ELECTRONIC SCIENTIFIC, TECHNICAL, AND MEDICAL JOURNAL PUBLISHING AND ITS IMPLICATIONS
PROCEEDINGS OF A SYMPOSIUM
THE NATIONAL ACADEMIES PRESS
Washington, D.C.
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NOTICE: The project that is the subject of this report was approved by the Governing Board of the National Research Council, whose members are drawn from the councils of the National Academy of Sciences, the National Academy of Engineering, and the Institute of Medicine. The members of the committee responsible for the report were chosen for their special competences and with regard for appropriate balance.
Support for this project was provided by the National Academy of Sciences through an unnumbered internal grant. Any opinions, findings, conclusions, or recommendations expressed in this publication are those of the author(s) and symposium speakers and do not necessarily reflect the views of the organizations or agencies that provided support for the project.
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THE NATIONAL ACADEMIS
Advisers to the Nation on Science, Engineering, and Medicine
The National Academy of Sciences is a private, nonprofit, self-perpetuating society of distinguished scholars engaged in scientific and engineering research, dedicated to the furtherance of science and technology and to their use for the general welfare.Upon the authority of the charter granted to it by the Congress in 1863, the Academy has a mandate that requires it to advise the federal government on scientific and technical matters. Dr. Bruce M. Alberts is president of the National Academy of Sciences.
The National Academy of Engineering was established in 1964, under the charter of the National Academy of Sciences, as a parallel organization of outstanding engineers. It is autonomous in its administration and in the selection of its members, sharing with the National Academy of Sciences the responsibility for advising the federal government. The National Academy of Engineering also sponsors engineering programs aimed at meeting national needs, encourages education and research, and recognizes the superior achievements of engineers. Dr. Wm. A. Wulf is president of the National Academy of Engineering.
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The National Research Council was organized by the National Academy of Sciences in 1916 to associate the broad community of science and technology with the Academy’s purposes of furthering knowledge and advising the federal government. Functioning in accordance with general policies determined by the Academy, the Council has become the principal operating agency of both the National Academy of Sciences and the National Academy of Engineering in providing services to the government, the public, and the scientific and engineering communities. The Council is administered jointly by both Academies and the Institute of Medicine. Dr. Bruce M. Alberts and Dr. Wm. A. Wulf are chair and vice chair, respectively, of the National Research Council.
STEERING COMMITTEE ON ELECTRONIC SCIENTIFIC, TECHNICAL, AND MEDICAL JOURNAL PUBLISHING AND ITS IMPLICATIONS
EDWARD H. SHORTLIFFE (Chair),
Columbia University Medical Center
DANIEL ATKINS,
University of Michigan
FLOYD BLOOM,
The Scripps Research Institute
JANE GINSBURG,
Columbia University School of Law
CLIFFORD LYNCH,
The Coalition for Networked Information
JEFFREY MACKIE-MASON,
University of Michigan
ANN OKERSON,
Yale University
MARY WALTHAM, Publishing Consultant
Principal Project Staff
Paul Uhlir, Project Director
Alan Inouye, Senior Program Officer
Julie Esanu, Program Officer
Robin Schoen, Program Officer
Kevin Rowan, Project Associate
Amy Franklin, Senior Program Assistant
COMMITTEE ON SCIENCE, ENGINEERING, AND PUBLIC POLICY
MAXINE F. SINGER (Chair),
Carnegie Institution of Washington
R. JAMES COOK,
Washington State University
HAILE T. DEBAS,
University of California, San Francisco
MARYE ANNE FOX,
North Carolina State University
ELSA M. GARMIRE,
Dartmouth College
MARY-CLAIRE KING,
University of Washington
W. CARL LINEBERGER,
University of Colorado
ANNE C. PETERSEN,
W. K. Kellogg Foundation
CECIL B. PICKETT,
Schering-Plough Research Institute
GERALD M. RUBIN,
Howard Hughes Medical Institute
EDWARD H. SHORTLIFFE,
Columbia University Medical Center
HUGO F. SONNENSCHEIN,
The University of Chicago
IRVING L. WEISSMAN,
Stanford University, School of Medicine
SHEILA WIDNALL,
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
MARY LOU ZOBACK, U.S.
Geological Survey
Staff
Richard E. Bissell, Executive Director
Deborah D. Stine, Associate Director
Marion E. Ramsey, Administrative Associate
PREFACE
The use of the Internet and other digital information technologies by the scientific, technical, and medical (STM) research community in the United States and most other countries has transformed many aspects of the research and publishing process. The new technologies have created fundamental changes in the production, management, dissemination, and use of all types of information. It is now possible to communicate research results much more quickly, broadly, and openly than was possible through traditional print publications in the past. Researchers are now able to make available independently their data and articles online, where the information may be easily found, browsed, annotated, critiqued, downloaded, and freely shared. This is resulting in significant changes to the linear path of writing, refereeing, and reviewing of publications as all these functions can be performed concurrently. Most STM publishers also now publish electronic versions of their journals, some exclusively so. The technological developments and resulting changes to the sociology of science are creating both opportunities and challenges for the effective management of scientific communication generally, and STM publishing more specifically.
Because of the far-reaching implications of these developments, the National Academy of Sciences Council’s Committee on Publications recommended that the council commission a study of the factors involved in the changing mechanisms for access to STM information in the scholarly publications and the various technical, legal, policy, and economic issues that they raise. The committee indicated that it is imperative for the National Academies to address, in particular, the increasing concerns about the implications of various models for access to STM publications for the scientific community.
