Commentary

Abstract

Beginning in 1998, the Board of Trustees of Clinical Orthopaedics and Related Research with the support of the Association of Bone and Joint Surgeons and in collaboration with our publisher, Lippincott Williams & Wilkins, developed and made available an electronic on-line version of this journal. Currently, this endeavor, located at http://www.corronline.com, provides the following features free of charge to any visitor to the site: Table of Contents and Abstracts of all articles for all issues from January 1998 to the present. A free sample issue (Volume 358, January 1999) with on-line full text access to all articles in that volume to illustrate the features available to interested potential subscribers. Links to affiliated societies: The Academic Orthopedic Society, The Hip Society (USA), The Musculoskeletal Tumor Society, The Knee Society (USA), The International Cartilage Repair Society, and the Limb Lengthening and Reconstruction Society. In addition, on-line subscription sign-up is available to those wishing to receive CORR and access to the full functionality is available at no additional charge to current subscribers. Also available is information on the Association of Bone and Joint Surgeons, which founded and sponsors Clinical Orthopaedics and Related Research, and in addition, on-line information is provided for authors wishing to publish in CORR. The features accessible to current subscribers include full text on-line access to all issues from January 1998 (Volume 346) to the present, and as of the December 2000 issue forward, on-line links to all references in each article via PubMed. The interested reader can access any of the listed references from these articles with a single click, and obtain free on-line access to abstracts through a pop-up window linked to the site. For those who wish to do so, it is possible to purchase the full text version of the referenced article through the PubMed site and Lonesome.doc. Beginning with the current volume onward, CORR invites contributing authors to publish additional article-related materials on the web site that compliment and reinforce information published in the print journal. Supplementary materials are posted in electronic format using the Article Plus component. Through Article Plus, it is possible for the publisher to post detailed data on the web site and reference it in the print version. Supplementary material posted on-line is intended to enhance print article content and offer authors the opportunity to provide additional important information in electronic formats. Please see the Guidelines for Authors as posted on the web site http://www.corronline.com for more comprehensive information about this feature. These efforts, and those to come in support of the electronic version of our journal, offer exciting opportunities to continue the original mission envisioned by the founding members of the Association of Bone and Joint Surgeons. These individuals established Clinical Orthopaedics and Related Research specifically to disseminate high quality, peer reviewed information regarding topics of clinical interest and related orthopaedic research to the orthopaedic and medical community at large. The Board of Trustees and Editors of CORR look forward to furthering this mission. We invite any input or suggestions regarding improvements that can be made to Clinical Orthopaedics and Related Research or its on-line counterpart as we move ahead in the publishing world, so that we can better serve you, our readership.