electronic publication

[Doug Yanega]

Jurg Sonderegger wrote:

>- Servers and adresses in the Internet and also data formats, programs and
>  computer systems change very rapidly, so that something that's ok and
>  valid today may be lost or useless tomorrow.

This problem is solved by having a formal online journal with a dedicated
website and permanent archives.

>- A document (file) may be changed or corrected, what means that there
>  would be different versions or the document isn't anymore available.

A policy for the journal that either prohibits such alteration or requires
a suffix to identify altered versions (recall that older versions will
still be in the archives) solves this.

>Are there mechanisms or rules (for example for the The World Wide Web
>Journal of Biology) that warrant that a publication will also be
>available, unchanged and readable in 100 years?

Even without being able to predict what the medium of choice will be in 100
years, the answer is still yes. The question is not whether it's possible
to update - no one's going to invent a better medium which is so bizarre
that no extant data can be converted into it - but rather whether the
community of users will be willing to pay to have the archives updated.

>As there are libraries there should also be electronic libraries that
>warrant the safety and stability of publications and make updates if
>necessary.

This is all possible with available tech, and generic data clearinghouses
exist for people without the facilities themselves. You just have to pay
for redundancy and upgrades. Money makes anything possible.

>One possiblity to warrant the stability would be a rule, that an electronic
>publication just gets valid when print-outs of the original version are
>officially deposited in 'X' libraries.

Another possibility is not to recognize any new taxon names as valid unless
the electronic journal has been screened and approved as "code-compatible",
using basically the criteria you suggest above, plus a criterion regarding
peer review. The latter is the bigger problem, frankly.
        I'll also point out that the insistence on print copies would make
it impossible for taxonomists to exploit the full potential of electronic
publication. Suppose in one's description of a new katydid species, you
wish to include a video and sound file of its mating and territorial
defense calls? A holographic file from a confocal laser scope that
illustrates the male genitalia in 3D? You can't print THOSE with ink on
paper, and they would certainly be valuable things to have. *Insisting* on
paper is a ball and chain we can do without.

Peace,


Doug Yanega       Dept. of Entomology           Entomology Research Museum
Univ. of California - Riverside, Riverside, CA 92521
phone: (909) 787-4315
                  http://www.icb.ufmg.br/~dyanega/
  "There are some enterprises in which a careful disorderliness
        is the true method" - Herman Melville, Moby Dick, Chap. 82