-
Editorial
On establishing priority of ideas: revisiting the "pli cacheté" (deposition of a sealed envelope).
- Thomas C Erren.
- Med. Hypotheses. 2009 Jan 1; 72 (1): 8-10.
AbstractThis article proposes that individuals should have the option to deposit with journals and editors ideas, hypotheses, theories and other research material in "sealed envelopes". This "pli cacheté" approach could allow to establish priority of thinking and doing a posteriori, i.e., when the envelope is opened. Such concept can be important in two ways: (i) it offers the opportunity to claim priority of sealed scientific rationale and data which may not be substantiated enough and might mislead when published too early or even erroneously; (ii) it could facilitate research in connection with patents because scientific information which is available in the public domain will not receive patent protection in most cases. Roots of the pli cacheté in the French Academie des Sciences in the 1700s, three empirical examples between 1798 and 1982 and recommendations as to how to handle sealed envelopes proceduraly today are provided.
Notes
Knowledge, pearl, summary or comment to share?You can also include formatting, links, images and footnotes in your notes
- Simple formatting can be added to notes, such as
*italics*,_underline_or**bold**. - Superscript can be denoted by
<sup>text</sup>and subscript<sub>text</sub>. - Numbered or bulleted lists can be created using either numbered lines
1. 2. 3., hyphens-or asterisks*. - Links can be included with:
[my link to pubmed](http://pubmed.com) - Images can be included with:
 - For footnotes use
[^1](This is a footnote.)inline. - Or use an inline reference
[^1]to refer to a longer footnote elseweher in the document[^1]: This is a long footnote..