From: Bob Leif To: cyto-inbox The word is disintermediation. Because of the Internet, the value added by the publishers has greatly diminished. Ultimately, publication will be via the Web. There is no added value to having the authors move their figures and tables to the end of the publication and printing color figures in black and white. We would be better off submitting our articles as PDF files. >From my experience with most journals, the publishers have diminished the use of proof-readers. Cytometry uses both English and American spellings and sometimes periods as separators for numbers. I am perfectly happy with either format. It is a publisher’s job to choose one. The extension of Cytometry to Cytomics will dilute the focus of the journal. This is not a criticism. However, it will result in a decrease in the proportion of articles that are of direct interest to each reader. I completely agree with the suggestion of making the articles available on the Web. However, I believe that ISAC should not totally give away this potential source of revenue. I presently pay $3.00 for a patent, which I receive in usually less than five minutes. My recommendation is that $3.00 is an upper bound on the price of an article. I would prefer that it be less. ISAC should determine if the model of The Histochemistry Society is appropriate to our needs. Reprints of Journal of Histochemistry and Cytochemistry are distributed through HighWire: http://highwire.stanford.edu/ -----Original Message----- From: Kenneth Ault [mailto:AULTK@mmc.org] Sent: Friday, May 17, 2002 12:09 PM To: cyto-inbox Subject: Re: Publishers and Contracts This topic raises an issue that has bothered me for some time. It seems to me that publishers routinely use the native desire of scientists to become famous, and the fact that many of us have considerable egos, to take advantage of us. They ask us to write articles for books, or to edit books, and pay nothing or a pittance when they are able to make enough money to make it worthwhile for themselves. I'm not saying that publishing is anything close to the energy trading business in terms of profitability, but I do think we are taken advantage of. It would be nice (although probably impossible) if the scientific community could come up with a mechanism to defend ourselves against this kind of exploitation. Maybe its just my stupidity and poor negotiating ability, but I'd be interested in the thoughts of others. Ken Ault
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