At 11:47 AM 12/4/2002 +0100, you wrote:
> Hi All: > > I know this is a concern for librarians. But I'm wondering if scholars and > professors also are concerned about the removal of articles from electronic > journals because of plagiarism, fraud, political controversy, or a related > reason. > > If you have any thoughts about this please contact me.
In my view, removing articles from electronic journals for virtually any reason is a bad idea fraught with problems. Journals serve a number of purposes. One of the most important is forming a continually updated authoritative archive of scientific and scholarly knowledge. Every standard format I have run across for referencing electronic material (including electronic journals) includes the date it was accessed. If you think about it, the implications are pretty profound. Our archive of knowledge as we move from a paper system to an electronic one is so unstable it is necessary in referencing it to note the specific day it was accessed. We must find ways to address this problem. The most obvious is a very strong convention that altering, removing and/or changing the location of published material without leaving some sort of clear trail back to the original manuscript is just unacceptable. In my view this should considered a form of scientific misconduct. I suspect this is pretty much the same concern librarians have but it is not just a librarian's problem, it is all our problem. In my view a huge one that undermines the tremendous potential of electronic communication. Medical Education Online A-202 E. Fee Hall MSU E. Lansing, Mi 48824 (517) 353-2037 Voice (517) 432-1798 [email protected]
