Electronic Journal

From
Date
With regard to publishing on the internet, I have provisioned myself with a
large supply of e-fire extinguishers and would like to put in my $0.02 worth:

As assistant editor for PALAIOS, have seen a bit of the "publishing
industry"from behind the scenes (although opinions stated below are just
that, and do not reflect viewpoints shared by PALAIOS or SEPM).  I agree with
Tim & Norm that several issues are being confused (including peer review,
quality of transmission of information & figures, editorial standards and
duties, reviewer duties, and arguably, copyright).  In addition, I think that
a few issues should be revisited.

Key benefits to electronic publication include i) rapid turn-around time
(bordering on instantaneous), ii) dissemination of that information, iii)
increased availability to new audiences, and iv) increased options for
data-intensive manuscripts.  

i) Currently, manuscript turn-around time (i.e., time from submission of
manuscript to publication) can be quite lengthy for traditional journals. 
Yes, there are outlets for rapid (<1 yr) publication of very short
manuscripts as well as editorial forums (Onlines, Matters for the Record,
etc.) and brief notes.  Unfortunately, if you want to submit a data-intensive
manuscript, you will just have to "wait" with the current system.  

ii) In addition, with the exception of J. of P., it appears that many
paleo-related journals have comparably limited _global_ distribution, in the
sense that they could reach even _more_ geologists, biologists, and
paleontologists in many parts of the world where cost and mailing factors
have traditionally been a barrier.  Electronic dissemination of information
via an electronic journal would circumvent many of these barriers.  The
scaling issue (of small college library budgets vs. large research
universities) could also be resolved with an electronic forum.  

iii) One issue which I have not yet heard breached is the possibility for
electronic publications to transcend language and related barriers.  Although
English appears to be a common vein for many multilingual countries, it is
not universally so.  With the proliferation of language translators (which
already exist), an electronic version of articles could be easily downloaded
and converted into the language of choice for that reader.  Similarly, blind
persons could have the same option but with conversion to Braille.

iv) Electronic publishing has one added benefit and that is of length. In an
electronic medium, it really doesn't make much of a difference how long a
paper is or how many figures/tables/appendices it may have.  Currently, more
and more papers are getting trimmed down via the current paper-restricted
system. To give you an example, many journals are limited in the number of
pages they can publish each year.  When papers are accepted, editors have to
try to get authors to reduce the size of their text a bit, and to remove any
unnecessary tables, appendices, etc.. These constrictions are good (in
general) because they make more succinct papers.  However, it appears that in
many sub-disciplines, there is a strong desire/need to publish the data sets
along with the papers.  In some cases, data sets are not published with the
manuscripts, but are rather noted in the manuscript as "available from author
on request".  It seems that more and more of these data-rich papers (e.g.,
those with faunal lists, detailed statistical tables, sampling occurrences,
etc.) are getting sent to the other journals or to greyer literature.  In
some cases (e.g., JSP, Lethaia) a cap has actually been implemented for
submitted manuscripts (with the proviso of mandatory page charges for each
page over 20 ms. pps.).  Many authors appear to be unhappy with these
changes.  I think that an electronic journal can offer something to these
authors which is currently being phased out of traditional non-profit
journals: the benefit of extended length.  In an electronic article, authors
would still be forced to write and present their information concisely (as
mediated by peer review of the manuscripts), but could also have the benefit
of including detailed appendices of their data sets.  And, readers would not
have to deal with issues such as getting in touch with a very busy author
(who might be in the field or on sabbatical) or contacting a "dead" author
(either mortally, or dead in the sense of no longer being in the
profession/retired/etc.).


On the costs issue, (which seems to be a hot one), an electronic journal
would eliminate all of the following costs: 
		Paper
		Printing
		Postage (includes both mailing of issues and all 	
			correspondence between the journal and authors)
		Photograph & manuscript lay-out and proof-making costs
		Staff Costs (including salary and travel for Eds, Asst Eds,
			Assoc Eds, Society Staff, etc.)
		Office supplies 
		Phone and Fax Costs

To give a ballpark figure, these costs total in the hundreds of thousands of
dollars (_MINIMUM_), depending on the journal.
		
