The need for rapid exchange of scientific information to battle the current H1N1 flu epidemic  helped spur arrival of the newest National Library of Medicine online archive, Rapid Research Notes (RRN). Developed by the National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI), the RRN speeds access to published scientific research at moderated online sites, facilitating collection and sharing of the latest scientific data, analyses, and theories.

PLoS Currents: Influenza, developed by the Public Library of Science (PLoS), is the first collection to be archived in RRN.

To make the PLoS research available as quickly as possible, submissions are not peer reviewed but screened by groups of leading researchers in the field to decide their suitability. Then they are posted immediately to the PLoS Currents: Influenza Web site and archived at RRN with a stable ID.

The NCBI expects that RRN will expand to include other high-interst biomedical collections. Publishers interested in archiving online, rapid communications in RRN should contact NCBI at RRN@ncbi.nlm.nih.gov.