Subject: FYI: Re: Chronicle: on Chem preprint servers

From: Eugene Leitl <[email-masked]>
Date: Thu, 24 Aug 2000 08:36:07 -0700 (PDT)

From: "Bachrach, Steven" <[email-masked]>
Sender: CHEMICAL INFORMATION SOURCES DISCUSSION LIST <[email-masked]>
To: [email-masked]
Subject: Re: Chronicle: on Chem preprint servers
Date:         Thu, 24 Aug 2000 08:44:05 -0500

I too mourn the passing of an opportunity to create a grassroots
opportunity, but wish to point out a few things.

First, NOTHING kept anyone from starting such an effort at any time in the
past. In fact, the Chemistry Preprint Server form ChemWeb is NOT the first
such effort in chemistry. Way back in 1994 and 1995 (ancient history on the
web), a Chemical Physics preprint server was enacted originating from Brown
University utilizing the same code as the LANL preprint server. This effort
was essentailly a failure as few authors submitted.

Second, we will continue to wait for ACS to make any action with regard to
preprint servers. At the presidential plenary session at the ACS meeting
this past Sunday, Bob Bovenshulte indicated that ACS publications is
continuing to examine the idea. This concept has been under evaluation at
ACS for 18 months already, so one should not hold one's breath waiting for a
final determination. ACS journals generally hold a policy that submission to
a preprint server constitutes prior publication and therefore disqualifies
the article from publication in an ACS journal. This policy is however
determined by the editor of each individual journal and one should petition
the editors for clarification of their respective policies. I should note
that there is now general policy statement from Elsevier concerning this
issue either.

Third, there is no question that Chemweb is a subsidiary of Elsevier.
However, I question exactly what has been given to the Elsevier monopoly
here. When an author places an article into the preprint archive, the author
assigns no rights to Chemweb. The author retains the copyright and all
rights associated with the article. Elsevier cannot charge for access to the
article or reproduce it in any form without the express written consent of
the author. Chemweb (or Elsevier if you prefer) acts as the conduit for
access. Fairly subtle ad placement is the only source of income for Chemweb
for providing this service. (In the interest of full disclosure, I am on the
advisory board for the CPS.)

Lastly, my conclusion form the plenary session on online preprints was that
many people are unaware of what a preprint server is and what its
implications really are. Unquestionably, education of the chemical community
IS the first priority towards making any serious change to our publication
system. I concur with Steve Berry who argued at the plenary session that we
should be trying many different experiments, learning along the way,
adopting good things and throwing out those that fail. I view the CPS as
being one of the necessary experiments and hope that many more experiemnts
in publication (not just preprint severvices) will follow in the near
future.

Steve

--
Steven Bachrach                                  ph: (210)999-7379
Department of Chemistry                        fax: (210)999-7569
Trinity University
715 Stadium Drive
San Antonio, TX 78212
[email-masked]

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Eugene Leitl [mailto:[email-masked]]
> Sent: Thursday, August 24, 2000 1:59 AM
> To: [email-masked]
> Subject: Chronicle: on Chem preprint servers
>
>
> Great, the chemical community has wasted another opportunity to create
> a grassroot publishing effort, giving up another fortification to the
> Elsevier monopoly without even a token fight.
>
> As to "conventional wisdom says that e-prints are not compatible with
> the culture of chemistry" -- I suggest a poll on how many
> (noncomputational) chemists even know what an e-preprint server
> is. Clearly some PR work is in order.
>
> Regards,
>
> Eugene Leitl
>
> Robert Michaelson writes:
>  >  From today's "Daily Update" in the Chronicle of Higher Education
>  > http://chronicle.com/free/2000/08/2000082201t.htm
>  >
>  > Bob Michaelson
>  > Northwestern University Library
>  > [email-masked]
>  >
>