The only costs an electronic journal would incur are those associated with
erecting the journal site (assuming an in-place site is not used) and costs
with maintenance of the system.  Of course, the latter duties could be
delegated to the journal editor(s) or their assistants, just like in existing
print journals.  In the worst case scenario, electronic journal costs would
run in the tens of thousands of dollars - an order of magnitude decrease!

To give some perspective to the money issues, lets throw out some numbers. 
Lets be conservative and say that the new journal decides to erect its own
site.  One could buy a Sun Sparc 5 with massive disc space for about $20k,
which would be a one-time expense.  And, lets say that we have to pay someone
to run it (not the editor, but a technical assistant to act as support staff
for programming, maintenance, etc.).  I think that a grad student could do
this part-time and could be paid $18k.  If the computer lasts 5 years and
there are 1000 subscribers to the journal, that means that it would cost
about $20 to subscribe to that journal.  Compare that with the typical
private subscription rates of $50-$150.  _Even_ if one were to charge for the
journal (which I am not advocating), it would still be cheaper than a print
journal!

Cost issues could be pacified by modifying the format of information
dissemination.  It seems to me that there are a number of ways one could
operate an electronic journal.  One could certainly publish the journal on a
Web site, possibly associated with the ability to download files or indexes,
or with the ability for password-only access (e.g., once-per-issue use
passwords).  Sites could be operated under the umbrella of a professional
society/museum/university (as most academic web-sites currently are), or, for
the commercial-minded entities - through a commercial internet provider.  One
could also place the journal contents on a ftp/gopher/etc. site for all to
download, also with or without password protection. Additionally, one could
simply disseminate issues to members of a mailing list and send the journal
as email attachments or as actual compressed files (although this would
result in quite large-sized mail messages).

If one wanted to recoup journal operating costs, one could simply integrate a
payment plan with one of these methods?  It would _not_ be that difficult to
do.  If a "free" web site was used, one could even recoup costs on a per
"hit" basis.  
Usage of e-cash or some other form of electronic currency (which already
exist - see for example, recent bold moves by American Express, Visa,
Mastercard, and Microsoft to adopt and refine this mode of currency exchange)
could be utilized to "pay" for costs associated with maintenance of journal
web/server sites and would circumvent currency exchange issues.  Further
permutations might include charging on a paper-by-paper basis, or by charging
for the entire issue.  

The dominance of cost-related apprehension to an electronic journal is
surprising in light of the recent success and support of PaleoNet, in light
of the fact that we have (in little over 1 year) witnessed the adoption of
PaleoNet support by the UCBMP, and in light of the increasing numbers of
paleo-related web pages/abstract listings/table of contents/information
forums/etc. which are popping up all over the internet.  Since it seems at
though PaleoNet already has technical and financial support from the NHM
(thanks to efforts by Norm), why not use it as a springboard for launching of
an electronic journal?  This could occur through souping up or re-vamping of
the existing PaleoNet Forum, or could occur as addition of an entirely new
"forum" (pun).  As the current editorial format of the Forum matches the
initial format adopted by many paleo-journals, why not just follow this up
with a few articles every month?  See how it grows?  At the present time, it
would not be that hard to establish journal very much like Geology or Nature,
where paleo-types could send short pieces (8ms pp. with a few figures) which
would enjoy widespread network distribution and rapid turn-around time.  Why
not just do it? 

Enough ranting and raving for now.  I look forward to hearing your comments. 
Preferably on PaleoNet.

Regards,

Whitey Hagadorn


___________________________________________________________________________
Dept. of Earth Sciences
U. of Southern California
Los Angeles, CA 90089-0740
email: hagadorn@usc.edu			...surfing waves and the internet...
___________________________________________________________________________