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: Claude Chaunier <chaunier@handy.univ-lyon1.fr>
Subject: Re: Publishing Scholarly Work on the Web -- opinions?
Organization: C.I.S.M.  Universite de Lyon 1 / INSA de Lyon
Date: Fri, 13 Sep 1996 14:02:06 +0100
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Message-ID: <32395B4E.5ECA@handy.univ-lyon1.fr>

N. Gat's idea is great and a little improvement may make
everyone happy: Publish everything having the form of an
article with no fee in 48 hours with additional room for
later comments, reviews, criticisms, by whoever wants.
I mean, everytime I see a list of posted articles,
I would like to see the author-title of the comments
made later if there are any. There should not be a great
difference with a threaded moderated newsgroups. I would
very much like in particular that young people be
allowed to be issued without any other rebutal that
hard criticisms made after -- and their right to answer
if they wish. From time to time people will be able to
recognize valuable referees.

Claude Chaunier


N. Gat wrote:
> 
> 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

