What's new about our journal? JOSF is a free
and peer-reviewed journal open to all submissions. We think
that the traditional copyrighted, expensive, and over-reviewed
publication model is premised on the expense of printing on
paper. Internet publishing eliminates the costs and therefore
the basis of restricting the number of papers by price and
editorial review. Quality-control and selection can easily
come after publication, democratizing science and maximizing
efficiency in many ways.
The traditional hardcopy subscription-based science publishing
is undergoing rapid re-evaluation and change. As distribution,
publishing, and page-setting become essentially free on the
internet, erstwhile mechanisms to restrict volume, length,
and cost become obsolete.
Although they are cherished traditions, journal editing and
selectivity are simply pre-publication assessments
of quality. If the costs of publication are low, selectivity
can be applied post-publication with all the benefits
of transparency (editorial and peer-evaluation), timeliness,
interactivity, and broad participation. In addition, the quality
of any single contribution is no longer assessed indirectly
by the relative exclusivity of a journal, but directly by
the ratings of the scientific community.
Peer-ratings (evaluations and discussion after the
fact) are standard on most commercial websites (eBay, Amazon)
where the cost of publishing approaches zero and unlimited
interaction is possible. Furthermore, the moment of judgement
is not frozen in time at the date of publication, but a continuing
process. We welcome comments and ratings of papers and will
post them onto the website. We're working on a way to upload
comments and ratings directly.
Given these benefits, and the inevitable progress to free
online dissemination of information, the journal just becomes
a public sounding board rather than an object in a library.
JOSF simply provides a forum for marine biologists.
Note that descriptions of new species still require
a paper version to be distributed to libraries: those issues
with species descriptions are printed on acid-free paper and
sent to Mayr (Harvard), Falconer (Stanford), SI (NMNH), KSL
(Yale), AMNH, CAS, SIO (Scripps), UCLA, UCI, UCSB, USC, &
Giles Mead (LACMNH)
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