From: Shu-Kun Lin (lin$##$mdpi.org)
Date: Fri May 26 2000 - 09:15:49 EDT
Very promising: at least there is one more journal which support the idea
of MOLECULES (http://www.mdpi.org/molecules/) strongly. However,
Dr. Paul Thind is correct. The online edition is free. MDPI sell CD-ROM
and encourage authors to deposit samples and share samples.
Is Dr. Paul Thind's other journal ARKIVOD's goal will be
that of our MolBank at http://www.molbank.org/?
Shu-Kun
Dr. Shu-Kun Lin
Molecular Diversity Preservation International (MDPI)
Saengergasse 25, CH-4054 Basel, Switzerland
Tel. +41 79 322 3379, Fax +41 61 302 8918
E-mail: lin$##$mdpi.org
http://www.mdpi.org/lin/
Paul Thind wrote:
>
> At ARKAT we have tried to involve as many scientists as possible when
> deciding on the procedures for publishing and the checks and balances one
> needs in place before manuscripts should be accepted for publication.
>
> First of all there are obvious differences between say a Journal of Organic
> Chemistry and a Journal of Physics. Secondly authors are not uniformly good.
> This applies both to delivery of format and content. One can of course have
> several journals - one of which could be a dustbin for all kinds of stuff.
> My belief is that any alternative journal(s) it will only succeed if high
> standards remain one of the primary objectives. Let us face it, the best
> scientists are not going to publish their work these "free" online journals
> unless standards are kept high. One needs these guys for all sorts of
> reasons.
>
> There are also costs associated with even free online publishing. We are
> finding that on average a refereed manuscripts still requires 2-3 hours of
> technical editing before it can be presented with a uniform format in
> Arkivoc. At ARKAT we have paid staff doing this Publication Support work.
>
> I urge you to be realistic. Online publications need structures, support
> staff, hardware, software, printing, some advertising, marketing, fund
> raising, packaging, posting capabilities. But if it is done in a
> not-for-profit organization all this can be done at a fraction of the cost
> of REED or Elsevier Publications and if there are no shareholders the user
> can have it for free. BUT MONEY FOR THE PROJECT HAS TO COME FROM SOMEWHERE-
> AND in the case of Arkat this is coming from donations, sale of chemical
> samples, arranging conferences, and potentially selling other things online
> and advertising.
>
> Our second journal ARKIVOD - Archives of Organic Data is meant to fill the
> gap in the database area. We can use your help in designing this database
> and making sure it is made available for free to everyone.
>
> I am very much interested in hearing from people who might want to lead this
> effort in developing online spectra databases, compound database and other
> useful services. We are willing to provide considerable help in terms of
> software development work etc. But we need a leader!
>
> Our motto is "Creating equality through equal access to knowledge."
>
> Yours sincerely,
>
> Paul Thind
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: Thanasis Gimisis <gimisis$##$area.bo.cnr.it>
> To: Multiple recipients of list orglist <orglist$##$dq.fct.unl.pt>
> Sent: Thursday, May 25, 2000 6:48 PM
> Subject: Re: ORGLIST: Information - Revolution?
>
> > I think that the list has touched one of the most important current
> > topics in the subject of free dissemination of chemical information.
> > Why Chemists can't do what physicists have been doing for all this time?
> > The Physics preprint archive that Eugene Leitl mentioned is the proof
> > of success of an article preprint and why not a structure and spectra
> > database which can be built directly from us, direct providers and
> > users of chemical information, circumventing specific Chemical
> > Societies or Publishing Companies.
> >
> > The idea of a preprint server which receives chemical information in
> > a convenient format for archiving can co-exist with the current
> > status of variable-impact hard-copy journals and as Henry Rezpa has
> > put it possible formats already have been proposed. All that is
> > required is an extra effort from our part to transform an article to
> > such a format. I think that if the procedure is kept simple and
> > software or templates are constructed to aid this transformation it
> > will be adopted by a large number of researchers in the long run.
> >
> >
> > >Eugene Leitl writes:
> > >
> > >The chemical society as a whole has allowed this to happen, by
> > >tolerating the status quo for years, despite existiance of essentially
> > >zero-cost publishing on the web. (For instance, consider the
> > >electronical preprint archive for the physical community at
> > >http://xxx.lanl.gov )
> > >
> > >... a globally accepted open/noncommercial expandable
> > >document publishing standard has to be defined (inasmuch chemical XML
> > >doesn't qualify already), which has to have means of intelligent full
> > >text, structure (unique SMILES or graphs) and (IR, MS, NMR) spectre
> > >searching. These standards have to be implemented in OpenSource
> > >software, putting the development into the hands of the users. All
> > >this is not exactly rocket science so far.
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