The Role and the Promise of
Electronic Publishing in Paleontology
1Department of
Palaeontology, The Natural History Museum, Cromwell Road, London,
UK SW7 5BD
2Ottawa-Carleton Geoscience Centre and Department of
Earth Sciences, Carleton University, 1125 Colonel By Drive,
Ottawa, Ontario, K1S 5B6 CANADA
To some, electronic publication holds the
promise of speeding the process of technical communication among
scientists and making new technologies available for their use.
To others it's a publishing gimmick that threatens the quality of
scientific publications, the sanctity of the peer-review system,
and–to a greater or lesser extent–part of the
economical underpinning of scientific societies. Obviously, we
don't subscribe to the latter point of view. But since Palaeontologia
Electronica is the world's first electronic paleontological
journal it is fair to ask what all the fuss is about. Is there a
need for this type of publication within the paleontological
community? What advantages will accrue from its creation? Will
there be any disadvantages? How will it work? How will it affect
existing paleontological societies/journals? Is this the right
time for such an endeavor?
Why An Electronic Paleontological
Journal?
On the whole, the scientific community has
already embraced electronic publications as an effective means of
technical communication (Nature 1997 vol 389, p.
137-138, Sept. 11, 1997 issue and Palaeontologia Electronica
Annotated Web Sites). It is
widely recognized that there is no substantive difference between
electronic and print publishing in terms of most scientific
publishing conventions (e.g., peer-review, editorial oversight,
copy-editing). In terms of need, the primary rationale for Palaeontologia
Electronica is the same as the need for electronic
publishing in general, or indeed, the Internet itself; access to
advanced communications technologies along with quality, speed,
and accessibility of the resultant publication. Direct evidence
for this need can be found in (1) the amount of paleontological
information already available electronically (see PE Web Site
Reviews Page, PaleoNet [West], PaleoNet
[East], Yahoo [science/earth science/paleontology]), (2) recent on-line initiatives of
paleontological societies/journals (see PaleoNet [West], PaleoNet [East]), (3) the number of visitors to the
pre-publication Palaeontologia Electronica Information
Site (14,000) as well as
their comments, (4) emerging traditions in other scientific
disciplines, and (5) electronic publishing initiatives by major
commercial scientific journal publishers. In terms of content, we
would argue that there is always a need for well-written
summaries of current research by those who are actually involved
in the research. This is true for all areas of science;
especially those as innovative and popular as paleontology.
Does Electronic Publishing Hold
Any Unique Advantages For Paleontology?
We see electronic publishing in general,
and Palaeontologia Electronica in particular, as being
able to help reverse a worrying trend in paleontology — the
decline in outlets available for taxonomic monographs. Systematic
research has traditionally comprised an extremely important
component of paleontological research. Unfortunately, the
economics of publishing is jeopardizing the future of this
important aspect of paleontological publishing. In the print
realm, the problem with these publications is their expense
(owing to the size of the text and typically large number of
plates/illustrations) and limited audience. In principle both of
these issues can be addressed by electronic publications. It is
true that the current ICZN and ICBN rules disallow the naming of
new species in electronic media. Nevertheless, given the
popularity of the emerging electronic publishing industry, it
seems inconceivable that this rule will be retained once the
electronic publication archiving issue has been addressed. In the
meantime, taxonomic reviews are possible that do not name new
taxa, or which are published in tandem with papers in print
journals that fulfill the ICZN and/or ICBN requirements.
Electronic publishing also offers much
more graphical flexibility than print publishing. This is of
critical importance to paleontology, where pictures are often
worth more than thousands of printed words. "Publication
quality" images can be coupled directly to manuscripts in an
intuitive and non-linear manner that facilitates viewing and
comparison (see Fig. 1).
