For years I have envied the physics community's electronic
publication system (Paul Ginsparg). Biologists can deposit gene
sequences at central repositories, why not the full texts of papers?
Now, Science (March 12th 1999) announces "NIH Weighs Bold Plan for
Online Preprint Publishing" to produce "a one-stop, public source for
biomedical research papers".
Apparently "several proposals" have been drawn up by people such
as Patrick Brown (Stanford) and David Lipman (NCBI). Does anyone have
any thoughts on this? Does anyone know where one can read more on these
proposals? Bionet.journals.note seems an appropriate forum for further
discussion of the matter.
I suspect they will get bogged down in a non-issue... peer-review
"certification" of quality. We are in new ball-park. There is no need
for journal peer-review. There is plenty of space out there for text.
Let the reader's choose with the invaluable help of the numerous
sophisticated search facilities now available.
Sincerely, Donald Forsdyke
