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Tim Pattersson wrote:
>As Norm McLeod most recently pointed out the discussion seems to have
>confused the random posting of technical papers "personal communications"
>on the web with postings in a peer reviewed web journal. Thus all of the
>discussion on copyright infringements etc. is not really germane to the
>issue of a web journal.
If posting a paper on the net, random or not, isn't publishing I don't know
what it is. Calling it "personal communication" makes it no less published.
Even if I say that this e-mail message isn't an e-mail message, it's still
an e-mail message. The important point is: a manuscript posted on the web
is accessible to anyone in the world who has a modem. It is certainly
published.
>I think that Stefen Bengtson is overreacting to the potential threat of the
>inevitable appearance of one peer reviewed paleontological web journal to
>all printed paleontological journals.
Please!!! I have said nothing of that sort! I welcome electronic journals.
What I don't welcome is the uncontrolled posting of
manuscripts-to-be-published, because it undermines the economy of the
journal, electronic or not.
>The biggest threat to the printed journals is price. As I outlined in my
>posting the other day it takes virtually no money to prepare a manuscript
>for posting to the web.
I'm afraid the web is already full of postings that have taken virtually no
money and virtually no effort to prepare. Modern hard- and software has
eliminated the need for heavy and bulky machinery and several rounds of
retyping, but it has only partly eliminated the need for graphic and layout
knowledge and will probably never completely do so. In my experience, the
technology revolution means more work for the editor, not less.
>Whitey Hagadorn noted, in an off-net posting to me,
>that factors such as advertising, marketing, committee meetings,
>society-sponsored lunches, paper costs, mailing costs, etc. will be non
>existent in such a journal.
I can't see what the decisions to have committee meetings or
society-sponsored lunches have to do with the issue. What you're looking
for is obviously an organization without overhead costs or no organization
at all.
>However,he also advised me that the time input
>of the eds, asst. eds., and lay-out people still has to be factored in.
>However, if these people are willing to put time into an electronic journal
>on a volunteer basis, as occurs at many printed journals the web paleo
>journal can, as Norm suggests, be free.
Yes, if we can find the people who will with their own labor pay the costs
that we as users don't want to pay, then the journal would be "free". A lot
of such subsidy goes on in journals today, but the difference is that there
is usually some permanent core of know-how in the form of a publishing
house or a printing house. In this case it would all be run by an
ever-changing set of more or less experienced people who are not likely to
take on the task for more than a couple of years. An better alternative
would be to build up a publishing competence within academia by tayloring
jobs towards electronic publishing. Great, though the only realistic way I
can see for that to happen is if the journal would be allowed to take a fee
from its users, and this of course is an obnoxious thought...
Stefan Bengtson _/ _/ _/_/_/ _/ _/
Department of Palaeozoology _/_/ _/ _/ _/ _/_/ _/_/
Swedish Museum of Natural History _/ _/ _/ _/ _/ _/ _/ _/ _/
Box 50007 _/ _/ _/ _/_/_/ _/ _/ _/
S-104 05 Stockholm _/ _/_/ _/ _/ _/ _/
Sweden _/ _/ _/ _/ _/ _/
tel. +46-8 666 42 20
+46-18 54 99 06 (home)
fax +46-8 666 41 84
e-mail Stefan.Bengtson@nrm.se
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