I've just written the following article for the Chemistry & Industry web site (http://ci.mond.org). However, as the subject is particularly appropriate for this mailing list, I'm copying it here for discussion. ------------ On-line, but unnoticed? Electronic chemistry journals and conferences have yet to make a significant impact, and aren't seen as "serious" publications. That's the conclusion of Chemical Abstracts (CA) after a year of reviewing articles on the world wide web. However, a new wave of journals from major publishers in 1997 could give the new medium the weight and authority it currently lacks. A healthy list of CA citations can be invaluable for a scientist's career prospects. CA started indexing electronic documents in April 1995. By the beginning of December this year, CA had indexed 210 papers from 14 on-line journals and 45 papers from 2 on-line conferences (see table). This is a vanishingly small figure when compared with the half a million articles CA abstracts in a year from more traditional sources. Editor David Weisgerber attributes the small figures to a lack of regard for electronic journals. "There is a lack of awareness of on-line journals, but also a general perception about the lack of recognized credentials for these publications, a concern for gaining little visibility and readership among one's peers, and the view that publication in such journals may not 'count' towards career goals," he comments Yet on-line journals would appear to have the edge over their printed counterparts. They have lower production costs, the ability to offer multimedia, and can be easily accessible world-wide without the need for a local library archive. The low figures are down to the youth of the medium, comments Patrick van der Valk, of consultants BetaCyte. In a medium where very little is more than five years old, most on-line chemistry journals have been around for less than a few years. "It will be a couple of years before they are taken seriously," he predicts. In fact, a look behind the headline figures shows a healthier picture for web publications than CA paints. CA say that a good fraction, about three-quarters, of the papers it looks at on the web fit its selection criteria - that is, they report new scientific findings and are publicly available. Also, CA's policy on papers distributed in several media distorts the figures downwards. When an article is available in different forms, CA indexes only one, preferring paper to CD-ROM, and the latter to web publications. Many web journals and conferences are therefore missing from the figures. For example, two on-line conferences generated 110 citations between them last year, but are missing from the figures because the citation is to the CD-ROM published at the end of the conferences. Electronic versions of printed journals are also missing - citations are to the paper versions. CA says that this policy reflects the stability of the media, but also because "our users will probably find it easier to go from our print document citations to the corresponding CD-ROM or on-line formats than trace the reverse path". CA also note that monitoring the web involves disproportionate amounts of time and staff. Henry Rzepa, of Imperial College, London, comments that this could mean that CA is missing out on some of the things that are going on. "There is no established mechanism for the author of internet related materials to easily bring them to the attention of CA," he says, adding that this could be related to the fact that almost all web materials have not been subjected to quality control via peer review machanisms. "Clearly a top priority for the chemical community is to establish such mechanisms, and a formal channel to bring them to the attention of agencies such as CA", he adds. One cloud on the horizon for electronic journals is the issue of permanence. One of CA's criteria for indexing an article is some degree of 'relative permanence'. When paper journals go out of business, there is likely to be a physical archive in some universities or in national collections. National collections, however, don't collect copies of web documents, nor do subscribing libraries keep a physical archive. The death of a web-only journal is likely to be accompanied by the disappearance of its archive into the electronic ether. Weisgerber reports that CA was concerned that some electronic documents would be so short lived that citations would have little value in a few years' time. However, CA decided to take a lenient view, assuming that web documents will be available indefinitely in order to avoid being too restrictive on the new medium. Problems such as permanence and stability are still awaiting solutions, yet it looks like the next 12 months could be a defining period for electronic chemistry journals. Until now, on-line publications have tended to be new journals taking advantage of the low start-up costs of the internet. Now, several publishers have announced plans to put on-line versions of print journals on the web. The Royal Society of Chemistry, for example, is producing on-line versions of all of its 12 primary journals beginning in the New Year. With the weight of publishing companies and the reputations of recognised titles behind them, 1997 could be the year that on-line journals are taken seriously by the chemical community. (For Table: Abstracting the virtual: Web-only chemistry related journals and conferences abstracted by CA <see article on web site, http://ci.mond.org/connect.html>) ------------------ -------------------------- Paul Deards Internet Publisher Chemistry and Industry 0171-2353681 x233 pauld@chemind.demon.co.uk http://ci.mond.org/ -------------------------- Advertising with C&I electronic publications is a cost-effective way of reaching a target audience of scientists. For more details, contact us at advertising@chemind.demon.co.uk -------------------------- ----- chemweb: A list for Chemical Applications of the Internet. 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