Posting manuscripts on the internet (2 msg)

John Lederer <johnl[_at_]ibm.net> writes
>
> On 10/23/96, Albert Henderson <70244.1532[_at_]CompuServe.COM> said:
> >
> > Are you suggesting that APA does not represent the best interests of
> > their members, the profession, and the general public?
>
> It has been my experience that all organizations first represent the
> interests of the organization, then their members, then the.....<g>

(1) Max Weber's idea was that organizations, especially governments, may come to exist for the promotion of their bureaucracies. He had some examples that focused on control of budgets through administrative secrecy.

While that is certainly demonstable with an analysis of expenditures in our modern universities, I don't think there is much evidence of it in academic associations.

Al Henderson 70244.1532[_at_]compuserve.com

Laura N. Gasaway <unclng[_at_]email.unc.edu> wrote:
>

[snip]
> ... something I have always been told. Apparently, the "cash value" for
> divulging medical research results is in the publication itself. Since
> so many of these publishers are commercial and since they basically
> compete with some of the society publishers in biomedicine, I suspect
> that the policy is related to this underlying value.

(2) The famous Ingelfinger Rule that epitomizes the restriction on potential authors' premature dissemination was defined by the New England Journal of Medicine, published by the Massachusets Medical Society. Ingelfinger was succeeded twice as editor and his successors have simply updated the rule.

There has always been a certain amount of sour grapes by jealous competitors as well as some serious criticisms. I don't recall the editors' defense of their policy expressing the profit motive. There has been plenty written and published in NEJM, JAMA, SCIENCE, and The NEW YORK TIMES. Al Henderson 70244.1532[_at_]compuserve.com Received on Mon Oct 28 1996 - 23:07:58 GMT