NS11.2 COLLOQUIUM ON INFORMATION FUTURES IN THE ACADEMIC WORK- PLACE, Linda Reida
Stevan Harnad, Editor, PSYCOLOQUY, HARNAD@PRINCETON.EDU; and Betty Sawyers, Ohio State University, SAWYERS@MAGNUS.ACS.OHIO- STATE.EDU.
[The first part of this contribution, by Harnad, appeared on SERIALST.]
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 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 EDUCATION, Sept. 11 article includes a sidebar citing 6 peer-reviewed e-journals, including PSYCOLOQUY, with annotations as to their content & information on how to contact them.- SERIALST Editor]
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.
[End of SERIALST message.]
Here is some more background information:
The exact quote (from Pat Margan of AAAS) was "It's a race. We want to be first." Then in the AAAS/OCLC Press Release of September 24, 1991, Richard Nicholson, AAAS executive officer and the journal's publisher is quoted as saying (of the new journal, which is "slated to appear in April 1992") that it "will combine the rigorous standards of the most prestigious research journals with the immediacy of online technology, making it the first scientific journal to do so," followed by a quote from the new journal's editor, Edward J. Huth (not necessarily with the same intent) that "Unlike scientific bulletin boards and databases, CURRENT CLINICAL TRIALS will publish only findings that have passed the process known as peer review, in which research articles are screened by scientists before they are published."
Now, I think I won't be the only one who finds Nicholson's statement simply incorrect (although "first...most prestigious" does leave the matter in a subjective maze of superlatives), but, more important in my view, it also has the priorities all wrong: Assertions of priority are not a priority at this time; producing high quality peer reviewed electronic journals is (and several of us have been at work doing that since well before April 22, 1992), together with actively exploring and developing the unique capabilities of the new medium and working to attract readers and authors to it. I even have a conjecture as to why AAAS/OCLC are beating the drums so fervently about beside-the- point horse-race issues: Because they want to put a hefty price tag on their electronic journal (having presumably already invested a lot in it, much of it, apparently, toward emulating the familiar look and feel of a print journal). In that they are certainly the first.
But there are some of us who hope that the economies of the new medium will be such that electronic journals will not just be "priced competitively with print journals" but that they will either be available free, or only for the true cost of producing them. (The APA, which subsidizes the electronic journal I co-edit, PSYCOLOQUY, has provided an annual start-up budget of $10,000. If and when they elect to recover that from subscriptions, it translates, at the current (very conservative) estimate of 2500 individual subscribers, to $4 per subscriber per year! If the number of subscribers were augmented by the number of libraries and institutions I expect will soon subscribe, the unit price would go down to well below $1 per annum.) And striving to duplicate the look and feel of print journals may not be the optimal way of exploiting the unique potential of the new medium, or even of attracting authors and readers: That's an empirical question.
Let me close by appending a recent exchange with a librarian who subscribed (free) to PSYCOLOQUY, in which I make some suggestions as to what libraries might do to promote the use of the new medium.
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Date: Tue, 8 Oct 91 16:38:30 EDT
From: Betty Sawyers
Subject: Back issues of Psycoloquy
I have today placed a subscription to Psycoloquy for the OSU Libraries, and
acquired the available back issues from the ftp source at Princeton.
Volume 2, issue 6 was not present. Is this an oversight, or is it
truly not available?
In addition, the file identified as volume 1, issues 1-7, I thought
would contain seven issues, but can only identify 3. The first of
these contains 7 articles beginning with Sleep Disorders Centers:
Query; the second has 3 articles beginning with Affiliative and Sexual
Differences in Rhesus Monkeys; and the third has 5 articles beginning
with Discussion on Cultural Systems. I realize that these early issues
contained no volume/issue identification, but wondered if you could
tell me which of the first 7 these 3 are. I'm also interested in knowing if
the remaining 4 issues are available.
