Newsgroups: comp.arch,comp.databases,comp.lsi,comp.parallel.pvm,comp.parallel.mpi,comp.org.acm,comp.org.ieee,comp.protocols.misc,comp.realtime,comp.software-eng,comp.sys.super,comp.theory,sci.math
From: "N. Gat" <oksi@cerfnet.com>
Reply-To: oksi@cerfnet.com
Subject: Publishing Scholarly Work on the Web -- opinions?
Organization: Opto-Knowledge Systems, Inc.
Date: Tue, 10 Sep 1996 22:42:53 -0700
Mime-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
Message-ID: <3236515D.5B58@cerfnet.com>

Subject:  Publishing Scholarly Work on the Web -- opinions?

I'd appreciate any pro and con arguments on the subject of this letter. 
Since this matter touches upon all the sci.*, many comp.* and other
newsgroups, I'll try to cross post this message.  

The TechExpo Web site would like to open up a ScienceExpo section
dedicated to the publication of scholarly works in HTML format (TechExpo
already provides an array of services to the science & technology
community; see http://www.techexpo.com).  

			THE RATIONALE IS AS FOLLOWS:


1) The peer-review process of scientific journals may take from many
months to over a year.  

2) The review process is often arbitrary in nature.

3) The access to the work is limited because many libraries do not carry
the journal, or it is too expensive for an individual subscription

4) A journal in any field carries work that is much broader than that of
individual researcher or engineer so important papers are often obscured
because they do not quite belong in any particular journal.

5)  Because of the multi-disciplinary nature of technology and science,
some topic have applicability in more than one field, and no journal or
conference may cover such broad fields.

6) Papers posted at ScienceExpo will be searchable not only by key
words, but the author will be able to select any number of applicability
categories from a list of over 400 existing categories (see the TechExpo
classification schedule). 

7)  papers will be searchable via all the Web search engines.  

8)  The author can still submit the posted paper to refereed journals.



			PUBLICATIONS AT ScienceExpo WILL:

a)  Appear within 48 hours of submittal

b)  The paper will be immediately available to the entire community

c) The paper will indexed and could be found by all researchers via the
Internet search engines, or internal ScienceExpo search tools (using any
keyword, author name, institution name, etc.)

d) The author can select any number of fields of science and technology
form a list of over 400 (see TechExpo Classification Schedule) to reach
the target audience much broader than any one journal can

e) Authors can hot-link all references directly from their paper

f)  On-line discussion of papers can be conducted within the appropriate
UseNet groups

g) Papers may be copies and printed or forwarded to others
electronically or by other means.  



			SOME PROPOSED GROUND RULES:

(A) Work submitted must be of original nature and of value to science or
technology

(B) The paper must carry the full names of the authors and institution,
including address, phone number, fax, and e-mail.

(C) Ethical conduct:  Papers posted at ScienceExpo should be treated as
any other publication.  They represent the scientific work of colleagues
and should be treated as such.  If information is quoted, the proper
reference should be given credit.  

(D) When copying, forwarding, etc., the entire paper, including the
authors information, institution, as well as the ScienceExpo source
should be included.  



Obviously ScienceExpo will not referee papers; the authors' names and
the institution they represent are put on the line -- so posting papers
ON-LINE should be given as much or more care and thought as submitting a
paper to prestigious journals


			A FEW TECHNICALITIES:

(i) The entire paper must be submitted in HTML, and graphs, figures and
charts in gif or jpg format  (this is a deviation from common formats
requiring PostScript or TEX, to allow viewing papers using the
newsreader built into popular browsers, and to allow indexing such
papers by all the Web search engines) 

(ii) Maximum size for text files and graphics will have to be observed

(iii) Equation should be edited using the HTML specifications, or
scanned and pasted as graphics files

(iv) It is the author's responsibility to secure authorization of the
institution and/or the research funding authority to submit the
publication.  



Finally here is the most sticky point.  If the service if totally free
of charge, I'm concerned there will be a deluge of frivolous
publishing.  I consider a fee structure to act as a "potential
Barrier."   A low, yet significant fee (hopefully) will discourage the
unwarranted publications, but will not be too high to discourage worthy
publications.  Perhaps academic institutions will receive a discount,
but corporations will pay somewhat higher fee also to defray the costs
of the service.  

So one question is whether a fee imposed on publication will completely
stifle interest?  Is for example, a one-time publication fee of $400 for
a corporation, and $100 for academia too high a fee?


One more comment as to why should TechExpo do this.  In my opinion
technical societies (and I belong to a few) could do the job but the
problem of cross discipline relevance will not be solved.  So being
unaffiliated with any technical society or technical magazine, TechExpo
is a neutral ground most appropriate for this job.  What's more,
TechExpo is already providing technology and science information for
almost two years.


Is this idea totally freakish?


Well, the floor is now open for debate.


Private communications are welcomed but posted comments/debate is
preferred.  


Nahum Gat, Ph.D.
President
Opto-Knowledge Systems, Inc. (OKSI)
Web:  http://www.techexpo.com/WWW/opto-knowledge

E-mail:	oksi@cerfnet.com
		or
	nahum@techexpo.com

