Paul Ginsparg writes > of course i conducted consultations with the affected scientists before > doing anything.
The importance of this point can not be overemphasized. Since 1993 I have worked on the Internet distribution of preprints in Economics. I think that the system that has resulted from that, called RePEc, is now, after arXive.org, the second largest preprint source. The concepts behind RePEc are very different from what I perceive are the principles behind arXive.org. Of course all scientists need to disseminate their research results. All disciplines have books, journals conferences etc. But behind that there are many subtle differences between disciplines. Any attempt to introduce an electronic dissemination system in a discipline must depart from a knowledge of the special circumstances in a given discipline. As an outsider that is probably best done through listening to the discussions of the insiders in the pub. An electronic system will start in parallel to established dissemination system. It must therefore be designed such as to minimize the extra cost on discipline insiders. Ideally it should make it easier for those who are involved in dissemination to perform the tasks that they are already doing. p.s. Note that these remarks should not be regarded as a comment on the NIH proprosal, they simply sum up the experience of my six years of work in this area. Thomas Krichel http://gretel.econ.surrey.ac.uk RePEc:per:1965-06-05:thomas_krichel