Betty Sawyers
-----
Dear Ms Sawyers,
I have forwarded your query to the Assistant Editor in charge of archiving,
Dr. Malcolm Bauer, who will reply to you directly. Let me only add that
PSYCOLOQUY is still in its formative stage and is undergoing changes as the
new medium evolves -- changes of format as well as content. We will
remain flexible until it becomes clear that we've reached a provisional
optimum. The submission rate is also just beginning to rise, so it is very
likely that there were gaps in the early issues as we do not archive the
Newsletter sections (which contain dated announcements, conference
notices, tech report availability notices, employment announcements,
etc.), only the refereed journal sections.
Congratulations on taking the initiative to subscribe to PSYCOLOQUY
for the OSU system. The libraries will be valuable collaborators in
developing this new medium, making it available, and demonstrating its
(in my opinion revolutionary) potential. If I may make one suggestion:
Don't emphasize the old features of paper publication by focusing on
the hard copies. Rather, make PSYCOLOQUY and other new electronic
journals readily available to your users through public access terminals
similar to your catalogue searching terminals that allow users to access
them electronically, preferably in a friendly Usenet format. (PSYCOLOQUY
is also available as the moderated Usenet group: sci.psychology.digest --
a first approximation format I would urge the libraries to consider
provisionally adopting.)
Sincerely,
Stevan Harnad
Editor, PSYCOLOQUY
-------
Date: Fri, 11 Oct 91 13:58:07 EDT
From: Betty Sawyers
To: harnad@princeton.edu, tuttle
Subject: Electronic Journals
We at OSU totally concur with your desire to have libraries and others
take advantage of the technology rather than converting the information
to hard copy. At OSU we are making electronic journals and newsletters
available electronically over OSU's campus-wide information service as a
joint effort of University Libraries and Academic Computing Services. Those
titles that we categorize as "journals" contain substantive articles or
works of fiction that are refereed. For these titles, all current and
back issues will be accessible online. Those categorized as "newsletters"
generally contain news of topical interest to an audience in a particular
subject area; only the most current issues of these titles will be
available online.
All electronic journals and newsletters will have entries in the Libraries'
online catalog, indicating that they are considered a part of the
Libraries' collections, but they will be accessed through the campus-wide
information network operated by Academic Computing Services. Thus, the
location shown for a psychology journal published in print form will be
the Education/Psychology Library (EDU), and the location shown for
PSYCOLOQUY will be the campus-wide information service (CWS).
We presently have the current issues of five journals and five newsletters
available for the campus community to access. By the end of next week we
plan to add more titles (including PSYCOLOQUY) and make all available
back issues of the journals available. The menu for journals now shows
the title and issue identification of one issue each of five titles. In
the format to which we'll be moving next week, the user will be first
presented with a menu of titles through which s/he can page forward and
backward. When a title is selected, a listing of all available issues in
inverse chronological order (i.e., most recent issue first) will be
displayed; again it will be possible to page forward and backward through
the list.
Once an issue has been selected, it can be viewed using software that
will allow paging forward and backward, as well as searching for particular
character strings. Thus if a table of contents is included in a journal,
the reader can search for a character string from the title or an
author's name and proceed directly to that article without having to page
through the issue to reach it.
Our intent is to handle these titles exactly as we would titles in the
more traditional print format in all areas except method of access.
Here we will take advantage of their unique technological characteristics
by providing electronic access rather than converting them to print form.
In all other respects they will follow the same procedures and be recorded
in files and catalogs just as are titles received in print form.
NS11.2 COLLOQUIUM ON INFORMATION FUTURES IN THE
ACADEMIC WORKPLACE
Linda Reida, Western Carolina University, Cullowhee NC,
ELLERN@WCUVAX1.BITNET.
Exciting the academic community about the information future was the
goal of "Turning the Corner," a colloquium sponsored by Hunter Library
at Western Carolina University in September. Instigated by Serials
Librarian Mary Youmans, the meeting attracted 52 teaching faculty, 20
academic administrators and 40 library staff members from WCU and
surrounding institutions of higher education.
