About The MRS Internet Journal of Nitride Semiconductor Research

Outline:

Introduction
Implementation
Risks
1. Failure
2. Success
  1. Cost Escalation
  2. Work Load
Frequently Asked Questions

Introduction As the Internet, particularly the World-Wide-Web, has exploded in popularity recently, its utility as a publishing medium has become evident. While there are a variety of opinions about the impact the Internet will have on technical publishing, there is widespread agreement that the impact will be profound. The MRS Internet Journal of Nitride Semiconductor Research (MIJ-NSR) is an experiment being undertaken by the Materials Research Society (MRS) to explore the viability of an internet-based electronic journal, while at the same time serving the needs of a dynamic and growing part of the Society's membership.

Short-Term Goals

In the first year of operation, the goal of MIJ-NSR is to be a useful World-Wide-Web site for researchers around the globe in the field of nitride semiconductor research. We will do so by serving as a medium for rapid, refereed publication, a source for topical news and information, and a site for interaction among researchers. In addition, MIJ-NSR will be an economic experiment that will demonstrate the viability of an author-supported publishing business model.

Long-Term Goals

The long-term goal of MIJ-NSR is to attempt the transformation of the technical publishing business. To do so, the journal will have to be fully self-supporting or better. Follow-ons like CD-ROMS or published volumes, and add-ons like advertising would have to generate enough revenue to induce MRS as well as other technical societies to clone the journal to meet the need of other technical communities.

The Business Model

The conundrum of technical publishing is that authors want to publish more, readers want to read less, and libraries, who currently pay for the whole thing, are starting to collapse under the weight of the whole system. Publishers have seen subscriptions cancelled. Readers can no longer easily obtain all papers relevant to their research. Journal contributors reach a smaller number of readers. The system is also regressive in so far as richer institutions can afford better libraries.

The conundrum of publishers is how to transfer a profitable paper business model to cyberspace. The business model for the MIJ-NSR asks for the authors to cover production costs while anyone with an Internet connection can read the manuscript for free. In addition, registered users of the journal will, for a small fee, enjoy additional participation privileges, and be a secondary source of income.

Implementation

Since this is an experiment, the guiding philosophy is to start small and to avoid overhead. Wherever possible, costs will be minimized and rationally apportioned.

Medium

MIJ-NSR will be delivered in Hypertext Markup Language (HTML), transmitted over the Internet's World Wide Web using a Hypertext Transmission Protocol (HTTP) Server. In addition, papers accepted for publication in MIJ-NSR will be formatted like paper journals and will be available in Adobe Acrobat (PDF) format. This will be accomplished by converting papers to a standardized format from which both PDF and present-day HTML can be made.

Conventional Features

Refereed Papers

As in a paper journal, the refereed papers would be listed in a table of contents. Links will replace page numbers.

Calendar

A schedule of meetings related to nitride semiconductor research.

Novel Features

Submitted Papers

At the author's request, preprints of submitted papers will be posted immediately. If the author prefers not to post the preprint, the submission is given a 'secret URL' which is given only to the author, editor and reviewers. The author may choose to direct colleagues to the 'secret URL'.

Reviews of Refereed papers

See the discussion of the review process below.

Discussion Threads

Linked to each paper or discussion topic would be a page of discussion. The discussion will consist of postings contributed via forms. Only registered users will be allowed to post to discussions. The editorial board will determine the appropriate levels of moderation for these discussions.

Reference Database

References to the literature are central to any well written technical paper. A reference database will be a central feature of MIJ-NSR. Registered users will be encouraged to contribute to and verify information in the database. Contributors will be encouraged to liberate their reference list by paying a small fee for each liberated reference. This small fee will be forwarded to the copyright holder of the reference in return for the right to post that abstract. Using this database, the reference sections of each published paper can be updated with forward references (Future papers which refer to the paper).

People Database

Registered users and authors will have entries in a database so that current contact information can be linked into the journal (such as a paper's authorlist). Registered users can add their biographies and nitride-related publications list to their journal "Homepages".

Linkability

Every page in the journal will have a URL so that anyone can link directly to that page from anywhere on the World Wide Web. The impossibility of links on Applied Physics Letters Online is a weakness of that journal.

Nitride-Related News

The news section will offer press releases moderated by an editor.

Possible Features

These are at present only possibilities. Subscriber demand, editorial enthusiasm and management discretion will determine their implementation. In any case, they won't be ready on launch.

Alternate Language Pages

Authors may wish to submit alternate language versions of their papers. English will still be required. In addition, translations of pages like this one will be made available.

Advertising

If anyone wants to pay for advertising, we can add an advertising section. This section will be formatted so as to be a non-intrusive reader service.

Statistics on paper popularity

It is a simple matter to program statistics tabulating how many hits a given paper has attracted.

Ancillaries

These products can be offered if they can make money or break even. Demand for these products will be assessed during subscriber registration.

CD-ROM.

The use of standardized formats could allow the production of a CD-ROM at a low cost. This product could be used as an inducement for registered users and for authors, and might be a popular product for libraries, especially those without internet access.

