Re: Web-available manuscript

[collom@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx (Christopher Collom)]

Barry Roth wrote (in response to Stefan B.):

>If we want to talk about circumvention of peer review, a more significant
>concern (and one already long with us) has to do with meeting symposia and
>invited-paper festschrifts.  (I hasten to add that I know nothing about the
>procedures underlying the "Valentine Festschrift" and take at face value Dr.
>Cowen's statement that his manuscript was "reviewed and revised.")  But when
>mere participation in a meeting is a guarantee of publication in a resulting
>volume, clearly the appropriate filters are not in place.  (I'm just now
>trying to do damage control after a truly dreadful paper in my specialty --
>and one that could not have passed any meaningful, objective peer review --
>appeared in just such a volume.)

A response to Barry's comment:

        Symposia volumes, unlike year-to-year journals should reflect a
(not THE) state-of-the-art at the time the meeting was held. There is
almost no other way to get as many different folks together to publish on a
similar topic (bivalves, in our case). Theme volumes of journals are one
way, but then you force every one who subscribes to the journal (not
necessarily the topic of the theme volume) to buy it, too. You don't have
to buy a symposium volume if you don't want to. 'Nuff said.

Christopher Collom
University of Calgary, Alberta, Canada
Research: Inoceramidae of the world (Perm. - U. Cret.)