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<DIV dir=ltr align=left><SPAN class=340165415-09112012><FONT color=#0000ff
size=2 face=Arial>I would argue that the true value of the 'journal' these days
is as a virtual 'envelope' of content of known relevance, interest and quality
for a particular community of readers (derived from editorial judgement, and not
just the iterative improvement process that is peer review). It certainly
doesn't have to have a physical, paper counterpart - of course, many already
don't - but the journal title conveys a whole bundle of messages about any
article that bears it (so to my mind it's much richer than just another
metadata element...)</FONT></SPAN></DIV>
<DIV dir=ltr align=left><SPAN class=340165415-09112012><FONT color=#0000ff
size=2 face=Arial></FONT></SPAN> </DIV>
<DIV dir=ltr align=left><SPAN class=340165415-09112012><FONT color=#0000ff
size=2 face=Arial>Of course, you don't have to call that envelope
a 'journal' but I suspect that something that performs that function is
still, and will continue to be, needed - in fact, more than ever as the sheer
volume of articles continues to rise.</FONT></SPAN></DIV>
<DIV dir=ltr align=left><SPAN class=340165415-09112012><FONT color=#0000ff
size=2 face=Arial></FONT></SPAN> </DIV>
<DIV dir=ltr align=left><SPAN class=340165415-09112012><FONT color=#0000ff
size=2 face=Arial>Only t</FONT></SPAN><SPAN class=340165415-09112012><FONT
color=#0000ff size=2 face=Arial>ime will tell!</FONT></SPAN></DIV>
<DIV dir=ltr align=left><SPAN class=340165415-09112012><FONT color=#0000ff
size=2 face=Arial></FONT></SPAN> </DIV>
<DIV dir=ltr align=left><SPAN class=340165415-09112012><FONT color=#0000ff
size=2 face=Arial>Sally</FONT></SPAN></DIV>
<DIV dir=ltr align=left><SPAN class=340165415-09112012><FONT color=#0000ff
size=2 face=Arial></FONT></SPAN> </DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV align=left><FONT size=2 face=Arial>Sally Morris</FONT></DIV>
<DIV align=left><FONT size=2 face=Arial>South House, The Street, Clapham,
Worthing, West Sussex, UK BN13 3UU</FONT></DIV>
<DIV align=left><FONT size=2 face=Arial>Tel: +44 (0)1903
871286</FONT></DIV>
<DIV align=left><FONT size=2 face=Arial>Email:
sally@morris-assocs.demon.co.uk</FONT></DIV>
<DIV> </DIV><BR>
<DIV dir=ltr lang=en-us class=OutlookMessageHeader align=left>
<HR tabIndex=-1>
<FONT size=2 face=Tahoma><B>From:</B> goal-bounces@eprints.org
[mailto:goal-bounces@eprints.org] <B>On Behalf Of </B>Ross
Mounce<BR><B>Sent:</B> 09 November 2012 12:03<BR><B>To:</B> Global Open Access
List (Successor of AmSci)<BR><B>Subject:</B> [GOAL] Re: Squashing the brand? Re:
Interview with the Scholarly Kitchen's Kent Anderson<BR></FONT><BR></DIV>
<DIV></DIV><BR><BR>
<DIV class=gmail_quote>On 9 November 2012 11:09, Steve Hitchcock <SPAN
dir=ltr><<A href="mailto:sh94r@ecs.soton.ac.uk"
target=_blank>sh94r@ecs.soton.ac.uk</A>></SPAN> wrote:<BR>
<BLOCKQUOTE
style="BORDER-LEFT: #ccc 1px solid; MARGIN: 0px 0px 0px 0.8ex; PADDING-LEFT: 1ex"
class=gmail_quote>Ross, In your view, but in this case what would
be the point of any journal?<BR><BR></BLOCKQUOTE>
<DIV><BR></DIV>
<DIV>Steve, you've got it in one here: what <I>is</I> the point of
journals? </DIV>
<DIV>Many have asked this question before e.g. Decoupling the scholarly journal
<A
href="http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fncom.2012.00019">http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fncom.2012.00019</A> ,
but here's my take:<BR><BR>They're a vestigial concept in modern
research. </DIV>
<DIV><BR></DIV>
<DIV>Journals made sense from 1665-200X? (a fuzzy endpoint as the usefulness
fades out at a different rate in different subjects depending upon
web-technology uptake in different research communities). Research is digital
now. Even most of the ancient legacy literature in my domain (Biology) has been
digitized via initiatives such as <A
href="http://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/">http://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/</A> </DIV>
<DIV><BR></DIV>
<DIV>An example: Do <I>any </I>practicing Bioinformaticians read <I>paper
</I>(deadtree) journals to keep up with the latest research? I would think not.
Paper journals, and thus the 'journal concept' are useless to me - journals were
just a way of economically distributing physical copies of similar research
papers to interested recipients, and along way became a significant way of
generating income & profit for Learned Societies & commercial publishers
(you know the rest...).<BR><BR>Admittedly, I gather many in the humanities are
still reliant on the deadtree format to keep up with new research - but perhaps
by 2020 even this will change as the benefits of the digital medium are fully
realised - when all academics have either a Kindle, iPad, smartphone, laptop...
and those that have eschewed technology in favour of paper journals quietly
retire? I'm not even against paper copies either, if people want them a) for
short papers I suggest printing a copy oneself might be more efficient b) for
very long papers POD services might be better than 'journals' all things
considered IMO. </DIV>
<DIV><BR></DIV>
<DIV>I don't need 'journals'. I just need effective filters to find the content
I want amongst the ~2million papers that are published this year, and the
~48million from all years previously (basing my figures on <A
href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1087/20100308">http://dx.doi.org/10.1087/20100308</A>
).<BR><BR>Perhaps we need standardized metadata tags, MeSH terms,
keywords, and most importantly the ability to index, query & mine the *full*
text to find what we want and Open Bibliographic Data to clearly see who cites
who. But we don't need journals for any of that. All of the functions of the
journal can be better done independently of the integrated-package of functions
we called 'the journal'.<BR><BR>Is there any function I've missed that we do
need 'journals' for? Journals are just an additional metadata tag to me with
little or no added information content that can't be found in the fulltext or
metadata of the paper.</DIV>
<DIV><BR></DIV>
<DIV><BR>I hope this provokes some thought...</DIV>
<DIV><BR></DIV>
<DIV><BR></DIV>
<DIV>Best,</DIV>
<DIV><BR></DIV>
<DIV><BR></DIV>
<DIV>Ross<BR><BR>PS this is of course very relevant to Open Access. The sooner
the digital medium for research is explicitly preferred as the normal mechanism
for distribution & consumption, rather than as an 'alternative' or
'complementary' option to paper journals, the sooner the inevitability of Open
Access (in whatever form, Green or Gold) will be realised,
right? <BR><BR><BR></DIV></DIV></BODY></HTML>