On Mon, Jan 29, 2001 at 06:42:35PM -0500, Albert Henderson wrote:
> Moreover, and my point: if the fourfold increase in
> journal articles since 1970 is not worth our attention, then
> don't the unreviewed postings on free preprint servers risk
> a real waste of time for any reader who values his/her time
> and energy?
Well I really like to read the arXiv. I've learned all kinds of things
from it, not only in my main research areas but also in fields that are
new for me, like quantum computation. The arXiv is no longer a "prospect"
or a "risk" as you have called it. Rather it's an established system
that will be 10 years old this August.
If my opinion alone isn't enough, let me suggest that you visit the math,
physics, or astronomy department at Columbia University (assuming you
live in Bridgeport) and ask the same question: Is the arXiv a "real
waste of time"? Here is a list of people who have submitted at least
two papers to the arXiv from a Columbia University computer since January
2000, together with the number of submissions. Presumably if they submit
they also read the arXiv regularly.
1 Anargyros Papageorgiou 1 Nestor Mirabal 2 Ivan Vitev
1 Anton Dzhamay 1 Oleg V Bychuk 2 Jae-Suk Park
1 Arlin Crotts 1 Oliver T. Dasbach 2 John A. Tomsick
1 Brian Greene 1 Pavel Etingof 2 Michael Faux
1 Christian Knigge 1 Stephen Lawrence 2 Sorin Popescu
1 David Tong 1 Timothy Halpin-Healy 3 Cristina Chiappini
1 Edward A. Baltz 1 Tzu-Ching Chang 3 Dirk H. Rischke
1 Erick J. Weinberg 1 Walter Neumann 3 Masao Sako
1 Hans Georg Freiermuth 1 Wei-Dong Ruan 4 Jules P. Halpern
1 James D. Neill 1 Xinzhong Chen 4 Paul E. Gunnells
1 Jean Cottam 1 Xuelei Chen 4 Reshmi Mukherjee
1 Joan Birman 1 Yasutomo J. Uemura 5 Eaprile Group
1 John R. Peterson 2 Adrian Dumitru 5 Eric Gotthelf
1 Karen M. Leighly 2 Alexei Akhmetshin 5 Frits Paerels
1 Linda Chen 2 Calin Iuliu Lazaroiu 5 Lev A. Borisov
1 Louis Tao 2 Ehud Behar 5 Michael Thaddeus
1 Marcella Carollo 2 Fernando Camilo 5 Robert Friedman
1 Matthew G. Zinno 2 Frederik Denef 6 Arthur Lue
1 Maurice Leutenegger 2 Igor Krichever 7 Jean-Luc Thiffeault
--
/\ 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 Wed Jan 03 2001 - 19:17:43 GMT