i have no doubt that many wish said policy changed for a wide range of reasons that have been eloquently(albeit tediously and non-persuasively) argued on these pages. I have substantial doubt that the policy needs to be changed or that the world would somehow be better if it were changed. The great values of electronic publishing can be realized without diminishing quality by simply creating many fully electronic journals that are edited professionally and follow the peer review process diligently and are made available on the internet free of charge to all. Anyone who wishes to read the information on a printed page can furnish their own paper. Some of you presumably know that at www.medscape.com we have been doing this now for two years with www.medgenmed.com and a developing family of eJournals that complement our many other forms of electronic information, all made freely available very rapidly to internet users. What the world does not need(although i grant that it does already have it in many fields in and out of science)is mass produced vanity epresses where anyone at all can be the self-designated author, the editor, and the publisher, all at the same time, and potentially fake the whole thing, to the possible detriment of mislead readers. I have absolutely no interest in censoring the internet, even if it were possible. But i believe readers of biomedical information have a right to be able to reasonably trust at least some sources of such information and be able to determine by label and reputation what has a good chance of being trustworthy because the authors, peer reviewers, editors, and publishers followed accepted time-tested rules. george lundberg
-----Original Message----- From: David Goodman [mailto:[email protected]] Sent: Friday, June 01, 2001 10:43 AM To: [email protected] Subject: Re: PostGutenberg Copyrights and Wrongs for Give-Away Research This is a very clear statement of exactly the policy that Steve and so many of us are urging be changed universally. George Lundberg wrote: > > In the document entitled Uniform Requirements for Manuscripts Submitted to > Medical Journals published by the International Committee of Medical > Journal Editors it is stated that "....electronic publication is > publication....." Most such journals do not wish to consider for > publication a paper that has already been published. Thus an author can > choose the initial method of distribution of written work once only. > george lundberg -- David Goodman Biology Librarian and Co-chair, Electronic Journals Task force Princeton University Library Princeton, NJ 08544-0001 phone: 609-258-3235 fax: 609-258-2627 e-mail: [email protected] ********************************************************************** This email and any files transmitted with it are confidential and intended solely for the use of the individual or entity to whom they are addressed. If you have received this email in error please notify the sender or call Medscape at 877-676-1597. **********************************************************************
