Idea for a publishing model Steve Black 07 Jun 2000 15:28 UTC
I have this idea for a process of publishing papers in our own field of librarianship, that might also work for other fields: 1. Author submits paper to a moderated listserv (like this one). 2. Moderators choose the papers they feel worthwhile, along with other worthwhile items like summaries of responses to a queries, and post them to a preprint archive. Moderators could also combine the individual posts of an insightful thread into one item, and put it into the archive. 3. Editors of journals monitor the preprint archive, and contact the authors whose papers they are interested in publishing. (Conference program committees could refer to it, as well). 4. Author may respond to publisher and formally submit the paper for the normal peer review and editing process. (And/or accept an invitation to speak at a conference). 5. When the reviewed and edited paper has been published, a note is added to the preprint to inform readers of the published version. I see several potential advantages of this model. First, existing list discussions would be enhanced, without hurting the free, informal flow of information we now have. Second, the valuable middle category of information that is based on some investigation, but doesn't make the grade of a full-blown paper, would be more widely available. Some of those are available in listserv archives now, but a second level of selection by moderators would improve access to the good stuff. This system should also encourage the posting to lists of some more in-depth information than is now the norm. By putting papers into a pool accessible to many editors, it should be easier to match an author with the best journal for his/her paper. Picking the right journal to submit to is a gamble, even when the author has good knowledge of the publications. Editors would have a larger pool to select from, relative to having to wait for whatever comes in the mail. This model would not prevent authors from sending a paper to one journal as is done now, but it would add another option. We could probably get by with fewer published journals, since the second tier of papers would be available in the online archive. The published journals could be reserved for what journal editors consider to be the very best stuff. If a good paper is overlooked, it will still be available in the online archive. The main drawback I see right off is that there would be significantly more work for list moderators. They should be compensated, but how? Also, there would be uncertainty in the rank & tenure process of how to count works that make the archive, but aren't picked up by a journal. Steve Black Reference,Instruction, and Serials Librarian Neil Hellman Library The College of Saint Rose 392 Western Avenue Albany, NY 12203 blacks@mail.strose.edu (518) 458-5494