Publish or perish?
Sir, Many Fellows will agree with Don Hallett’s criticism (Soapbox, Geoscientist 24.10 November 2015) of the system of learned journals which has grown up – I won’t say evolved, for evolution surely implies, at least in most cases, some kind of improvement in function. Hallett does not mention the further blight that many journals are produced by international publishing firms whose aim is to make money. Try to find a short cut to a paper on the web and you find that to access the full text you need to pay a fee. Ok, most of us subscribe to libraries which subscribe to many journals, but it’s a pain all the same.
I am encouraged by the fact that most ‘reprints’ that I now receive from friends and colleagues are pdf files. They have probably been published on paper but that doesn’t concern me, I have instant access. Now at least one journal, Palaeoelectronica, is published only electronically. There may be others. My suggestion is that some of the major societies – the GSL, GSA, European societies and a few others – get together to organise electronic publishing centrally. Perhaps divided into series by major parts of Earth sciences. This would be supported by a paid, professional staff who would perhaps be gradually transferred from the printed journals.
There have been predictions for decades that electronic publishing will supersede paper, but it hasn’t. Perhaps the time has come at last. And if the commercial publishers lose out, my heart bleeds for them.
Desmond Donovan