Re: holding on a minute

["James W. Beauchamp" <j-beauch@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

On Tue Sep 19 16:51:02 2000  Alexandra Hettergott wrote:
>Finally some heretic remark (worth an expulsion from the list ?) : the
>changes are just about to happen, they do have their clear merits, >yet might be reaching Academia a little later than the rest of the
>world ... (okay, just imagine a fully-reliable (interactively
>peer-reviewed) entirely "electronic" version of some honorable
>scientific periodical -- plus auditory demonstrations accompanying
>the experiments given in the text...).

I don't think this is heretical.  In fact, the Acoustical Society of
America is already moving in this direction by establishing ARLO.
Here is the recent announcement from the ASA:

>Dear ASA Member,
>
>By launching Acoustics Research Letters Online (ARLO), ASA's second
>archival journal, the Society has taken a major step in fulfilling its
>fundamental purpose, to increase and diffuse the knowledge of
>acoustics and promote its practical application.  This is being
>accomplished by introducing an international electronic letters journal
>that uniquely combines rapid review and publication using ASA's new
>online Manuscript Management System.  Infinite dissemination to
>readers with Internet browsers (no subscription fees), acceptance of
>multimedia files (audio, video, computer animations, etc.), and
>archiving, linking, and searching capabilities provided via the Online
>Journal Publishing Service of the American Institute of Physics are the
>other major and unique features of ARLO.
>
>This email broadcast seeks to enlist your support of this new initiative
>in a number of ways.  First, please forward this message to your
>acoustics colleagues.  They are the potential authors, reviewers, and
>readers, and their participation will help to assure the success of
>ARLO.  Second, consider being an author of an ARLO article.  Many
>researchers want to highlight new research results through
>rapid publication of a Letter, and then follow up with a more substantial
>report later.  Such a situation is a natural for our Society, which
>offers ARLO for rapid publication and the Journal of the Acoustical
>Society of America (JASA) for substantial reports.
>
>And lastly, register to be a reviewer for ARLO.  Peer review is
>successful if the quality of the review process is assured.  Most of our
>ARLO editors are also JASA editors, and our reviewers are
>distinguished ASA members.  So please register.
>
>A new web page awaits authors, readers, and reviewers at:
><http://ojps.aip.org/ARLO>.
>Sincerely,
>Katherine S. Harris, ASA President
>Robert E. Apfel, Editor of ARLO
>Allan D. Pierce, ASA Editor-in-Chief

What I didn't realize at first is that ARLO reviews are expected to be
just as rigorous as those for regular journal articles. The only
difference is that the articles must be shorter and the reviews should
be faster. The advantage of being able to attach color diagrams and
sounds is obvious. Hopefully, these articles would have as much "value"
on one's resume' as those in print journals.

Now we have a situation where the regular ASA Journal is increasingly
being disseminated by CD-ROM. Wouldn't it be even more convenient if it
were distributed via the web?  However, what about funding?  Well, if a
password that comes with membership were required for access, that
should solve that problem (except perhaps for hackers). But what about
the statement above that "Infinite dissemination to readers with Internet
browsers (no subscription fees)" is desired? Is the CD-ROM a temporary
situation?

Jim

James W. Beauchamp
Professor Emeritus of Music and Electrical & Computer Engineering
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
2136 Music Bldg. MC-056
1114 W. Nevada, Urbana, IL 61801  USA
email: j-beauch@uiuc.edu
phone: +1-217-344-3307 (also: 217-244-1207 and 217-333-3691)
fax: +1-217-244-4585
WWW:  http://pierre.music.uiuc.edu/~beaucham