Re: Publisher's requirements for links from published articles

From: (wrong string) édon <jean.claude.guedon_at_umontreal.ca>
Date: Fri, 25 Apr 2008 11:03:25 -0400

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Le vendredi 25 avril 2008 à 15:27 +0100, Stevan Harnad a écrit :

 What is cited is a *work*, not a physical instance of that work.

The work is a published refereed-journal article. The citation is author,
date, title, journal, volume, issue, page-span.


Thank you for this answer. It point to our difference very clearly.
The work is a content, not an instantiation of same in a particular
form. What is protected by copyright is a form of expression that has
taken material form, not a particular  material instantiation of the
mode of expression. As a result, a work (as intellectual content or
mode of expression) can be distinguished from *any* form of material
instantiation. It was in fact distinguished in the meandering path
leading to modern copyright laws. See Mark Rose on this point
(Authors and Owners)

Likewise, peer review deals with a content, a form of expression, not
a particular material form of instantiation. As a result, peer review
is not tied to a particular material form. What is important is that
a particular form of expression has been tied to a peer review
process. The link between peer review and mode of expression makes it
acceptable in the scientific or scholarly realm, not a particular
material form. Then the publisher gives it a particular material
form, be it print or bits.

Citation, on the other hand, is tied to a particular material because
citation is aimed at helping retrieval. If we cite down to the page
level in many disciplines, it is to help check that the citation is
indeed correct, that the text cited is not cited out of context, etc.
It is fundamental for the work of scientists and scholars. Because of
its retrieval function, citation has provided an important handle for
publishers to make their material version of a text the "canonical"
version. However, if the IR material version of the same is declared
citable by declaring that it is a certified copy of the peer reviewed
"work", then it can be cited directly. The certification comes from
the good name of the hosting institution - presumably a university or
reputable research centre.

In line with this analysis, many of us have begun providing the
on-line address of the documents we cite when they are in open access
so as to facilitate the retrieval needs of our colleagues. One small,
extra step, is needed to complete the process: just declare the IR
version to be an acceptable source for a citation.

Does this clarify matters?

jc

Jean-Claude Guédon
Université de Montréal
Received on Fri Apr 25 2008 - 16:57:41 BST