COMMENT Electronic preprint publications ver the past three or four years, as the Internet has grown into a formidable force in communications and commerce, ES&T editors and our advisors have discussed repeatedly how to deal with the issue of electronic prepublication. We define this term to mean the publication on the Internet of a scientific article that will eventually be submitted for publication in the peer-reviewed literature. The issue is, would we consider electronic prepublication to be tantamount to publication, thus disqualifying the article for publication in ES&J1 Editors so fther publicationss ,ncluding ACS journals, have also considered the same issue and, understandably, have not come to a consensus. The dilemma is clear: Electronic prepublication is not in the same category as the practice of sending out a few preprints to one's friends and colleagues. It reaches an audience that is larger literally by orders of magnitude, compared to traditional preprint sharing. Indeed, electronic preprint publication is essentially a substitute for peer-reviewed journal publication in one respect getting to the consumer To some, this is the heart of the issue. Journals do not exist by virtue of endowments that allow them to publish whatever they see as significant science. They are all more or less commercial enterprises that depend on subscriptions (or advertising) for their existence. If their products or services are usurped by a competitor, they will not flourish. So, to protect the product, this argument goes, many have adopted a policy of rejecting papers that have previously been displayed on an Internet site. Make no mistake about it, this is indeed an issue, and the ACS is concerned about its proprietary rights. If preprint publication becomes the method of choice for dissemination of scientific information, ACS publications, notwithstanding their preeminent position in the world, will decline. On the other hand, we believe that the principal argument for the control of electronic preprint publication is not to protect copyright. It is to protect the integrity of scientific publications. Regardless of what our colleagues in other fields may say, we believe that the distribution, and implied acceptance, of scientific papers through a freely accessible process that does not include peer review cannot, in the long term, promote good science or benefit society. While good works may be more widely distributed, they will be lost in the noise of bad science that is allowed equal access to communication channels. A relatively narrow and well-defined community of sci-
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ence may not see the problem as soon as those of us in a more broadly based science, but eventually the proliferation of incompetent or even fraudulent science will become apparent. Of course, it is foolish to think that these new communication channels will not continue to exist and to flourish. Good. They can provide a useful service to scientific publications if properly used. Electronic preprints distributed through a home page of the author or through a scientific society that wishes to sponsor or anticipate conferences can become a powerful medium through which to alert audiences to new research. But as a substitution for peer-reviewed publications, no, we at ES&T adamantly disagree. We still believe that the traditional peerreview system is best, and we are not ready to adopt a come-one, come-all publication policy. Indeed, we feel that it is our mission to raise the standards of the fields, not lower them. So, how does all of this translate into journal policy? Simply this: In the future, we will not discriminate against papers that have previously been published electronically on the Internet provided that the site is the personal site of the author and is not connected to a commercial site that holds copyright to the material. We stipulate that authors notify us at the time a paper is submitted if the paper has been available on the Internet or an equivalent medium, that authors agree to remove the paper from any electronic site at that time, and that authors not add it back to the site unless the paper is rejected by ES&T. .I an abstract of a submitted paper has been published electronically as a part of a virtual or conventional COI1"" ference proceedings, the full paper may still be considered for publication in ES&T provided that it is substantially different (more in depth) than in the conference proceedings. A.£ciixi we stipulate tfi£it smttiors notif\f us mat this type of prior electronic publication has taken place If the Internet site is a commercial site not owned by the American Chemical Society authors are advised that consideration of the paper may be endangered and we recommend against this practice if publication in ES&T is anticipated
William H. Glaze, Editor (
[email protected])
JULY1, 1999/ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY/NEWS " 2 6 5 A
