On Mon, Dec 11, 2000 at 02:45:16AM -0500, Jim Till wrote:
> However, when I assessed the publication records of the authors
> of preprints posted at the ClinMed NetPrints website, almost all
> appeared to have some track record of publication in PubMed-
> listed journals.
This is a very important point. Of course it's not fair to judge an
individual article on the basis of who wrote it. But if most of the
authors in an archive have a track record of peer-reviewed work, then
presumably they care about their reputations enough to maintain standards.
Unfortunately the clindmed archive is still too small. I can suggest
two tactics that we have used to get the math arXiv moving:
o You can compile a roster of supporters who pledge to contribute a given
number of preprints. This is what I did in combinatorics and geometric
topology, two of my own areas. As the roster grew it became more
and more persuasive. Later I recirculated it to get people to fulfill
their pledges.
o You can forge agreements to host institutional preprints
series, conference proceedings, and journals. Your clients can then
either encourage authors to contribute or contribute themselves by proxy.
Agreements where the client systematically contributes everything,
or makes sure that the authors do so, are particularly valuable.
--
/\ Greg Kuperberg (UC Davis)
/ \
\ / Visit the Math ArXiv Front at http://front.math.ucdavis.edu/
\/ * All the math that's fit to e-print *
Received on Mon Jan 24 2000 - 19:17:43 GMT