As a result, the Committee on Science, Engineering, and Public Policy was asked to appoint a committee to oversee the planning for the Symposium on Electronic Scientific, Technical, and Medical Journal Publishing and Its Implications, which was held May 19-20, 2003, at the National Academy of Sciences in Washington, D.C. The symposium brought together experts in STM publishing, both producers and users of these publications, to: (1) identify the recent technical changes in publishing, and other factors, that influence the decisions of journal publishers to produce journals electronically; (2) identify the needs of the scientific, engineering, and medical community as users of journals, whether electronic or printed; (3) discuss the responses of not-for-profit and commercial STM publishers and of other stakeholders in the STM community to the opportunities and challenges posed by the shift to electronic publishing; and (4) examine the spectrum of proposals that has been put forth to respond to the needs of users as the publishing industry shifts to electronic information production and dissemination.
The symposium was divided into six sessions, each introduced by opening comments from a moderator, followed by several invited presentations. Session 1 examined the costs involved with the publication of STM journals while Session 2 looked at the related publication business models. Session 3 explored the legal issues in the production and dissemination of these journals. Sessions 4 and 5 looked toward the future and examined, respectively, what is publication in the future and what constitutes a publication in the digital environment. The final session provided several commentaries on the results of the symposium.
This publication presents the Proceedings of the symposium. The speakers’ remarks were taped and transcribed, and subsequently edited. The statements made in the enclosed papers are those of the individual authors and do not necessarily represent the positions of the steering committee or the National Academies. The National Academies hosted a live audio Webcast of the symposium to reach a broad audience and receive additional input. This Webcast can be found on the symposium Web site at: http://www7.nationalacademies.org/cosepup/E-Publishing.html/. A summary report prepared by the symposium committee has been published separately and is available from the National Academies Press.
Edward Shortliffe
Committee Chair
Paul Uhlir
Project Director
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
The Committee on Electronic Scientific, Technical, and Medical Journal Publishing and Its Implications would like to thank the following individuals (in alphabetical order) who made presentations during the symposium (see Appendix A for the final symposium agenda): Hal Abelson, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT); Bruce Alberts, National Academy of Sciences; Kent Anderson, New England Journal of Medicine; Malcolm Beasley, Stanford University; Robert Bovenschulte, American Chemical Society; Monica Bradford, Science; Patrick Brown, Stanford University; Brian Crawford, John Wiley & Sons; James Duderstadt, University of Michigan; Joseph Esposito, SRI Consulting; Michael Jensen, Harvard Business School; Michael Keller, HighWire Press; David Lipman, National Center for Biotechnology Information; Wendy Lougee, University of Minnesota; Richard Luce, Los Alamos National Laboratory; James O’Donnell, Georgetown University; Paul Resnick, University of Michigan; Bernard Rous, Association for Computing Machinery; Alex Szalay, Johns Hopkins University; Gordon Tibbitts, Blackwell Publishing USA; and Ann Wolpert, MIT.
The committee also would like to express its gratitude to the Guidance Group for this project, which was formed under the Committee on Science, Engineering, and Public Policy. Members of that group included James Cook, Washington State University; Paul Torgerson, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University (retired); and Edward Shortliffe, Columbia Presbyterian Medical Center, Columbia University.
This volume has been reviewed in draft form by individuals chosen for their technical expertise, in accordance with procedures approved by the NRC’s Report Review Committee. The purpose of this independent review is to provide candid and critical comments that will assist the institution in making its published report as sound as possible and to ensure that the report meets institutional standards for quality. The review comments and draft manuscript remain confidential to protect the integrity of the process.
We wish to thank the following individuals for their review of selected papers: Martin Blume, American Physical Society; Karen Hunter, Elsevier Health Services; Justin Hughes, Cardozo Law School; James Neal, Columbia University; Andrew Odylzko, University of Minnesota; and Carol Tenopir, University of Tennessee at Knoxville.
Although the reviewers listed above have provided constructive comments and suggestions, they were not asked to endorse the content of the individual papers. Responsibility for the final content of the papers rests with the individual authors.
Finally, the committee would like to recognize the contributions of the following National Research Council staff. Paul Uhlir, director of the Office of International Scientific and Technical Information Programs, was the project director for the symposium and principal editor of the committee’s report; Julie Esanu, program officer for the Office of International Scientific and Technical Information Programs, helped organize the symposium and edit the report; Alan Inouye, interim director of the Computer Science and Telecommunications Board, and Robin Schoen, program officer for the Board on Life Sciences, provided advice on the project; and Kevin Rowan, project associate for the Committee on Science, Engineering, and Public Policy provided project support for the May symposium; and Amy Franklin, senior program assistant for the Board on International Scientific Organizations, assisted with the production of this report.
Contents
Introductory Remarks |
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Keynote Address |
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Introductory Comments, |
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Overview of the Costs of Publication, |
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Comments by Panel Participants, |
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Introductory Comments, |
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Comments by Panel Participants, |
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Introductory Comments, |
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Copyright Basics: Ownership and Rights, |
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Licensing, |
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Economic and Non-Economic Rewards to Authors: The Social Science Research Network Example, |
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Introductory Comments, |
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Implications of Emerging Recommender and Reputation Systems, |
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Preprint Servers and Extensions to Other Fields, |
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Institutional Repositories, |
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Introductory Remarks, |
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The Signal Transduction Knowledge Environment, |
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Publishing Large Data Sets in Astronomy—The Virtual Observatory, |
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Genomic Data Curation and Integration with the Literature, |
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Moderator’s Overview, |
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Comments by Panel Participants, |
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Closing Remarks, |