Proceedings Volume

Similar to CD-ROM, might prove popular among traditionalists.

Overnight paper delivery

This would require some clerical support.

FAXed paper delivery

This might actually be quite easy, if low cost billing is available.

Excerpt Publication

Publication of the best papers from MIJ-NSR in JMR is a possibility.

Registration

Although access will be completely free and uncontrolled for readers of the journal, there will be enhanced services for registered users of the journal. Registration will be offered free to MRS members for the first year. Pricing for the following years will depend on what ancillaries are included. Benefits of a subscription will include:

An e-newsletter

E-mail sent weekly describing the exciting new content in the journal.

Contribution Privileges

Discussions on particular papers and general discussion topics will be open to registered users only. This will ensure that discussion participants can be identified to encourage responsible and professional discourse.

Subscriber "Homepages"

The contact information for each author and registered user will reside in a "HomePage" for each person. Biographies and nitride-related reference lists can be added at the person's option. A link to the person's homepage will be allowed; Other links will not be allowed.

Mechanics

An author who wishes to submit a paper clicks on a link to the journal and is presented with a form asking for pertinent data. After submission of this form, the author is presented with an invoice for page charges, a copyright transfer agreement and, eventually, an electronic payment option. The page charges will depend on the manuscript length, format, writing quality, and willingness to use e-mail etc. The author then forwards the CTA and payment to the MRS as appropriate. The MRS will e-mail a payment confirmation to the Journal which provides the author an electronic address where the manuscript can be deposited. The Journal will run the manuscript through an HTML making machine, deposit it at a URL open to anyone on the World-Wide-Web to read. If the author has requested the preprint to be made public, a corresponding link from the main journal page will be established.

Editorial Process

The editorial process will be much like a traditional paper journal to ensure that only high quality, original research is accepted for publication. The referees will remain anonymous and can recommend publication, publication with optional or mandatory revisions, or rejection. Each paper will have two reviewers and an editor will make the final decision after the author has had the opportunity to respond to the reviewers' comments.

The Journal also plans to permit the reviewers to post comments alongside the manuscript. Each paper published in the MIJ-NSR will have an open discussion forum. The reviewers' comments, if permission is granted, will be the first entries. Review forms will include options for the referee to assign numerical ratings which will be published along with the paper.

After a paper is submitted, the URL, title and abstract of the paper will be auto-e-mailed to the editor, who will then forward them to a referee. The referee will also be given the URL for a review form. When the review is received, it will be e-mailed or faxed to the author and the editor in charge. The author has up to 30 days to respond to the reviewers' comments. After the author has revised the paper, or otherwise responded to the referees' comments, the editor decides to accept, reject, or resubmit the paper to the reviewer.

The need for editorial involvement in moderation of subscriber-contributed discussions will be at the discretion of the editorial board. The experience of moderated USENET newsgroups suggests that only minimal moderation is needed to raise the quality of popular newsgroups, and that such moderation is greatly valued. Restricting the contributing group to registered users, and not allowing anonymous posting will avoid "graffiti".

Resources and Responsibilities

Start-up Costs

Hardware and commercial software valued at less than $10K has been provided by the MRS.

Internet Connection

The Internet Connection for the start-up phase is being provided by Bell Labs.

Construction and Maintenance

Eric Hellman of AT&T Bell Labs will construct and maintain the system for the first year, serve as "Journalmaster", and continue as long as his management will let him. To assure authors that the e-journal will be in some sense archival, MRS has made a commitment that the journal will remain accessible into the future.

Production

A graphics contractor will be used for final production and disk conversion services. The costs for this will be passed on to the authors. MRS will monitor the performance of the contractor

Accounting/Financial

The MRS will handle the accounting and collection of page charges, "subscription fees", advertising revenues and ancillary product income. The MRS will process and administer Copyright Transfers and will own the copyrights. The MRS will provide access to databases needed to process member subscriptions. The MRS will provide clerical support for paper submissions, and ancillary product fulfillment, on a per-transaction basis.

Editorial

An editorial board will function just much as in any other journal. Co-editors are appointed to one year terms to oversee the content of the Journal site. An editorial board is empowered to determine larger editorial policy issues, for example the desirability of a new service to registered users. Discussion moderators will be recruited by the editorial board for discussions, etc.

Publicity

MRS will provide publicity in its other publications and meeting announcements.

Risks

Failure

Author Acceptance

If authors don't use the journal, it will not be successful. The two critical factors here are the ease of publishing, and the perceived "prestige" of the journal. By operating under the auspices of the MRS, and conforming to accepted scientific standards and procedures, and being fully referencable, the Journal hopes to insure that papers published in MIJ-NSR will be treated on par with traditional paper publications by funding agencies, tenure committees etc.

Technical difficulties/Performance

The journal will have many moving parts. If too many of them are broken, the user experience will suffer. On the other hand, the basic journal components are actually quite simple. External factors, such as Internet bottlenecks, are also a short term concern. In addition the performance the hardware/software combination is hard to estimate in advance.

last updated Sunday, November 26, 1995 2:35:53 AM.