Certification and Dissemination

[Stevan Harnad <harnad@ecs.soton.ac.uk>]

It's not that the author must choose (1) (journal) certification 
OR (2) (OA repository) dissemination: The right choice is of 
course BOTH (1) journal certification (peer review) AND (2) 
repository dissemination (OA self-archiving).

Joseph Esposito seems to keep wanting to imagine that what is 
being self-archived is only or mostly unrefereed preprints (and, 
he goes on to imagine: preprints never even destined to go on to 
become refereed postprints).

It would be a good idea to look at what it is that the 41 
self-archiving mandates in ROARMAP are actually stipulating must 
be deposited. (Without a single exception, it is the refereed 
postprint.) http://www.eprints.org/signup/fulllist.php

Stevan Harnad

On Thu, 24 Apr 2008, Joseph J. Esposito wrote:

> It seems to me that what Paul Ginsparg did in one stroke was 
> separate, or at least begin to separate, the publishing 
> functions of certification (what Ian addresses) from 
> dissemination.  Prior to arXiv, these two functions were bound 
> up with each other.  I am not saying that Ginsparg set out to 
> do this (How would I know?), but that is the effect of his 
> innovation.  Ian (rightly) notes that publishers still control 
> the certification function, but there is another point to be 
> made here, that in some instances the dissemination and 
> certification functions compete with each other.
>
> For example, a poorly distributed journal or a journal 
> published in such a way as to make it difficult for readers to 
> find it (e.g., not indexed by Google) may nonetheless certify 
> an article and, by extension, its author; but the author may 
> still yearn for broader dissemination.  Such an author may, the 
> next time around, opt for a well-designed open access 
> repository that has been optimized for search engine indexing 
> and other Internet marketing techniques, with the hope that 
> open dissemination will ultimately lead to certification.  We 
> can call this the principle of certification through 
> acclamation; it is intended to supplant certification through 
> deliberation.
>
> Publishers that stress the certification function alone are, in 
> my view, making a very big mistake.  Yes, publishers add 
> enormous value in the editorial process, more than most authors 
> could ever bring themselves to admit, but the real game is to 
> stroke an author's ego through dissemination. In other words, 
> the safe zone for a publisher is not the editorial fortress of 
> careful selection, peer review, copy editing, and the like, but 
> the sound of trumpets declaring that, yes, our magnificent 
> author has arrived.
>
> The future of toll-access or traditional publishing lies with
> marketing.  If an author comes to believe that an open access
> service could lead to wider dissemination of his or her work,
> publishers should fold their tents and go home, and no amount of
> shrewd editorial practices can prevent this.
>
> Joe Esposito