“eFirst” - Thieme's New Online Service

Dear Readers,

After the introduction of the online manuscript submission we would like to inform you about a new service that is now available for the Zentralblatt für Neurochirurgie - eFirst.

What is the purpose of eFirst? As is well known, short publications times are of ever increasing importance in modern scientific publishing. Hence, we have introduced eFirst - our new online service under www.thieme-connect.de for the quicker publication of articles. With eFirst articles can be published within a few days after receipt of the proof corrections from the corresponding author and will thus be available before appearance of the printed version - just how much earlier depends on the number of corrected proofs in the “waiting room” of the journal. But, eFirst is not an “online only” service. All articles appear first in eFirst and then as usual in the printed version of the journal.

To access of eFirst contributions to the Zentralblatt für Neurochirurgie please go to www.thieme-connect.de and select and enter the page with the Table of Contents of the current issue (this page can also be accessed easily via www.thieme.de/zblneurochir).

The electronic versions published in eFirst count as being officially published in the bibliographic sense and can be cited as a usual journal article. Subsequent corrections are only possible in the form of an erratum. Thus the date of online publication in eFirst is the definitive date of publication of the article. By the way, eFirst articles are already included in the Medline database.

How can an eFirst article be cited? The article has not been assigned to a particular issue so that it does not have a page number, issue number, or even volume number and year. It can indeed be cited by its Digital Object Identifier (DOI), an identification code that is comparable with the well known ISSN and ISBN identification systems. Each eFirst article has its own, unique DOI, that appears both with the online publication and later in the printed version.

Here is an example for the citation of an article published in eFirst:

Schröder J, Große-Desselhaus F, Schul C, Wassmann H. PMMA versus Titanium Cage after Anterior Cervical Discectomy - A Prospective Randomized Trial. Zentralbl Neurochir. Online Publication September 2006; DOI: 10.1055/s-2006-942184

As soon as the printed version is available the note “appeared in print” will be added to the eFirst version. Concomitantly, the article will appear in the online version of the current issue - it will be removed from eFirst 30 days after publication of the printed version.

We are pleased to be able to offer our authors the shorter publication times of this new eFirst service and thus to provide our respected readers with a quicker access to the latest results in neurosurgery. By the way, you can receive free of charge a regular list of the latest eFirst articles by e-mail. To register, please access www.thieme-connect.de and go to the Table of Contents of the current issue of Zentralblatt für Neurochirurgie.

We hope that you will find something of interest in the current issue of Zentralblatt für Neurochirurgie.

The Editors and Publisher