Dr. Richard Rowe, President of Faxon, spoke on the present and future
impact of the information explosion on universities and libraries. He
described how tenure and accreditation standards have burdened libraries
with collections judged on size instead of use or usefulness. Having
items on the shelves "just in case" someone, someday might need or use
them can no longer be supported. Information technologies will enable
libraries to shift emphases from their collections to their ability to
provide access to information regardless of where it is. Researchers will
become accustomed to online document delivery services, receiving information
"just in time" to suit their needs.
When asked how accrediting agencies could be persuaded to change standards
which are based on the size of the collection, Dr. Rowe replied, "Just
say no." He advised libraries and academic units to create their own
standards of excellence based on access, use, and whatever is pertinent to a
particular program of study, then determine ways to measure the effectiveness
of their standards. This documentation would be given to the accrediting
agencies in lieu of numbers of titles and volumes.
Also speaking was George Brett of the Microelectronic Center of North
Carolina. He described the information infrastructure in North Carolina, some
of which is not available in the western part of the state.
William J. Kirwan, WCU University Librarian, saw the colloquium as a
crucial step in pressing for faster implementation of technologies on
campus and in the region. As one consequence of the meeting, some
faculty who are still reeling from heavy periodical cuts have expressed an
eagerness to explore online searching and document delivery services.
The mailbox is: TUTTLE@UNC.BITNET.
>From Susan Cady, Lehigh University Libraries, SCAO@NS.CC,LEHIGH.EDU:
[From editorial board member Deana Astle, DLAST@CLEMSON.BITNET: I am
particularly intrigued by the exemption made in the California sales
tax on journals. If only those journals with advertising which are
published by commercial firms are taxed, imagine the recordkeeping!
TIME, NEWSWEEK, etc. would be taxed, while the JOURNAL OF THE AMERICAN
CHEMICAL SOCIETY wouldn't. And we thought agents' bills were complex
already!]
>From Peter Graham, Rutgers University, GRAHAM@ZODIAC.BITNET:
>From Lois Pausch, University of Illinois Urbana/Champaign, PAUSCH@UIUCVMD.
BITNET:
>From John Clouston, University of Western Ontario, CLOUSTON@LIB.UWO.CA:
>From Barbara Loomis, University of Illinois Champaign/Urbana, LOOMBAR@
UIUCVMD.Bitnet:
>From Joe Pukl, University of South Carolina, D020185@UNIVSCVM.BITNET:
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Readers of the NEWSLETTER ON SERIALS PRICING ISSUES are
encouraged to share the information in the newsletter by
electronic or paper methods. We would appreciate credit if you
quote from the newsletter.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
The NEWSLETTER ON SERIALS PRICING ISSUES (ISSN: 1046-3410) is
published by the editor as news is available. Editor: Marcia
Tuttle, BITNET: TUTTLE@UNC.BITNET; Faxon's DataLinx: TUTTLE;
Paper mail: Serials Department, C.B. #3938 Davis Library,
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill NC
27599-3938; Telephone: 919 962-1067; FAX: 919 962-0484. Editorial
Board: Deana Astle (Clemson University), Jerry Curtis (Springer
Verlag New York), Charles Hamaker (Louisiana State University),
James Mouw (University of Chicago), and Heather Steele
(Blackwell's Periodicals Division). The Newsletter is available
on BITNET and ALANET. EBSCO and Readmore Academic customers may
receive the Newsletter in paper format from EBSCO and Readmore,
respectively. Back issues of the Newsletter are available
electronically free of charge through BITNET from the editor.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
News is beginning to filter out among private college and university
libraries in Pennsylvania that the state's new 6 percent periodical
tax will apparently apply to all of their purchases of periodicals
published with quarterly or greater frequency. This is a low blow on
top of all the other serial pricing problems. The act imposes a 6
percent periodical tax on "the purchase price on each separate sale
at retail of a periodical and upon each separate mail-order
subscription for a periodical." Although most private academic
institutions are exempt from sales tax, this law states that other
than the governmental exemption and the resale exemption, none of
the sales tax exemptions or exclusions shall apply to this tax.
Efforts are underway on a number of fronts, including the Pennsylvania
Library Association, to change this situation.
