With such far-flung participants, the submission and assessment process for peer-reviewed articles has traditionally involved lengthy mail delays, high postage costs and cumbersome administration.
According to the consumer champion, a range of illegal trading practices, such as claiming goods are "absolutely free" and then charging high postage fees, or displaying bogus signs claiming "offer ends Monday", were still being carried out at an annual cost to consumers of around £3.3bn.
While this may not be a problem for some, high postage can be out of the price range for others.
The Queen, who has visited the show more than 50 times, entered through a 21ft floral arch of pastel blooms, designed to celebrate her 90th birthday, and then encountered a three-metre high postage-stamp design profile of her royal self, courtesy of New Covent Garden Flower Market, making its debut at the show.
Remember, as a general rule: The lower the cost is, the higher the postage is.
The 11 illustrations depict increasingly high-priced postage stamps.
Understandably, the users of the post suffered from this chaotic situation and from the high international postage rates that were its natural result.
For all this, Stamps.com customers pay a membership fee of either $4.50 a month for light use or $16 for higher volumes of postage -- before paying anything for the postage itself.
That company, Goodmail, was founded on the premise of charging postage for high-volume e-mail, not for all e-mail; it has narrowed its focus to companies and organizations that get permission from users to send them mail.
