Stevan Harnad writes:
>
>On Tue, 3 Jun 2003, David Goodman wrote:
>
>> I can testify personally to one of the strong disincentives, though it
>> sounds trivial.
>> I work in an old version of MS Word...
>> The version I use does not automatically make pdfs...
>> ...the pdfs produced this way do not have full functionality...
>> I would as soon
>> change my preferred word processing program as my browser or my email.
>>
>> Any commercial publisher will gladly take my .doc files and convert
>> them. ArXiV and similar OAI programs will not. It is more important to
>> me to write conveniently than to support a particularly inconvenient
>> version of archiving. I'll contribute to OAI archives when they
>> accommodate me. To the best of my knowledge, a great many people in the
>> academic world feel the same.
>
>This is indeed trivial, but I suspect that all of the kind of things
>holding people back from self-archiving are equally trivial.
Having spent 10 years helping people with similar problems (submitting
to EconWPA), I don't think this is so trivial. At EconWPA, if an
MS-Word or WordPerfect file is submitted, I convert it to a pdf format,
myself, by hand.
I suspect that it would be a good idea to incorporate such a
service, or even point to such services.
>
>There is no need to generate PDF. All the Eprint archives require is
>one text version, screen-readable and harvestable by full-text inverters.
Well, then it is on US to be sure that the requirements are known, and that
they are easy requirements, and that Eprint software requirements are
known. For example, where is it written that the document must be
full-text invertible?
If old versions of Word are a problem, then WE (the preachers) ought
to remove those impediments to getting it into archives.
I will offer to convert any Word or WordPefect document, up to 10 per month.
Simply email the document as an attachment to bob_at_parks.wustl.edu and
put 'please help convert to pdf' as the subject. Indicate in the body of
the text the archive in which you will place the converted pdf.
>Hence MS-Word-generated HTML or even ASCII (text-only) is sufficient. As
>long as you archive one version like that, you can also archive the
>MS Word document for those who can use it, and wish to.
Well, MS-Word-generated HTML might not be available (if the Word
version is old enough), and I suspect that this author would worry
about formatting problems in the ASCII version (or even the HTML version).
E.g., footnotes are problematical in older versions of Word.
>
>Remember, self-archiving is a *supplement* to peer-reviewed journal
>publication, not a *substitute* for it; it is intended to provide
>immediate open access to your peer-reviewed research output ("vanilla
>version") for those whose institutions cannot afford toll-access to
>the official publisher's version, in order to maximize the impact of
>your research:
>http://www.ecs.soton.ac.uk/~harnad/Temp/self-archiving.htm
YEP!!!!!!!!!!
>
>Next...
>
Bob
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Always remember: inertia has no effect on the ultimate steady state solution.
NEVER remember: Keynes said in the long run we are all dead.
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Received on Tue Jun 03 2003 - 23:02:52 BST