Friday, March 09, 2001, 3:03:55 PM, Jim Mouw wrote:

JM>  OK - I'll fire the first volley.  I have seen a couple of other
JM> announcements about this and a host of other new highly-specialized
JM> Haworth Press journals.

And here is my volley, previously made on some lists, perhaps this
one.

JM>  I personally find this extreme splintering journals to be not only
JM> unfortunate, but actually absurd.  To begin a number of new titles at the
JM> very time when well established journals are having a difficult time
JM> obtaining papers to publish is illogical.  The "number and format of
JM> serial information" may have exploded, but no one is writing about it, and
JM> there are several existing options for publication if any are written.

Absolutely right.  This one is right up there with Australasian
Journal of Serials Librarianship  (or some such title).  I still don't
know whether they check in serials upside down in the Southern
Hemisphere, or what else makes them any different from the rest of us.
Certainly other serials-related journals have published quality
articles from that part of the world.  Such a title MIGHT make a
little sense if it were being published by a publisher in .au or .nz,
but it isn't.

JM>  I would welcome comments from Haworth as to their reasoning behind the
JM> establishment of this and other recently announced journals, and who they
JM> think is going to buy them.

This will undoubtedly also be available as separate "monographs" with
the usual minimal notice that it is identical to an issue of the
journal.  I wonder how many libraries have purchased a "monograph"
without realizing that they already hold it in the journal collection.
Of course it makes a few more bucks for Haworth, and another entry in
the vita for the authors/editors who need to pad the vita.

After my last flame I got some emails from Haworth folks asking why I
wouldn't even think of publishing anything in one of their journals.
These are a few of the reasons.

dan

--
Dan Lester, Data Wrangler  dan@RiverOfData.com
3577 East Pecan, Boise, Idaho  83716-7115 USA
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