Jerry Thomas (jerry at ruucj1.chem.ruu.nl) wrote:
[Laura Morris' query and Barry Hardy's reply deleted]
> I would like to have a lot more public input into the issues raised by
> Laura in her posting *and* into the final nature and format of EGC-1.
>> We have in the electronic format the opportunity to create a more
> interactive and democratic forum for scientific discourse. Perhaps we
> can begin to take advantage of this opportunity in the early stages
> of planning.
I would welcome input, and I'm sure Barry will as well.
> Some questions for consideration are:
>> Is EGC-1 going to be a meeting in the conventional sense, and if so, why
> must submissions be 'refereed'?
I would say that EGC-1 will be a meeting (due to the Virtual
Conference Centre) and a prelude for an 'acceptable' form of
publication. The papers will not be refereed until the conference has
begun - thus they can be discussed freely, before referees write
their reports and authors submit final papers. The publication of
final papers in a refereed form should result in a conference
book/CD-ROM which will be seen to be of a quality that would be
expected from a normal journal. We are also considering whether
posters should form part of the conference as well.
> Who are these referees and how will they be chosen?
Section conveners will be best placed to select referees from among
the contributors to the conference. Barry and I have discussed the
possibility that one 'senior' referee and one 'unknown' (postdoc or
postgrad) referee should be selected per paper. Such a scheme would
1) be seen to 'guarantee' the legitmacy of the refereeing process,
yet 2) involve new people.
> Can we consider alternatives to conventional peer review, e.g.
> non-anonymous reviews, published reviews, etc.
We certainly could. At least a note to indicate who had refereed a
certain paper may make the process more transparent. The mailing list
and conference centre discussions should be seen as being important
forums during the conference - the idea is that papers will be
discussed in public and that transcripts will be archived.
> What is the purpose of publishing the submissions in a paper journal?
Accessibility. With significant but decreasing numbers not with
access to 1) World Wide Web or 2) CD-ROM, we still have to take into
account the widest possible dissemination of the final papers.
EGC-1 is an experiment in terms of using the Internet as an integral
part of the normal process of scientific conferencing and publishing.
We can't be sure how it will work out. But the more questions raised
by the glycoscience community the better - so that EGC-1 is maximally
used and useful. Barry took part in the Electronic Computational
Chemistry Conference and many of his ideas are based on his
experiences and on how the conference was arranged.
I hope I have accounted for some of the points in the EGC-1
announcement - but I am sure more questions have been raised. I hope
that there will be more feedback on EGC-1 in the newsgroup. And, of
course, keep sending in those pre-registration forms.
Iain
---------------------------------------------------------------
Iain Wilson Institut fuer Chemie
Tel: 43-1-47654-6065 Universitaet fuer Bodenkultur
Fax: 43-1-310-5176 Gregor-Mendel-Strasse 33
E-mail: wilson at edv1.boku.ac.at A-1180, WIEN, Austria
http://www-bprc.mps.ohio-state.edu/cgi-bin/hpp/iain_wilson.html
