Controlled Circulation Publications and the Scientific Medical Press was the subject of an address that I gave recently at the World Congress on Diseases of the Chest, held in Sydney, Australia. In the audience were physicians from Japan, Australia, New Zealand, Thailand, Canada, West Germany, and other countries. There were a number of comments and questions about the role of the physician as a critical reader and the functions of free medical publications vs scientific peer-reviewed periodicals. In an attempt to offer some pertinent observations on this current and vexing topic, a commentary that I wrote a few years ago is presented below. (Reprinted, with permission, from Chest [1982;81:397-398].) —Ed.