EARLY RELEASE OF RESEARCH RESULTS

News on medical research is now eagerly sought by the lay press and public. Recently, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) has released some research results directly to the public before publication of the results in a medical journal: The NIH judged the need for knowledge of these results to be too urgent to await publication. Many questions about such prepublication release remain, including who may appropriately judge how urgently knowledge of results is needed, how complete such releases should be, and what the effect of such releases is. Medical journals may ease the pressure for such releases by expediting their publication processes.