Electronic Publication

[Doug Yanega]

Barry Hammel wrote:

>Bravo! for Peter Rauch's call for a change of focus in this discussion from
>pros and cons of electronic publishing to getting down to the business of
>outlining what we need to do to move, effectively, into this reality.
[several points snipped]
>7.  Everyone so inclined should begin now to put up electronic preprints of
>their articles.
>
>8.  Do we not already have a forum--through announcements on Taxacom of Web
>publications of new species--for boldly stepping into Hugh Wilson's
>intermediate phase as we prepare ourselves and this format to be effective
>and acceptable?

Put up electronic preprints *where*, exactly? Or are you implying that our
own personal or institutional homepages are good enough, if we announce it
here on Taxacom? Let's use a practical example - I have three lectotype
designations and two synonymies for Cerambycidae that will have to be
published in my field guide (due to be printed in June), because there were
no publication options fast enough to precede the guide into print (I only
found out these designations were needed a month ago). If there were an
"electronic journal" already available, I would gladly use it - but there
are none which have any formal validity (i.e., the information would still
be considered unpublished), so would doing so really be worthwhile and
appropriate?
        I guess I'm just a little puzzled as to what real utility the
"intermediate" phase has - if it's not considered a valid publication, what
is my incentive to do it? You've already amply demonstrated with your
Tetranema publication that it *can* be done - but it looks like we'll have
to wait several years to formally alter the Codes (well, at least one year
for the ICZN, and three for the ICBN - has anyone actualy made a formal
proposal yet to the ICZN???), no matter what we are capable of doing now.
Or is the concern that if we don't start doing it simply as an exercise to
get people used to the *idea*, that come revision time, the Committees
won't be willing to accept the change in policy? [WARNING: I am about to
resort to hyperbole, so hold those flames] It's almost as if there is this
unspoken fear that the people controlling the Commissions are faceless,
unyielding technophobes who will take years to convince, if ever, that
electronic publication is acceptable. I certainly doubt this is true.
However, there clearly are strong currents of resistance, yet I don't think
we can have much more convincing evidence than we have now as to how
feasible and desirable the process is, and if it isn't enough *now* to
convince people to change, it likely never will be. If a CD isn't a durable
enough archive, I can't imagine what is going to come along that's much
better. ("Paper!" the naysayers scream...but you can't put recordings of
cricket chirps, cicada songs, and movies of mating behaviors on paper,
guys).
        The only thing I see missing from Barry's list (in terms of what
we've got available to us now) is an electronic journal devoted to
systematics - but the suggestion that "usage comes first and the Code(s)
will follow" essentially presumes that someone would *bother* to publish an
electronic systematics journal that they know has absolutely no formal
recognition. Who would pay for a journal whose contents are all considered
unpublished? If the suggestion is that we should simply start *treating*
electronic pubs as valid and hang the Codes, I doubt that this would find a
consensus agreement! Seems that if we've agreed to live by the Codes, we've
also committed to live with the frustratingly slow process of getting them
revised. Hey! Now *there's* an idea! Let's put the *Codes* on-line, so we
can revise them instantly! >;-)
Sincerely,

Doug Yanega       Illinois Natural History Survey, 607 E. Peabody Dr.
Champaign, IL 61820 USA      phone (217) 244-6817, fax (217) 333-4949
 affiliate, Univ. of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, Dept. of Entomology
          http://www.inhs.uiuc.edu:80/~dyanega/my_home.html
  "There are some enterprises in which a careful disorderliness
        is the true method" - Herman Melville, Moby Dick, Chap. 82