Until the movement
to high bandwidth cablenet systems has been completed, there will
be a trade-off between digital image resolution and network
download time. However, the flexibility of the WWW allows
multiple copies of the same image to exist within any paper. This
means that the user can have access to a full spectrum of
graphical information from low-resolution, fast loading,
thumbnail versions of images (for quick inspection), through
normal resolution versions that are typically indistinguishable
from their print counterparts, to high-resolution versions (for
taxonomic specialists) that would include levels of detail not
possible in the current industry-standard half-tone prints. At
the highest end of the image-resolution range, collections of
photographic-quality digital images can be assembled and placed
in an ftp file to be downloaded directly to the user's hard disk
during times of slack web usage. Palaeontologia Electronica's
extensive collection of mirror sites (insert appropriate
link) will serve to increase accessibility and minimize download
times for most users. Moreover, there is only a marginal
additional cost (in terms of download time) for using color as
opposed to black-and-white images in electronic publications.
Thus, graphics in an electronic paleontological journal can be
designed solely with the interests of the scientific arguments
(as opposed to the author's, publisher's, or subscriber's
budgets) in mind.
Aside from the standard print fare of text
and illustrations, electronic publication offers a wide range of
new communications technologies. Some of these have been used to
great effect in both private and institutional WWW pages, while
others await their first application to paleontological
materials. The migration of these technologies into technical
publications is inevitable and should lead to many interesting
experiments. Areas such as animation, simulation, modelling,
morphometrics, phylogenetics and various forms of quantitative
and statistical analysis are sure to benefit from the emergence
of electronic publishing.
In our science, these topics fall under
the general subdiscipline of analytical paleobiology, which at
the present time is one of the fastest growing paleontological
subdisciplines. Since print-publications cannot integrate these
technologies, we expect that a form of publishing "character
displacement" will come to pass over time, with different
types of papers being published in print and electronic
paleontological journals. Palaeontologia Electronica
will encourage active experimentation with these technologies
(see Monks and Young, 1998) and we are committed to staying abreast of
developments in relevant technological areas so that we can
provide the necessary levels of technical support to our authors
and readers.
How Will It Work?
Palaeontologia Electronica is
committed to preserving as many paleontological publishing
traditions as possible in its style, editorship, and
organization. We do not seek change solely for change's sake. All
technical contributions will be reviewed by independent and
anonymous specialists. Palaeontologia Electronica has an
extensive panel of associate editors whose duties will include providing names
of qualified reviewers to the editors and helping explain the
merits of various technical points with which the editors may not
be familiar. Contributions to other portions of the journal
(e.g., book reviews, web site reviews) will be primarily the
responsibility of the editors assigned to those sections.
Palaeontologia Electronica's executive
editors are responsible to a board of directors that includes
representatives of all sponsor societies. There are two levels of Palaeontologia
Electronica sponsorship. Tier 2 sponsors contribute mirror
sites and/or various services to the journal (e.g., translations)
in return for being allocated space within the journal. Tier 1
sponsors contribute mirror sites and/or various services plus a
fee to offset technical costs in return for being allocated space
within the journal, having authors of technical papers assign
copyright to one of the Tier 1 sponsors, and being granted the
right to reproduce and sell the CD-ROM Palaeontologia
Electronica archives (see below).
Palaeontologia Electronica will
be published in a series of issues with no more than four issues
appearing in any calendar year. Internet access to all materials
included in each issue will be completely free of charge, though
reproduction and/or subsequent use of all published materials
will be subject to the normal copyright restrictions. Once a
year's issue is complete it will remain accessible for an
additional year, after which it will be removed from the WWW,
written to a CD-ROM, and delivered to the Tier 1 sponsor
societies. These archive CD-ROMs will be made available for sale
to libraries, institutions, and individuals by Tier 1 sponsors.
In this way Palaeontologia Electronica will be able to
provide free access to its contributions during their primary
useful life, while preserving the long-term financial interest of
the Tier 1 sponsors through the sale of the archive CD-ROMs.
What Does It Mean?
With the release of this inaugural issue
we believe a new chapter in the history of paleontological
publication begins. The increasing use of e-mail, listservers,
and the WWW by both professional and amateur paleontologists has
already changed our science. Palaeontologia Electronica represents
an attempt to wed the technological innovation available through
electronic communications technology to accepted paleontological
publishing traditions.
Since Palaeontologia Electronica has
no print counterpart, there will never be a need to make
decisions that might limit the journal's electronic development
in order to avoid compromising the scientific or economic
position of a print partner. For all technical papers,
alternative files will be provided to enable Palaeontologia
Electronica readers to download and make a hard copy print
of the text and all static graphics using their local facilities.
