In note with some interest the author instructions for the new Springer journal
"Molecules on-line".
http://link.springer.de/link/service/journals/00783/instr.htm
Intrigued as to whether this meant that the
molecules themselves would be "hyperactive", as we coined
in 1994, I was intrigued to find statements such as
"Spectra ... must be submitted as images, preferably in form of
PostScript file or a scanned file"
and structure diagrams must be prepared according to
"10pt Helvetica font
fixed length 14.4 pt (0.508 cm, 0.2 in.)
bold width 2.0 pt (0.071 cm, 0.0278 in.)
line width 0.6 pt (0.021 cm, 0.0083 in.) "
which are instructions clearly designed with printing in mind.There is
a supplementary data section, but this implies this data will only appear on the
CD-ROM version. The word "supplementary" implies
that this is the least important aspect of the
article submission process, and not really an integral part of it or the
actual article.
It would appear that (to publishers at least), "on-line" still means
"electronic delivery of a facsimile of a printed journal"
rather than
"electronic delivery of an enhanced chemistry information tool with no printed equivalent"
After about four years of the Internet and the Web, it does seem that the
publishing world remains very conservative. Perhaps that is because
the consumers are even more conservative, and do not wish to have
any of these enhanced features ? I am sure most of the subscribers
to this forum would dissent, but are we a tiny minority? Or are the
publishers making these decisions on our behalf, based of course
on their commercial interests, rather than necessarily our scientific
interests?
Dr Henry Rzepa, Dept. Chemistry, Imperial College, LONDON SW7 2AY;
mailto:rzepa@ic.ac.uk; Tel (44) 171 594 5774; Fax: (44) 171 594 5804.
URL: http://www.ch.ic.ac.uk/rzepa/
If my digital email signature is invalid, download a new root at
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chemweb: A list for Chemical Applications of the Internet.
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In the September 14 issue of Chemical & Engineering News, there is an
article on web-based "Chemistry Modules of Richmond" developed to enable
students to click their way to better learning in chemistry. The article
is online at
http://pubs.acs.org/cgi-bin/cenmaster.cgi?back
Beware, the article is entitled "Windows on Chemistry" in both hard copy
and online versions but in the online contents list it is entitled
"Chemistry Modules".
Wendy
--
Dr Wendy A Warr
Wendy Warr & Associates, 6 Berwick Court
Holmes Chapel, Cheshire CW4 7HZ, England
Tel/fax +44 (0)1477 533837
wendy(a)warr.com http://www.warr.com
chemweb: A list for Chemical Applications of the Internet.
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