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There are quite a few issues involved when you start thinking about long-term issues in the the use of electronic delivery. At least for papers with implications in systematics and taxonomy, the ideal to work for is free access to electronic copies of ALL papers, going back to Linnaeus. The community of zoologists and botanists (and microbiologists and mycologists) should be involved together with paleontologists. This should cover all languages, particularly Russian and Chinese journals and books. Seeking funding for this as a megaproject should be commenced, but in the meantime, if everyone with access to a scanner and website started ... who knows what might happen? I have made a small start for bryozoans at http://www.civgeo.rmit.edu.au/bryozoa/library/list/index.html I have also started a private collection of e-copies acquired by various means, such as inter-library loans, and am waiting for a way to make these available to the public. There are issues of Intellectual Property involved. As a modest proposal, I suggest that the relevant commission on Nomenclature mandate a requirement that electronic copies become freely available after say, 5 years, with a central clearinghouse/ storage. At present, charges for electronic copies at the big business publishers seem to be unrelated to size, and are clearly exorbitant for small papers. At least in Museum Victoria, the decision was made that sales of e-copies would not outweigh the costs of the electronic charging system, and make all their recent PDF's free to all. http://www.museum.vic.gov.au/memoirs/ The journal that has not yet been mentioned is Zootaxa - which publishes extremely rapidly. I have not asked about its policy in paleozoology, but I have seen at least one paper on dinosaurs. Electronic and paper copies are available at a reasonable charge ( US$0.40 per page), which can be removed if the author (or institution) makes an up-front payment. http://www.mapress.com/zootaxa/ In 2004 it published 398 issues with a total of 9581 pages. No, but not because I'm not willing to put the effort in. Firstly, because I think that with PE, we don't need another invertebrate palaeo online journal - at present, at any rate. Secondly, I wouldn't have the first clue where to start. I have no experience at all. In a few years, who knows? Breandán -- Phil Bock mailto:bockp001@optusnet.com.au Bryozoa Home Page http://www.civgeo.rmit.edu.au/bryozoa/default.html |
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