What if we began an EPJ and nobody came?

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We've discussed the pros and cons of electronic paleontological journals
(EPJs) on PaleoNet before, but this discussion is different. For the first
time we've gone past the topic of whether it would be a good/bad idea if an
EPJ existed and started talking about how it could/should be done. After
putting together half a dozen issues of the PaleoNet Forum, I suppose I've
got as much experience in the field of electronic paleontological
publishing as anyone. Here are some of the things I've learned.

1.) If you want to mirror the format of a standard print journal in
electronic form the technical requirements in terms of writing .HTML code
are so easily attained as to be not worth considering. Literally anyone can
do this even now and the new crop of web page production utilities makes
the task even easier. I'd be ashamed to take anyone's money for it. On the
other hand, if authors wanted to experiment with non-traditional forms of
presentation (VR-movies, Java applets) things get inordinately complex very
quickly. That being said, most of the basic page set-up into .HTML can (at
least in principle) be done by the authors of EPJ articles with only minor
tweaking required by the publisher. Indeed, the appropriate analogy to this
are the format restrictions we currently impose on print mss when they are
submitted to print journals.

2.) The biggest problem any EPJ editor will face is getting the first few
years of the journal mss out of the paleontological community. In order to
produce the 6 issues of the PaleoNet Forum (which consists of just a single
article), I've had to court, beg, threaten, cajole, flatter, call in
personal favors. You name it, I've done it. Right now there is nothing
lined up for March (I've been too busy with the PaleoNet move to court,
beg, threaten, cajole, flatter...) and I'm seriously considering making the
Forum an occasional (rather than monthly) series. We seem to be in the
position of seeing the potential and need for an electronic forum (small f)
for paleontological contributions and the advantages that would be realized
if we moved in this direction, but lacking the willingness of potential
authors to consider this as a viable alternative to print publication. I'm
convinced this will change (and that's why I'll keep plugging away with the
PaleoNet Forum in some form), but the paleontological community isn't at
this point now. Of course there are many differences between the PaleoNet
Forum and a full peer-reviewed EPJ in style, organization, and purpose.
However, I do think my experiences with the Forum are of relevance to the
question of whether an EPJ is practical at the present time (though I'd
love to be proved wrong on this point).

3.) I think we would be missing a valuable opportunity if we were simply
content to retain the style and feel of a print journal in any envisioned
EPJ project. In addition to economic advantages, electronic publishing has
capabilities that have no counterpart in print publishing. The ability to
include color (rather than black and white) graphics and/or movies just
scratches the surface.

If we do go with some sort of society sponsorship with and EPJ (which I
think would inevitably lead to some charges or subscribership costs being
levied) I'd like to see some innovation for my money. Despite Stefan's
maxim that, like free lunches, there isn't any such thing as free
information I maintain that if the paleontological community wanted to
start a free EPJ, it could. By Stefan's definition there are analogous
"costs" associated with PaleoNet and the PaleoNet Pages, but I have yet to
hear anyone complain about the monetary price levied for subscribing to the
listserver or accessing the Pages.


Norm MacLeod



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Norman MacLeod
Senior Scientific Officer
N.MacLeod@nhm.ac.uk (Internet)
N.MacLeod@uk.ac.nhm (Janet)

Address: Dept. of Palaeontology, The Natural History Museum,
         Cromwell Road, London, SW7 5BD

Office Phone: 0171-938-9006
Dept. FAX:  0171-938-9277
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