Comment M A new policy on prior publication on the Internet ost editors of scientific journals, including ES&T, have taken the position that prior publication is sufficient cause to reject an article for publication. On the other hand, presentation of a paper at a conference, either verbally or as a poster, is not considered to be prior publication and cause for rejection. Even if an abstract of the paper appeared in a booklet before the meeting, we allow submission of the paper to ES&T without prejudice. Extended abstracts are more of a problem to us, depending on how long they are and how much they duplicate the submitted paper. If distribution is limited, for example to members of a group such as the ACS Division of Environmental Chemistry, we do not usually limit publication of the full paper in ES&T. Of course, if another publisher holds copyright of the abstracts, we could not knowingly republish all or parts of it, including graphs, tables, and large blocks of text. Another common procedure is for scientists to publish in conference proceedings, which usually take the form of a monograph edited by the conference organizers. Sometimes these proceedings are distributed only to conference participants, but often publishers, including the ACS, market these monographs under copyright. Our policy is to consider these articles as prior publications and not eligible for publication in ES&T, even if there is no copyright held by the publishers. Authors sometimes submit articles to ES&T that expand on conference proceedings. If we are aware that this is the case, we make an attempt to determine if the ES&T paper is sufficiently original and significant to deserve consideration. This is a judgment call that we leave to our editors, but we offer the following advice to authors. We recommend that you do not publish in conference proceedings if you wish to publish a paper on the same subject in ES&T. It is important to note that no attempt has been made in the past to enforce any of these policies by some policing process. Rather, we have relied on the high ethical standards of our authors. If a “violation” is reported to us, we usually take no punitive action except to reject the paper for publication in ES&T if copyright is violated or extensive self-plagiarism is evident. The information technology revolution is changing this scene, and as a result, we must change our policies. Now, the extended abstracts and proceedings of some meetings are published on the Internet. Moreover, we are told that
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Internet posting of research results on a sponsor’s Web site is now encouraged or required by some funding agencies before peer review and publication in a journal such as ES&T. Some authors have created home pages that include preprints of their papers. Posted on the Internet, these materials are available for millions of readers, and most would agree that by any reasonable standard, they represent prior publication. Although many people feel that prior publication on the Internet should not be a matter of concern, we disagree for two important reasons. First, we strongly believe that peer review serves society and that we are better off if scientific information made publicly available has been peer reviewed first. Second, if prior publication continues to proliferate, it will undermine our system of scientific review and publication that has served our society so well. To that end, this journal has developed policies on prior publication that are printed in our Editorial Guidelines: http://pubs.acs.org/instruct/esthag/est5_2000.html. Now, based on recommendations of all of the ACS editors, we are taking another step. Authors who plan to publish their work in ES&T should refrain from publishing the full paper in any form on the Internet before submission to ES&T, lest it endanger the prospect of the work being published in this journal. Never allow the material to be copyrighted in advance of submission to ES&T and refrain from publishing abstracts that are unduly long. Moreover, we ask that authors inform us at the time of submission if this policy has not been followed, and what circumstances required prepublication on the Internet. We will carefully and fairly evaluate these appeals. We hope that our authors and readers will understand and agree with this new policy. As a small consolation, consider this: If your paper is published in ES&T, it will be posted ASAP on a highly visible Web site (http://pubs.acs. org/journals/esthag/index.html) that is receiving more than 40,000 hits per month. Compare that with the Internet site you are considering for your paper. Is prepublication worth endangering publication in this journal?
William H. Glaze, Editor (
[email protected])
SEPTEMBER 1, 2001 / ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY
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ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY / SEPTEMBER 1, 2001
