Re: Do We Need E-Journals?

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Thanks to Curt Klug for a thought-provoking posting on why we should
abolish peer-reviewed journals in the electronic age. We have briefly
touched this ground before in this discussion, but not with the same
considered arguments.

>The peer review process is, in a very real sense, a form of censorship.

I think that this objection has already dissipated in a puff of electrons.
Censorship may have been a backside of peer review earlier (though with
several independent journals around, it could hardly have been efficient),
but it cannot be so any more, notwithstanding the sad success by certain
political groups in the US to introduce a law (the Communications Decency
Act) against putting things that they find objectionable on the net. (We
all know how objectionable evolution is to a large number of Americans, for
instance.) As you point out, any rejected author who feels thwarted by the
establishment can instantly put his manuscript on the web and have it seen
by the world, protected by copyright. If reviewers and editors could ever
act as censors, they cannot do so any more.

>A paper
>that is 90 percent garbage could conceivably still include 10 percent
>valid and innovative ideas.

Definitely, yes. But why should we all have to wade through that garbage
rather than setting up some trash cans? Valid and innovative ideas can no
longer be actively suppressed, but they can certainly be drowned in garbage
so that nobody will ever find them.

>But why should one bother to go that route when
>an equally high quality publication can easily be placed on a web page.

A few scientists may be able to do that. Most of us cannot. I wouldn't
place a contribution of my own for permanent reference unless it had been
worked over critically by others. "Equally high quality" is true only if
the work done by referees and editors is of no value. The latter may or may
not be the case: opinions seem to vary.

>What's more, web page publications can be frequently modified and updated
>as research progresses (I can almost hear the groans from the readers of
>this post).

That was me groaning, and probably a few hundred more. I can think of no
more certain way to the degradation of work standards than if there is no
peril involved in publishing results. Just post your findings as soon as
you can - you can always change them later, and nobody will know (except
some poor guys who are inadvertently using your first whim, thinking it was
well-considered.) Even more important than peer review, I think, is the
knowledge each scientist has: that "whatever you publish as the results of
your scientific work, you may have to answer for later".

>I think that rather than worrying about the intricacies and ramifications
>of setting up electronic journals, perhaps we should concentrate on
>setting up standardized distribution points.  As, for example, web pages
>dedicated to providing pointers to independantly published papers.

I think we should do the former. The latter problem is being solved for us
with the development of web browsers of ever increasing sophistication.
They will grow with the web.

>If it becomes the norm to independently publish and frequently
>update research, as I think cannot be avoided, there will be little
>reason to attend meetings to hear papers that, by that time, may already
>be outdated.

Yes, hopefully one won't go to meetings to hear outdated "papers". One goes
to meet colleagues, to hear them express their ideas, to discuss problems
in person, to make personal contacts, to have fun, you name it. Meetings
won't go away - they serve a need that electronics can't fullfill. Did the
telephone make us travel less?

>We cannot ignore independent electronic publications...

No, I agree. They will exist whether we want them to or not. But the easier
it will be to put out your stuff on the net, the more important will it be
to have havens where the worst noise has been filtered out. If I want my
work read and seriously considered, I'd rather place it there.








Stefan Bengtson                      _/        _/ _/_/_/    _/        _/
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