News of the death of biomedical journals seem premature. Revamped traditional scientific journals remain highly valued sources and vehicles of information, critical debate, and knowledge. Some analyses seem to place a disproportionate emphasis on technological and formal issues, as compared to the importance ascribed to matters of power. Not all journals must necessarily have a large circulation. There are many examples of efficient, high-quality journals with a great impact on relatively small audiences for whom the journal is thought-provoking, useful, and pleasant to read. How can we achieve a better understanding of an article s spectrum of impacts? A certain mixing of three distinct entities (journals, articles, and authors) has often pervaded judgments. Data used by the Institute for Scientific Information present weaknesses in their accuracy. The two-year limit for citations to count towards the bibliographic impact factor favors "fast-moving", "basic" biomedical disciplines and is less appropriate for public health studies. Increasing attention is given to the specific number of citations received by each individual article. It is possible to make progress towards more valid, accurate, fair, and relevant assessments.

There are no consensus guidelines or standards for epidemiologic and '-omics' studies using blood biomarkers on how to report the timing of extraction of blood samples. However, disease-induced changes in blood concentrations of exogenous and endogenous compounds may bias studies. The aim of the present report is to describe the timing of blood collection with respect to a variety of relevant clinical events in the PANKRAS II Study, and to suggest ways to display graphically the quantitative information. Subjects were 167 incident cases of exocrine pancreatic cancer prospectively recruited in five teaching hospitals in eastern Spain. Over 80% of patients had blood extracted during the first 6 months since onset of cancer symptoms, and 82% within the first month of admission to a study hospital. Over 80% of cases had blood drawn after an ultrasound, a CT scan or an ERCP, 25% after a laparotomy, and 37% after treatment onset. All three intervals from blood extraction to diagnosis, to treatment onset and to interview had a median of 0 days, and 88% of cases had blood drawn within 2 weeks of diagnosis. Over 72% of cases had concentrations of total lipids in the medium, normal range. Results suggest ways to report intervals involving blood biomarkers and may contribute to develop consensus guidelines and standards on the collection of blood samples in epidemiologic and '-omics' research.

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