Nevertheless, all contributions appearing in the journal will be
written, reviewed, and edited with the electronic medium foremost
in mind.
Because of the Internet's inherently
borderless nature and Palaeontologia Electronica's open
access publishing policy for the first publishing year of each
issue, the journal will serve as an important crossroads for the
international paleontological community. To this end the titles,
keywords, and abstracts of all technical publications will be
translated into Spanish (courtesy of the Sociedad Española de
Paleontología), French (courtesy of the Canadian Association of
Palynologists) and German (courtesy of Heinz Hilbrecht, ETH,
Zürich). In addition, Palaeontologia Electronica's uniquely
international sponsorship group should provide fertile ground for
testing the feasibility of international cooperation between
paleontological societies in areas of mutual interest.
Perhaps most importantly though, Palaeontologia
Electronica will serve as a new and highly effective means
of communication between diverse groups of people sharing a
common interest in paleontology. In its most obvious
manifestation, Palaeontologia Electronica will
facilitate the scientific discussion of new results and ideas by
enabling professionals to debate the merits of the arguments
presented in technical reports online, either through the
discussion pages that accompany each report or via direct e-mail
communication with the report's authors. This will turn the
publication of research results in our science from a largely
static exercise to a dynamic engagement within a (potentially)
large section of the paleontological community. Even more
importantly, just as the Internet fails to recognize geographic
and national distinctions, it also fails to recognize
distinctions between "professionals" and
"amateurs," "teachers" and
"students," etc. In principle anyone can subscribe to a
print-based professional paleontological journal or read a copy
in their local library. However, as we all know, these
publications are rarely accessed by those outside of the
professional paleontological community. Popular science magazines
(e.g., New Scientist, Earth)
often feature paleontological stories, but in the overwhelming
majority of cases these are filtered through the intermediary of
professional writers who are not scientists. Because it will be
so much easier to find and access, we expect Palaeontologia
Electronica to be read by a much larger (and more
representative) portion of the overall paleontological community
than is currently the case with print-based paleontological
journals. Since Palaeontologia Electronica is committed
to the publication of technical and review papers by the
paleontologists who actually do the research, it will provide a
direct doorway between the world of paleontological research and
the larger culture in which that research is inevitably embedded.
Palaeontologia Electronica's outreach (and inreach)
potential for the paleontological community should not be
underestimated.
In short, Palaeontologia Electronica was
conceived to make a difference in paleontology. Although we have
never heard it stated quite this way, it seems obvious to us that
paleontology is as much about people as it is about fossils. Palaeontologia
Electronica is intended to advance that link to its next
level by marrying traditional paleontological publishing to the
revolution in electronic communications technology in such a way
as to substantially broaden the impact of contemporary
paleontological research on the global paleontological community
and the larger culture.
If you are interested in fossils, in
natural history or in science, join us in this initiative. Read Palaeontologia
Electronica. Discuss the issues raised in its pages by
contacting the editors, the authors, or posting reactions to your
favorite paleontological listservers (see PaleoNet [West], PaleoNet [East]). If you are engaged in paleontological
research, consider submitting a technical contribution (Instructions to Contributors). If you know of a paleontological web
site, new book on paleontology, or a meeting of interest to
paleontologists, let us know so we can organize a review.
We hope Palaeontologia Electronica will
educate, challenge, and inspire (just as the current print-based
paleontological journals do), but accomplish these goals in a way
that can be appreciated by a larger and more international
audience. All public domain publications (print or electronic)
are reflections of the communities they serve. We think Palaeontologia
Electronica can reflect a much larger part of the
paleontological community to itself and to the emerging global
electronic culture than can be done using print media. It is not
our intention to replace print-based journals or the societies
that sponsor them. Rather, we will work to make sure that the
best paleontological research, technologies, and information are
all available on the Internet, just as they are already available
in bookstores, in personal libraries of paleontological
professionals, and at professional paleontological meetings.
If you want the best of online
paleontology by paleontologists, Palaeontologia Electronica is
the place to come.
Copyright: Coquina Press,
January 1998
http://palaeo-electronica.org