On Jun 2, 3:49pm, Robert_L_Swofford@mta.wfu.edu wrote:
Subject: Re: Screen vs Paper for E-journals
If we think of e-journals as just electronic renditions of their linear paper cousins, then we are missing an important opportunity. We need an outlining format that is a radical departure from the one we learned in high school (and rarely used). Dominic hints at such a tool in his comments about tagging elements in the document. If we could represent the
Indeed, that is precisely what I was trying to get at, though I stressed the need for it being the ability to scan a document quickly and flexibly.
e-document at varying levels of detail (i.e., varying levels of outline), with non-linear links to other sections or to more detail, then I think we would have an important new resource. But until we are comfortable with abandoning the linear mode of presentation, then anything we do will suffer
The abandoning of that mode is part of the thought that must go into it that I was alluding to. But, I would like to see a smarter browser (or perhaps composition tool) that would make it easy to assemble the main point as the main page, with all the supporting information as links that could be tailored to a customizable level of desired detail. Then it is the single overhead talk for those familiar with the subject, and inlined expanded links for those not. It puts some of the composition effort in the hands of the reader. <snip> Just for sake of discussion, how many low-level information nuggets could be come up with? These would be the new chemistry-journal tags in an expanded html-like vocabulary. Off the top of my head I would see the following, with some or all having numeric attributes for outline level or grouping Finally, web-permanence might be addressed by a top-level tag constituted by an author's registered public encryption key/electronic signature which would be unique, traceable, and provide a pointer for linking other documents. intro.historcal .controversial .reviews .current .problem_statement.1 .problem_statement.n... main.table.1... .graph .structure conclusions.explaination .new_work .challenge .litt_comp.1.. experiment.synthesis .supplies .methods.named_reactions.1... -- M. Dominic Ryan (610)-270-6529 SmithKline Beecham Pharmaceuticals ryanmd@mms.sbphrd.com King of Prussia, PA chemweb: A list for Chemical Applications of the Internet. Archived as: http://www.lists.ic.ac.uk/hypermail/chemweb/ To unsubscribe, send to majordomo@ic.ac.uk the following message; unsubscribe chemweb List coordinator, Henry Rzepa (rzepa@ic.ac.uk)