A growing number of researchers contend that the traditional scientific journal--with its peer-review gatekeeping and relatively high printing and mailing costs--is seeing its last days. From now on, they predict, researchers will use the Internet to directly disseminate their papers to each other as part of a more flexible system that will progressively replace print journals--and, perhaps, their publishers. But publishers, while acknowledging the power of Internet distribution, insist they will continue to play an important role in the future of scientific communications.
INTERNET COMMUNICATIONS: Paul Ginsparg's home page links to his e-Print archive, a recent usage graph-showing a sharp drop at year-end holidays and an image of Ginsparg. Perhaps the most prominent proponent of all-electronic, publisher-free scientific communications is theoretical physicist Paul Ginsparg at Los Alamos National Laboratory. Ginsparg maintains an archive of more than 40,000 electronic preprints and articles in several areas of physics, as well as under ...
