Electronic publishing--easing into the process

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Dear colleagues:

There is a lot to be said for publishing electronically, and there is no
doubt that the problem of peer review of papers can be solved rather
easily.  The matter of economics is not a trivial one, however, because the
money charged for scientific journals pays for editorial work, supports the
reporting of news of importance to the profession (as in Science and
Nature, for example),  and in some instances keeps professional societies
going.  If everything is freely available on the net, membership in
professional societies may decrease with dire consequences for the
profession.  It will be possible to provide access only to members as Gee
suggested, but this presents problems for libraries that I have not thought
through.

Not trivial is the matter of the expectations of committees in charge of
promotion and tenure at universities.  Of course, we can make efforts to
change the attitudes of such committees, but anyone who has dealt with them
knows that change comes very, very slowly.

A possible interim solution to some of these difficulties--especially the
promotion and tenure problem--is to make use of hybrid publications.  The
ICZN, for example, has very specific rules about illustrations.  One could
publish on paper only the bare minimum required by the Code and bolster the
printed paper with many additional figures available only electronically.
One could publish the synonymy in traditional form and make lengthy
discussion of taxonomic relationships, similarities, intrapopulational
morphological variation, and the like available only on the web.  One could
virtually eliminate lengthy prose describing previous work and put it all
on the web.  If this model were adopted for taxonomic papers, the printed
version would be much more than an abstract but less than a monograph.  The
cost would be driven down, trees would be saved, and readers among us would
have more time to write.

Best wishes,

Roger

--

Roger L. Kaesler
Paleontological Institute
The University of Kansas
121 Lindley Hall
Lawrence, Kansas 66045-2911
(913) 864-3338 = telephone
(913) 864-5276 = FAX

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