Electronic Expectations: Science Journals on the Web

by Tony Stankus (Editor)

Overview

This book, first published in 1999, analyses the convergence of financial, technical, and public policy considerations that turned what seemed like science fiction twenty years ago into a library fact of life today. It shows that while electronic publication greatly speeds issuance of important scientific results of enduring value, it also has the potential to lower the economic threshold at which crank papers and marginal publications can gain a wide, if sadly misled audience, in the short run. It demonstrates that while scientists invented the web, they no longer control it, and that even the very largest research organizations, libraries, publishers, and journal aggregators, will, to a substantial degree, be at the technological and economic mercy of commercial users of the web.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781000757934
Publisher:	Taylor & Francis
Publication date:	12/06/2019
Series:	Routledge Library Editions: Library and Information Science , #29
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	212
File size:	251 KB

About the Author

Tony Stankus

Table of Contents

1. Introduction Tony Stankus 2. The Key Trends Emerging in the First Decade of Electronic Journals in the Sciences Tony Stankus 3. A Review of the Print Journal System in the Sciences, with Prospects for Improvement in Deficiencies and Costs Through Electronic Publishing: Practices and Attitudes of Publishers and Printers, Librarians, and Scientific Authors Tony Stankus 4. The Business and Technological Warfare Affecting the Internet and Electronic Journals: Terminology of Major Hardware and Software Components and Competing Strategies of Major Players Tony Stankus 5. Electronic Journal Concerns and Strategies of Science Publishers Tony Stankus 6. Electronic Journal Concerns and Strategies for Aggregators: Subscription Services, Indexing/Abstracting Services, and Electronic Bibliographic Utilities Tony Stankus 7. The Best Original Scientific Research, Review, Methods, and Symposia Journals with Their Current Web Addresses Ranked Within Their Primary Subject Category Tony Stankus, Jeanne Marie Clavin and Richard Joslin

Editorial Reviews

Electronic journals are, of course, of great current interest to scientists and librarians alike and serve as a paradigm for the shifts that are occurring in publishing in general. Science librarian Stankus (Coll. of the Holy Cross, Worcester, MA) considers their effect on libraries, aggregator services, publishers, and scientists, but unfortunately this is such a fast-moving field that much of what he writes is already badly out-of-date. He discusses identifiers, for example, without mentioning the Digital Object Identifier, which has been the identifier of choice among publishers for at least two years. He writes about how electronic publishing is affecting interlibrary loan (ILL) without ever mentioning Research Library Group's ARIEL workstations, which are transforming the ILL landscape dramatically. Is it really true, by the way, that libraries use subsidized shuttle buses between campuses as a way of hiding the fact that they are photocopying materials for ILL, as he implies? And how long has it been since CD-ROMs have served as a "stop-gap electronic archive"? Another problem is that, in spite of its title, 40 percent of the book is taken up by a questionable ranking of an out-of-date list of print science journals, and one major chapter is made up of an extensive, detailed history of Microsoft and its competitors. Both of these sections are out of place here. A great part of the author's labor apparently went into the construction of the lengthy, unannotated bibliographies that accompany each chapter. The majority of the works listed there, however, can be found in Charles Bailey's Scholarly Electronic Publishing Bibliography, published free on the web(info.lib.uh.edu/sepb/sepb.html) and routinely updated. The author states in his first chapter that over 300 papers are "cited throughout the volume," yet not a single formal citation exists in his text. This makes it impossible to know the scholarly basis for any of his statements and conclusions, which often seem overbroad. Too often Stankus makes general comments about the attitudes of scientists and librarians concerning one another's behaviors or policies that are little more than speculation and guesswork. Of greater concern, however, is that the text is, as far as this reviewer can tell, completely unedited. There was scarcely a page that didn't have multiple errors in punctuation, syntax, style, or content. This is the fault of the publisher, not the author. Allowing a work to be released in this state--especially since the topic is of such vital concern to librarians--serves neither its author nor the information profession well. Not recommended.--Lloyd Davidson, Seeley G. Mudd Lib. for Science & Engineering, Northwestern Univ., Evanston, IL Copyright 2000 Cahners Business Information.\

Library Journal

Also published as , v.18, nos.2/3 1999. Reviewing the literature broadly related to the rise of electronic journals in the sciences, six essays are directed especially at science librarians in training. Topics include trends in science e-journals, improving print journals through e-journals, soft and hardware relating to e-journals, and strategies for publishers establishing e-journals. Includes an extensive list of websites organized into disciplines such as chemistry, ecology, and zoology. Stankus is science librarian at College of the Holy Cross in Worcester, Mass. (As with other books from this publisher, readers must wade through several pages of advertisements for Haworth Press books before reaching the title page.) Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

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