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Re: Refereed E-Journals: Priorities BMACLENN@UVMVM.BITNET 10 Oct 1991 03:55 UTC

With the recent publicity surrounding the joint AAAS/OCLC e-journal
venture, _Online Journal of Current Clinical Trials_, a number of items
have crossed my desk and computer screen regarding the impact of this
new medium in the realm of scholarly research and publishing, and the
role of libraries in making this information available to users.  Some
discussion on this topic in past weeks/months has indicated that many
of us are aware that it's only a matter of time until processing of
one, or several, electronic journal subscriptions will be integral
parts of our workflow (if they're not already).

There are two recent articles in _The Chronicle of Higher Education_
(Sept. 25, p. A22, and Oct. 6, p. A27) that are devoted to e-journals.
Also, Stevan Harnad, co-editor of the peer-reviewed e-journal, PSYCOLOQUY,
had a few words to say in response to an AAAS message on PACS-L.  It seems
like relevent serials material, so For your interest, and with Mr. Harnad's
permission, I am appending his comments (including a bibliography)
as they were previously posted on the ARACHNET and LSTOWN-L forums...
Just to keep things in perspective.  Readers might also note that he
cites a forthcoming special issue of _Serials Review_ that will be devoted
to electronic publishing.

Birdie MacLennan
University of Vermont
----------------------------Original message----------------------------
Date: Tue, 8 Oct 91 21:02:39 EDT
From: Stevan Harnad <harnad>
To: PACS-L%UHUPVM1.BITNET@UACSC2.ALBANY.EDU
Subject: Refereed Electronic Journals: Priorities...

> Comments:     Originally-From: "D. A. Thomas" <DATHOMAS@UKANVM.BITNET>
> Subject:      Library managment of online journal
>
> A message [from AAAS] appeared in PACS-L on Sept. 25, concerning the
> upcoming "Online Journal of Current Clinical Trials", to be released in
> April 1992.
>
> True, there are other online journals, but seemingly none of the
> scope of the aforementioned.  In an article in "The New York
> Times", Wednesday, September 25, 1991, Lawrence K. Altman states,
> "Unlike other electronic communications, this will be the first
> whose contributions will be screened by fellow experts before
> appearing on the computer screen."
> ... [passages deleted]
>    1.   The library may, of course, subscribe at $110 per year.
> ...
> Has anyone else asked, "What are the implications of this online
> publication?"  I'm curious to read your comments.
>
> --D. A. Thomas
>   Director of Education/Reference Librarian
>   Archie Dykes Library
>   University of Kansas Medical Center
>   Kansas City, Kansas  66103

The implications of refereed electronic journals are (at least in my
view) nothing short of revolutionary. I fervently hope that the
revolution will be hastened, not retarded, by the fact that the first
high profile venture in this domain has chosen to regard the early
days of the new medium as a "race" (as described in the recent [Sept. 11]
Chronicle of Higher Education article), and one in which they were the
first, when in reality other peer-reviewed electronic journals have
pre-dated both that AAAS journal and the (inconsequentially) earlier,
likewise peer-reviewed electronic journal, PSYCOLOQUY, co-edited by
Perry London and myself, sponsored by the APA (American Psychological
Association), and available to libraries and individuals for free.

[Note:  The Chronicle of Higher Ed., Sept. 11 article includes a
sidebar citing 6 peer-reviewed e-journals, including PSYCOLOQUY,
with annotations as to their content & info. on how to contact them. -Birdie]

As a start on the literature about the scholarly implications,
priorities and precursors of the new medium, you might try:

Harnad S. (1991, forthcoming) Interactive Publication: Extending the
American Physical Society's Discipline-Specific Model for Electronic
Publishing. Serials Review (Special Issue on Economic Models for
Electronic Publishing).

Harnad, S. (1991) Post-Gutenberg Galaxy: The Fourth Revolution in the
Means of Production of Knowledge. Public-Access Computer Systems (PACS)
Review 2 (1) Special Section on "Electronic Serials on Bitnet."

Harnad, S. (1990) Scholarly Skywriting and the Prepublication Continuum
of Scientific Inquiry. Psychological Science 1: 342 - 343.

Harnad, S. (1986) Reviewing the Reviewers. Review of S. Lock,
A difficult balance: Peer review in biomedical publication, Nature.

Harnad, S. (1985) Rational disgreement in peer review. Science,
Technology and Human Values 10: 55 - 62.

Harnad, S. (1984) Commentary on Garfield: Anthropology journals: What
they cite and what cites them. Current Anthropology 25: 521 - 522.

Harnad, S. (1984) Commentaries, opinions and the growth of scientific
knowledge. American Psychologist 39: 1497 - 1498.

Harnad, S. (ed.) (1982) Peer commentary on peer review: A case study in
scientific quality control. New York: Cambridge University Press.

Harnad, S. (1979) Creative disagreement. The Sciences.  19: 18 - 20.

----------------------------------------------

Stevan Harnad
Behavioral & Brain Sciences
20 Nassau Street, Rm 240
Princeton NJ 08542