Re: On-line Paleo. Pubs.

[peterr@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx (Peter Rauch)]

>Date: Tue, 31 Jan 1995 19:30:41 GMT
>From: henry@chiswick.demon.co.uk (Henry Gee)

>Peter Rauch noted that reviewers (and many editors) don't work for free, 
>their expenses are usually absorbed by the host institution. Certainly,
>reviewers for NATURE conventionally work for nothing, not even thanks, but
>we'd be sunk without them (so thanks, everyone, you know who you are).

Do NATURE's manuscript reviewers _really_ work for nothing? Do they
ever take time from work to review manuscripts, or do they do it
after work at home always (and by the way deprive their families of
family time)? Do they ever use their organizations' mailing/franking/
phone/email/secretarial/wordprocessing/services to work on/receive/
transmit manuscripts, employers' office space/lighting/heating/
trash removal/etc?

While you might argue that some of these costs are modest, and that
in any case they are not NATURE's expenses, they are nonetheless
not free.

I think the point is important to make explicit when one is discussing
the possible use of a completely new technology for handling the
publication process. Things that are seemingly inconsequential in one
system can become significant elements of another. They shouldn't be
ignored. They aren't free; it's just that _you_ may not have been paying.
Peter