On the other hand, there's a little good news from California by way
of Jim Thompson, University of California, Riverside, THOMPSON@UCR.
BITNET:
Flash -- Gov. Wilson (Ca.) has signed a bill exempting library
journal subscriptions from the state sales tax (applied to journals
this year as part of a budget-crisis package) PROVIDING the
journals have no commercial advertizing or are published by nonprofit
publishers.
Hamaker noted [in NS 9] some articles he found useful in a
recent issue of AUSTRALIAN & NEW ZEALAND JOURNAL OF SERIALS
LIBRARIANSHIP. I have always considered this title a good
example of serials inflation, i.e., a journal that is going
after a market instead of responding to a real need. But I
don't know the journal; is Charles suggesting by his note
that it is in fact quite worthwhile? The Haworth journals
tend to be pricey, be aimed at very precise niches in the
semi-professions, and to have editorial boards that approach
integral percentage points of subscription lists.
Hamaker, NOTCAH@LSUVM.BITNET, replies:
Thanks for your query re the Haworth journal. I am not at
all suggesting it is a good journal. However, since we have
some Australian librarians who get the Newsletter, if those
articles are any good, we should have a summary of them. I
was really trying to get to people who don't contribute to
the newsletter.
After re-checking my figures several times, it now appears
that the increase for Pergamon journals in Geology will be
approximately 37.9 percent. This is appalling considering
that the projected increases in all types of journals for
1992 was somewhere between 8 percent and 10 percent. How are
libraries going to be able to afford this kind of increase
if all other publishers' prices go up even at the lower
rate? I do have to qualify this by saying that the prices
of those journals priced in dollars only going up between 15
percent to 24 percent, but even those are too high. Also,
one of the journals on the list was listed as "status
unknown" last year and the comparison price I used was from
1989, but still???
The University of Western Ontario will be undertaking
serials cancellations worth $450,000 next year. Since misery
loves company, I'd be interested in knowing whether the
magnitude of our project is unusual, or if other mid-sized
institutions (ca. 25,000 students) are contemplating
anything similar, and, if so, what dollar value you are
targetting. This year we are basing our targets for the 7
library systems differentially on a maximum serials/
monographs ratio by discipline, since we felt that flat
across-the-board percentage reductions were penalizing the
low-cost libraries, which had to cancel proportionately more
titles from already decimated serials lists to make up their
albeit lower targets. I'd also be interested in learning of
other libraries' approaches to apportioning targets among
libraries and disciplines.
We have recently been notified that the JOURNAL OF IMAGING
SCIENCE, which cost $80 and had 6 issues/year, and the
JOURNAL OF IMAGING TECHNOLOGY, which cost $80 and had 6
issues/year, are now going to merge into one title, the
JOURNAL OF IMAGING SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY, with 6 issues/
year, for $120. At a practical level, we save $40 per
year, but actually the cost of this journal has increased by
50 percent.
As is rampant in our society as a whole, the packaging
remains the same, but the ingredient inside becomes smaller.
I suppose that if the person who won the contest years ago
by a razor blade company on a way to increase its profits
and sales had not won with his suggestion, someone else
somewhere would have come up with the same idea. To increase
sales reduce your package of 24 razor blades to 20 at the
same price. Many of these 'increased' issues are smaller
than prior issues. We are paying more for less. I do not
think I am imagining this. Many of these increased issue
journals have a smaller number of pages in their issues.
We were very skeptical about Pergamon's new pricing policy
and its effect on our materials budget. Despite Kim
Cavellero's assurances that the price of the average package
would not be higher, I did a study of our Pergamon journals,
the 1991 price that was paid compared to the Pergamon
catalog price converted at L1 = $1.60. The University of
South Carolina's Thomas Cooper Library subscribes to 137
Pergamon titles. To receive the 1991 year for these
subscriptions the Library paid $89,850, but after the policy
change the Library will pay $103,482 for the same titles for
1992. The difference of $13,632 represents a 15.2 percent
increase in price. Pergamon, however, advertised 41 of these
titles, or 29.9 percent, as having a frequency or page-
number increase for 1992.