing is expanding very rapidly and will soon substitute in part for the traditional role of paper and printing in accessing information and in its library storage. This change is occurring now for medicine and engineering. For dentistry the compact disc (CD-ROM) would have advantages over tape or on-line computer systems; one or two discs a year could hold all current dental journal and textbook literature. The setting of standards is the key to the successful introduction of this technology through production and playback systems. Indexing, retrieval and hardware are considered as well as copyright problems. The profession has the chance to guide the introduction of this publishing system in preference to it being fragmented between multiple publishers and thereby becoming costly. A proposal is offered which includes the nexus of traditional printing with this new publishing form through a forum for considering standards and goals for agreement on principles.