Re: Web-available manuscript

[TomDeVrie@xxxxxxx]

To claim that a manuscript distributed world-wide on the Internet is a
"personal communication" diminishes the word "personal." To call it a
"written communication" is no more informative than to say that a
peer-reviewed, traditionally published article also is a "written
communication."  At the very least, we should not be afraid to erect a new
category of citation, e.g., "Internet manuscript, date read."  The source is
clear, if evanescent, but no more evanescent than a dog-eared manuscript sent
to you some months ago, possibly only one of three copies extant, and now
buried under a pile of published articles.  The citation is less cumbersome
than that attached to a Ph.D. dissertation.

Two other issues remain to be resolved: peer review and supercedence of
costly paper-published versions.  The technology is nearly ready to solve
both problems at once: internationally recognized, legitimized WWW pages
belonging to the journals.  Manuscripts and figures can be forwarded to the
http address; editors can redistribute copies to reviewers; comments can be
sent back to authors; final copies can be accepted and immediately posted.
 Any pre-publication version of the manuscript off the journal's home page
can be posted at the author's discretion, subject to rules imposed by the
journal.  Establishing the legitimacy of pre-publication versions (which
anyone can copy and repost many places on the Web)  is the author's
responsibility.  Any version of dubious ancestry can be recognized as such by
being located outside of the legitimate journal's home page.

The legitimacy of the journal's WWW page insures that peer review has taken
place.  (Novel styles of peer review could evolve in this Web-based process:
group reviews, invited comments, appended discussions and replies.)  Paper
costs are greatly reduced.  Minimal page charges could underwrite editors'
time and Web site maintenance.

This scenario is visionary only in scope, not in implementation, which is
already happening.  (Paleontological electronic publications still await that
10- to 100-fold increase in resolution of photos and 1000-100,000 fold
increase in speed necessary to conveniently read a plate-laden article.)

Can libraries and individuals around the world make do without paper copies?
  Do traditional publishers and paper publications have an irreplaceable role
ignored in this scenario?