It begins with the idea. This may be the product or goal of research or the studied opinion of a commentator. In sciences like medicine, it invariably is the former that have the greatest effect. A researcher takes this idea or the research findings to colleagues. They are first shared within departments and may be presented as abstracts or papers at conferences. These may, in turn, be published in the proceedings of that conference. Still, the idea or research has reached only a limited audience, and may not be in its final form. The actual text may exist only as lecture notes and an abstract submitted as part of the proceedings. An actual document detailing the findings and their impact on further research or patient care may not exist. The idea or findings may at this point become accessible to persons outside this limited audience through indexes to meetings and conferences and indexes to proceedings. However, most people searching the literature for information want more detail and often require the further credibility that journal publication provides.

Journal publication is the next step in this cycle, and is the point of widest access. Journal articles nearly always present conclusions supported by evidence and a bibliography of previous work on the subject. They are further backed by the reputation of the journal itself, especially if it is "referreed", meaning that experts in the field on which it reports preview articles prior to publication.. Journals also carry commentary in the form of readers' letters and editorials. They not only provide an outlet for creative work, but a forum for its discussion as well.

The contents of journals are indexed by indexing and abstracting services usually specialized to the particular field. The National Library of Medicine provides this service for medical journals with Index Medicus and its computerized counterpart, MEDLINE. While some coverage is provided for other healthcare topics, even more specialized indexes exist, such as the Cumulative Index to Nursing and Allied Health (CINAHL) and Hospital Literature Index. NLM also provides specific indexes and databases for two diseases: the AIDS Bibliography and AIDSLINE for materials on HIV Infections and CANCERLIT for cancer journal literature.

It is also here that the original idea is most likely to affect other work. Other reseachers are now free to examine the work and apply it to their own research. The journal article will be cited when its findings affect subsequent work in future publications. Citation indexes, such as Science Citation Index, provide a record of citings of authors to previous works. The history of the idea can be traced backed to its origins with this tool.