Subject: Re: CCL:Ahem, shouldn't we do something about it?

From: Christoph van Wüllen <[email-masked]>
Date: Fri, 25 Aug 2000 10:34:23 +0200

As to the discussion of 'online publishing', my opinion is that if the contributions
are not peer-reviewd (using the same quality standards as in the printed journals),
there is always the risk that there will be some garbage among the contributions. In this
case, not too many scientist will browse the contents.

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From: Herbert Fruchtl <[email-masked]>
Date: Fri, 25 Aug 2000 11:15:47 +0100

Hi there,

I didn't follow the start of the discussion, so could somebody clarify
if we talk about preprints of papers that

a) possibly have been published in a journal
b) possibly will be published in a journal
c) are exclusively published on the web (making it an online journal)

The questions associated with a) and b) mainly refer to the publishing
policy of printed journals:

a) Is this allowed? The journal owns the copyright. The author typically
may give away copies, but publishing on the web is a step further. How
do different journals handle this? From the user perspective, it's of
course desirable, because not everybody has a well-stocked library in
the same building (or the same city).

b) Will journals accept something that's already on the web as "original 
and unpublished work"?

c) The advantage is that it's faster than going through the refereeing
and publishing process, and there are (rare) cases where more politics is 
involved than science. But won't it attract mainly the trash that would
never make it past the referees? Archimedes Plutonium and friends (if 
you've ever read sci.physics, you know him)? 

I'm not sure if an open rating system would work either. Chances are 
that it will be hijacked by a few opinionated busybodies, while the 
majority of readers don't find time to submit a rating.

  Herbert