It is usual for a journal to only accept a paper if that paper has not
been published before. Therefore the practice of putting working papers
up on bulletin boards is incompatible with getting papers accepted for
publication by such a journal. It is therefore perfectly possible for
a journal to ask for assignment of copyright to it. If the paper has
appeared on a buletin board, the journal has likewise every right to
refuse to publish it.
Working papers on bulletin boards and refereed published journal articles involving assignment of copyright are incompatible. The scientific and publishing communities will have to decide which road they are going to go down: bulletin boards and no printed journal articles; journal articles and no bulletin boards; or printed journals that no longer insist on assignment of copyright.
Professor Charles Oppenheim
Dept. of Information Science,
University of Strathclyde.
Glasgow G1 1XH
Tel 041-552-4400; Fax 041-553-1393; e mail charles[_at_]dis.strath.ac.uk
Received on Thu Feb 03 1994 - 09:09:34 GMT
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