X-Message-Number: 5009 From: (David Stodolsky) Subject: Re: Memory, ischemia and freezing: let's put the discussion on the web Date: Tue, 17 Oct 95 20:20:58 +0100 In Message #4995 Ralph Merkle <> states: Subject: Memory, ischemia and freezing: let's put the discussion on the web >A general observation: a mailing list is an awful place to hold >a serious discussion. Regardless of the merit of a post, it fades >and is forgotten. The same arguments are hashed and rehashed, and If the posts are archived, they can be accessed by various means. Let's not forget that most do not have Web access. The HyperMail program can give Web users a fully threaded view of a mailing list automatically. >As a consequence, it might be useful if someone were to volunteer >as webmaster of the "Memory, ischemia and freezing home page." Better to have an editorial team. This reduces the risk of bias, and makes continuity over time more likely. Simple approval rules, such as those being used in the sci.med.aids newsgroup could be applied. Another model is the Web-based Universal(?) Journal of Computer Science (UJCS). > As a consequence, >it would seem appropriate that the "Memory" page be organized by >topics, where each topic discusses a particular type of damage to Such organization could just as well be handled through an independent Web site. This would have the advantage that links could be made to the biomedical literature without the risk of being "tainted" by its connection to cryonics. >If the foregoing proposal looks suspiciously like a special topic >technical journal which happens to be on the web, you've pretty much >got the idea. The differences are (a) it's a lot easier to create >some web pages than it is to start a journal, (b) it would be more >widely and easily available, (c) "submissions" would likely be >shorter and more numerous, as the overhead involved in paper These are all good reasons for a new journal to go electronic. >publication is largely eliminated, (d) it would be relatively >easy to put in back links, i.e., you could easily find out what >subsequent posters had to say about a given page, thus helping >to rapidly weed out errors and (e) "refereeing" would be simpler, Back links are built into Hyper-G servers and they can be added to regular Web pages with the new Open Journal link databases: ------------------------------------------------------------ Date: Tue, 3 Oct 1995 18:59:13 BST Reply-To: Steve Hitchcock <> From: Steve Hitchcock <> Subject: Open Journal project news To: Multiple recipients of list VPIEJ-L <> News release Linking hypermedia journals on the World Wide Web: the Open Journal project http://journals.ecs.soton.ac.uk/ The main features of the project's link service are: * Links do not need to be placed when journal papers are authored, thus realizing the concept of the 'open' journal * Links can be made _from_ archival journals available electronically, not only from new publications or new issues * Links can be made from documents in popular electronic formats, such as pdf, as well as html * Links can be created by simple point-and-click mouse operations rather than embedded, inflexible and costly html code Powerful and flexible hypermedia linking facilities are being added to quality scientific journals that are available over the World Wide Web under a new project supported by the Electronic Libraries (eLib) programme, funded by the Higher Education Funding Bodies in the United Kingdom. -------------------------------------------------------------- >And if the webmaster got really ambitious, some of the more hotly >debated topics could be reformulated as questions suitable for >Idea Futures. If some of the Caribean web-based gambling operations Unfortunately, another Not Invented Here (NIH) project, which in fact reifies the entire scientific system and duplicates a venture capital market. For an intro to a scientific communication system which explicitly introduces the equivalent of a venture capital market into the publication process see: URL: ftp://ftp.eu.net/documents/authors/Stodolsky/selfman.crit.dialog or my lead article (which may not be out yet) which deal explicitly with electronic publication of scientific communications: Stodolsky, D. S. (1995). Consensus journals: Invitational journals based upon peer review. The Information Society, 11(4). [Special issue on Electronic Journals and Scholarly Publishing] In summary, cryonics needs an "acceptable" outlet for scientific "papers", which can also attract main line researchers who will not touch cryonics for fear of their career possibilities. A Web journal that linked to such researchers' on-line materials could be a first step in expanding the scientific manpower thinking about neuropreservation problems. Explicit invitations to these researchers to evaluate pages linked to their own materials could be a way to stimulate involvement and follow-up "papers". (See my last cited paper on how this would work ideally.) Cryonic suspension will not be regarded as a science, until it is supported by a quality (peer reviewed) journal. The electronic format lowers the threshold for achieving this desirable state. The invitational structure proposed above, eases both the workload on editorial staff and potential referees, as well as easing building this pool of persons. The focus should be on the social aspect of the effort, that is, getting editors/referees with acceptable standing to launch the effort. Technical standards around electronic publishing are evolving so fast right now that any 'innovations' are likely to be eclipsed in the near future. dss David S. Stodolsky Euromath Center University of Copenhagen Tel.: +45 38 33 03 30 Fax: +45 38 33 88 80 (C) Rate This Message: http://www.cryonet.org/cgi-bin/rate.cgi?msg=5009