IF plans had materialized, an invited scientific editorial would have appeared in this spot. At the last moment, however, the author withdrew his excellent contribution because he could not accept the Journal's format for citing references. According to this system, the number of authors' names for any item listed under "References" is limited to three, those remaining being subsumed under "et al." This practice, modeled after and sanctioned by the National Library of Medicine's Index Medicus, is observed by at least 30 other American biomedical publications. It finds its immediate cause in the multiple authorship of so many of . . .