The UK runs "Research assessment exercises" in subject disciplines
periodically. Ours (Chemistry) is coming up shortly.
I enquired what the status of my "e-only" work might be.
The answer, approximately, was that if it does not carry a page
number, its not a journal.
Publication in "journals" is of course one way in which
my particular discipline judges quality and international
significance.
As the editor of four "e-print" conference in chemistry,
archived as four CDROMs "without page numbers",
I infer (to be confirmed) that none of this counts towards the
RAE, or at least not at the same level as "page numbers".
As it happens, I have hedged my bets, and published, hopefully
adequately, in journals that DO carry page numbers. But if
ones tenure, or future, were to depend on "page numbers",
it could be a worrying period for some.
If push came to shove, and someone were "shoved" because
their "page numbers" were inadequate, I wonder if that could
be tested legally, and whether the "e-print" would prevail?
--
Henry Rzepa. +44 (0)20 7594 5774 (Office) +44 (0870) 132-3747 (eFax)
Dept. Chemistry, Imperial College, London, SW7 2AY, UK.
http://www.ch.ic.ac.uk/rzepa/
Received on Mon Jan 24 2000 - 19:17:43 GMT