The Dynamic Review Journal: a scholarly archive

A digital archive, together with its users and its contents, does not exist in isolation there is a cycle of activity which provides the context for the archive’s existence, and which the archive supports through its various roles of information access, discovery, storage, dissemination and preservation. This paper describes an extended digital library environment that we have developed for orthopaedic surgeons which assists in collating and analysing patient data, organising internal project discussions, and producing articles. By bridging the gap between the undertaking of experimental work (surgical trials) and the dissemination of its results through electronic publication, this work addresses the cycle of activity in which a digital archive rests.