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Norm McLeod wrote:
>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.
I don't think your should worry too much about that. This is the problem
every new journal has to face. The first issues of any journal consist of
articles that have had to be brought together by courting, begging,
threatening, cajoling, etc. It has nothing (well, hardly anything) to do
with the medium. Once the journal is established (if it's any good),
manuscripts will flow in.
>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.
Yes, there _are_ analogous costs with PaleoNet. Up till recently, these
costs have been paid almost entirely by yourself and by the NHM. Now they
will be paid also by Berkeley, which probably means that the total costs
have grown. What if PaleoNet also takes on more editorial activities, i.e.
evaluates, peer-reviews, edits for content and presentation and streamlines
for publication each incoming contribution? Presumably you would engage
more people and more equipment, and the costs would grow even more. The
fact that users don't see them doesn't mean they are not there. They have
to be paid, in one end or in the other.
The free electronic journal is a myth, and one that publishes
instantaneously is not a journal, it's a mailbox. I would even be hesitant
to publish in one that promises publication within weeks - it reeks of
corner-cutting. However, the "traditional" journals, most of which are
currently trying out ways of integrating themselves with the electronic
medium, can and must cut costs and publication time considerably to meet
the challenge of instantaneous publication by web-posting. As Jere Lipps
just pointed out, peer-reviewing and editing takes time mostly because
everybody involved has numerous commitments, and individuals have to do
things in succession, not in parallel. As long as an article would still
have to wait a year till publication because of volume periodicity and
manuscript backlog, this has not mattered much, but with the new medium
available we will all (What? Me too? OK - for 50 quid I'll snap to it!)
have to change our attitudes to that little envelope (or file) that just
landed on our desk (or mailserver) from an editor asking for yet another
review. Though at the level of the editorial office, where everything has
to be channeled through one or two persons, speeding up the process won't
be as simple as changing priorities - there must be considerable resources
available. Quality costs.
Stefan Bengtson _/ _/ _/_/_/ _/ _/
Department of Palaeozoology _/_/ _/ _/ _/ _/_/ _/_/
Swedish Museum of Natural History _/ _/ _/ _/ _/ _/ _/ _/ _/
Box 50007 _/ _/ _/ _/_/_/ _/ _/ _/
S-104 05 Stockholm _/ _/_/ _/ _/ _/ _/
Sweden _/ _/ _/ _/ _/ _/
tel. +46-8 666 42 20
+46-18 54 99 06 (home)
fax +46-8 666 41 84
e-mail Stefan.Bengtson@nrm.se
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