EPJ editors

From
Date
Stefan and others bring up good points:

1.  Most of the problems raised are simply unnecessary red flags, as they
are easily dealt with.  For example, if I cite a synonymy as Electronic
Journal of Biology 3:12-15 (or maybe just the file number, like #1123),
that should be as easy as finding Acta Polonica 15:34-37 in your library (I
include the Internet in this) or someone else's.  Should be legal in the
new Nomenclatural rules.

2.  The editorial duties should be handled, in my opinion, in the way we do
now.  Societies cajole someone to do their's and sometimes provide a little
support.  Some printers of these journals are, I am told, gearing up to do
the EJs too (like Allen Press).  It then may be that a volunteer editor
would have it easier as reviewing and major editing could be done by email
and forwarded to the printer for formatting and posting.   Some, like GSA,
will do the posting themselves.  Commercial publishers may pay for help,
and are going on-line too (Elsevier has a plan their journals).

3.  In fact, now is an opportune time to start an EPJ because we are in a
good position to redefine exactly how to do all the things in #2 above.

4.  The only thing I worry about with EJs is their permanency.  This can be
fixed, but would require advance thought.

5.  As for cost savings on printed journals, another avenue to explore
would be shared services and consolidation of journals.  With the decline
in paleontologists and library budgets, many journals are seeing their
subscription incomes decline to where they threaten the journal itself.  By
combining like journals with small subscriptions, a good deal of duplicate
effort may be saved.  Tom Schopf long ago (early '70s) pointed out that it
takes about 600-700 subscriptions to justify a new journal.   Nowadays,
probably more.   So, if the subscriptions decline, the opposite should
occur--extinction OR consolidation.  And this too could take advantage of
the Internet by ftp-ing illustrations and mss around to editors scattered
anywhere on the globe.

Jere H. Lipps,  Director
Museum of Paleontology
University of California
Berkeley, California 94720 USA

Voice:  510-642-9006.  Fax:  510-642-1822
Internet:  jlipps@ucmp1.berkeley.edu
WWW:  http://ucmp1.berkeley.edu