Subject: Quoting CCL messages in papers

From: Jan Labanowski <[email-masked]>
Date: Tue, 4 Apr 1995 00:40:05 -0400

I am afraid, I need to enter the discussion on quoting the messages appearing
on Computational Chemistry List. I will try to be brief, and I do it under
duress.

The messages posted to CCL should be quoted as "private communications" for
a variety of reasons, though obviously one may add, when quoting it,
that the message was posted on this date to CCL. I see it like:
John Doe, private communication (Computational Chemistry List, March 10, 1993).
But there is probably no standard (for a good reason...).

One reason to quote them as private communication is, as justly stated by
Henry Rzepa, the fact that they are volatile. At this moment, there is no
organizational guarantee that they will be available for a specified period
of time. Obviously, if the archives are indexed, catalogued, and issued on
a CD-ROM, they may become available in the Libraries in this form, and can
be therefore quoted by title/publisher/and some number (we still do not have
LC numbers for CD-ROMs, do we?). Other scenario is a depository -- like
University Microfilms for Ph.D. thesis, or QCPE or CPA for software. But such
thing does not exist yet, though I am (as you all know) envision it.

The other, probably quite politically flamable aspect is that many people
on this list need to obtain formal relase from their employers before they
can officially publish something related to their work. And if they 
officially publish something without the consent of their employer using
employer's computer/address, they may loose their jobs. I am sure this is
not a problem in academia (though who knows -- in my old days, when I was
in Poland which was then called People's Republic, we had to get a "consent"
for publishing from the special body -- it was a simple formality in Sciences,
but it was not that trivial for historians, political, social sciences and
other humanities, or in places where they were obsessed with secrets).

So please, take all reasons into consideration before you call private
communication a publication.

Jan Labanowski
[email-masked]

-- 

Dr. Jan K. Labanowski, Senior Research/Supercomputer Scientist/Specialist, etc.
Ohio Supercomputer Center, 1224 Kinnear Rd, Columbus, OH 43212-1163
ph:(614)-292-9279,  FAX:(614)-292-7168,  E-mail: [email-masked]  [email-masked]