Subject: Re: On-line chem. and electronic publ.

From: "[email-masked] Rainer Stumpe" <[email-masked]>
Date: 20 Jan 94 14:35:05 EST

Dr. Rzepa wrote on Jan 15:

> e) If we can all become publishers by mounting a www document
> (or preprint), how do we handle refereeing, long term
> archiving, quality control and proofing, and indeed time-
> stamping and preventing fraud! Could publishers exist solely
> for  (and make money from) a role as "authentication agents"?

It certainly is an error to believe, publishers would make a
money by only playing the role of agents. Publishers -
commercial and society ones - play an important role in the
system of scientific communication. That system involves also
distribution agencies and libraries, and it makes information
available anywhere in the world; actually anywhere, and not
only theoretically. While a review system for the deposit of
contributions on an internet server can easily organized, many
of the other duties a publisher performs - obviously invisible
and unknown to the community - cannot with equal ease.

My personal view is, that publishers should and will take
advantage of the internet and at the same time continue with
their service to the benefit of science. We at Springer-Verlag
are indeed working on such projects. We operate a server with
Tables of Contents and we will expand the number of journals
covered by the "Springer Journals Preview System". We will soon
start an electronic journal (Numerical Mathematics).

Step by step, we will solve the problems associated with
electronic publishing as related to traditional printing. Great
care is taken during this process to meet the requirements and
expectations of authors, librarians, and readers. Many other
STM (Scientific, Technical and Medical) publishers are also
exploring, on their own or in cooperations, the possibilities
of electronic publishing and dissemination.

> c) Whether www might be suitable for otherwise VERY expensive
> color plates?

Well, if you consider a 10 square centimeter (4 by 4 inches)
color illustration, printed with a resolution of 14.000 dpi, 16
bit colors, you will either have to sacrifice resolution (300
dpi, 8 bit colors), or you will have to handle VERY large
files. I feel, the technology to match color prints is only
emerging; it might take another 5 years to become generally
available.

> a) whether a www server might also be used for this purpose?
> For example, we already have some chemistry material on ours,
> and the ease of implementation suggests that growth might be
> explosive in this area!

I have no problems with sending the ToCs of Theoretica Chimica
Acta to the WATOC list also. Let me know if you want to receive
it regularly.

Our server is at:
e-mail    [email-masked]
ftp:      TRICK.NTP.SPRINGER.DE (192.129.24.12)
There is a lot of useful information available there. You might
want to take a look.

Sincerely yours

Dr. Rainer Stumpe
Sciences Editorial
Springer-Verlag
Tiergartenstr. 17
D-69121 Heidelberg

Phone: +49-(0)6221-487 310
Fax:   +49-(0)6221-487 366
Internet: [email-masked]