To All, I thought this ecolog announcement interesting in the light of the recent spate of articles on peer review and the current state of scientific literature. On one hand, it seems hard to criticize an attempt to spark communication by providing a formal outlet for presenting new ideas. But I do want to comment that scientific publishing has often made more demands on a scientist than that he come up with a new idea. It has also demanded that he provide some data with which his peers might judge the idea. Ideas are indeed fun but data is hard to come by. I know all of the arguments about a paper sparking lots of research but ask you to remember that an attractive idea might also spark lots of futile research and that ideas sometimes get into the "cannon" without any, or a bare minimum, of support (think of the broken stick model or the Hutchinson's ratio). So, I guess my question is what need is this new journal fulfilling (honest replies only) and what might be the cost/benefit ratio in the long run. Finally, do we credit a new idea to the first to discuss it in such a forum or to the first to demonstrate that it has some support in nature?
Phil Ganter Biology Department Tennessee State University On 12/5/08 9:18 AM, "Lonnie Aarssen" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: QUEEN'S UNIVERSITY AT KINGSTON ANNOUNCES A NEW JOURNAL: IDEAS IN ECOLOGY AND EVOLUTION - a new open-access model dedicated to the rapid release of creativity in peer-review publication. IEE publishes only short forum-style articles that develop new ideas or that involve original commentaries dealing with any topic in the broad domains of ecology and evolution. Articles may have an applied or fundamental focus, they may encompass any level of biological organization, and may involve any taxa, including humans. Articles may address specialized audiences within particular recognized sub-disciplines of ecology or evolution, or they may be broadly pitched to a more general audience, including articles that aim to inform fields of study outside of biology. All articles will share conceptual foundation in the core principles of ecology and evolution studied by biologists. IEE provides a rapidly published repository for cutting-edge novel thinking and opinion-pieces - combining the speed of blog-style communication with formal peer-review credit. As a reliable source of inspiration, the journal aims to play a leading role in guiding the direction and progress of both future research and public awareness in ecology and evolution. Please visit the newly launched website: <http://library.queensu.ca/ojs/index.php/IEE><http://library.queensu.ca/ojs/index.php/IEE>http://library.queensu.ca/ojs/index.php/IEE Direct link to the opening editorial: <http://library.queensu.ca/ojs/index.php/IEE/article/view/1949/2053><http://library.queensu.ca/ojs/index.php/IEE/article/view/1949/2053>http://library.queensu.ca/ojs/index.php/IEE/article/view/1949/2053 Lonnie Aarssen Editor Lonnie W. Aarssen Professor Dept. of Biology Queen's University Kingston, ON Canada, K7L 3N6 Campus Office: Room 4326, Biosciences Complex email: [EMAIL PROTECTED] web: http://biology.queensu.ca/%7Eaarssenl/ tel: 613-533-6133 fax: 613-533-6617
