This study, prompted by a number of articles presaging the imminent de
mise of biomedical journals due to the rise of their electronic spread
, analysed 54 Web sites of the journals included in the Oncology secti
on of the Science Citation Index, Journal Citation Reports (1994) and
the sites of 10 other leading digitised biomedical journals. The aim w
as to determine quantitative and qualitative differences in terms of i
nformation content existing between the two media. The analysis confir
med that there are limits to the information contained in the scientif
ic journals currently on the Internet and upholds the authors' conclus
ion that, in the oncology field, the printed journal will continue to
have an important role for most individual users for some time. (C) 19
98 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.