Re: GSA Vanity Press for Paleontologists

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>GSA $15 fee for submitting abstracts to the Paleontological Society's
>Annual Meeting.
>

The Paleontological Society has already submitted a letter of protest to
GSA.  Technically, it is not the PS's meeting, but the GSA and Associated
Societies meeting.  GSA does the meeting and it determines the costs
involved.  The $15 fee is to cover GSA's costs, particularly the electronic
submission.

We believe that the $15 is a subsidy for all attendees who go to talks,
therefore such costs should be incorporated into the Registration Fee, if
it is really necessary.  Many people benefit from the abstracts and talks
besides the authors.

PS will continue discussing this matter with GSA directly in Boulder later
this month, although we are only one of many societies, albeit the one that
submits the most abstracts.   I am not too optimistic that we will change
this, judging from GSA's analysis of the problem.  If any paleontologists
have other constructive suggestions we might discuss with GSA officials,
please reply to me.

 >Does anyone know what percentage of papers in paleontology are
>accepted by GSA for presentation at the annual meetings?

The GSA target is to reject about 5%.  Last year, PS took the position that
we had too many papers and we ran at least twice that rate.  The PS Council
discussed this and decided to go with the GSA recommendation this year or
less.  Roger's suggestion that the other business is more important than
the papers may well be true, but most(?) people need to justify the money
to attend meetings by presenting a paper.  I also think it is an
opportunity for students to be heard and for students to hear established
professionals.   And it is good for our egos.   Perhaps we could cut out
the topical symposia, some of which seem to be stretching a little just to
fill the space (or egos?).

My personal view is that we can accept as many papers as we have room for
and that meet some standard.   Few of us attend all the papers anyway,
especially me.

I think Peter is joking about the Vanity Press citation!

The reality of all of these cost increases is that they are indeed real!  I
do not think that GSA is doing this just to make money, although I think
there are other ways to cover the costs that seem more equitable.

Jere

Jere H. Lipps, President
Paleo Soc