You can post queries and articles on a newsgroup, and you will get replies concerning your topic from other members. You can request that replies concerning your material be made by e-mail. If you wish, you can start your own newsgroup. One word of caution just because something is published in a newsgroup doesn't mean it is true or factual. If you wish to correspond within the newsgroup format, select one that is moderated and appears to be at a high level. Many newsgroups are run by universities or business research laboratories, and most of the correspondents in these groups are fairly serious about their work. However, some professional and academic groups prefer not to publish on the Web until a serious review process has taken place, or until a paper has been published in hardcopy form. The New England Journal of Medicine has expressed fears about unscreened information appearing in an unsecured environment such as the Web.
If you are concerned about posting your report on the Web prior to hardcopy publication, but would still like to work collaboratively with associates or get work-in-progress evaluations from colleagues, other options are available to you. E-mail, at this time, is relatively secure. Intranet sites, a subset of the Internet maintained by an individual school or business for its own use, can be made secure through the use of passwords.
