A search for articles in the medical and biological sciences published in the pre-Medline era necessitates browsing through the heavy volumes of Index Medicus. The invaluable wealth of the "old" scientific observations stored in these volumes was painstakingly obtained by those pioneers due to their ingenuity and perspicacity. Despite their lack of access to any of the modern technologies, they still managed to elucidate, in great depth, indispensable basic biological and biochemical phenomena that, if ignored, could greatly diminish our abilities to evaluate the present status of modern research.
It might have been expected that a careful literature search--in Index Medicus, Medline, Biological Abstracts, or in the electronic journals--would guarantee that a lack of regard for already published data would not occur and that authors would also consider with respect all viewpoints expressed. But it transpires that mainly because of the information overload of scientific publications, expert referees nominated by ...
