Dear Subscribers:
Two points with regards to Wolfram's post:
First, (with regard to) "Three suggestions were made addressing the
aforementioned problems." particularly the second point "(2) One should
establish a bibliography web page that collates and
updates IRMS articles which could be accessed via the ISOGEOCHEM website."
I think this is a great idea, and a natural evolution of the use of the
WWW. A searchable bibliographic database dealing specifically with the
larger topic of SIRMS would be a tremendous benefit to the Stable Isotope
Community as a whole. Endeavoring to complete such a list would be a huge
task, and one that would probably require some level of funding for the
individual, or more likely the group of individuals who compiled such a
list. I'm sure that many of you out there who have readily shared your
bibliographic data base with us in the past already have much of the basic
database complete, but it would still be a monumental task to put that
database into HTML format. If a software program exists that could convert
a bibliographic database into HTML then the task becomes very manageable.
If the HTML'd database was not complete it could always be added to using a
acgi/cgi form. The script could also be "intelligent" enough to compare an
entry to the database to see if the submitted entry already existed.
Secondly, with regard to the overall topic of a dedicated IRMS
Journal, how about taking the next bold step and skip over putting the
Journal out in paper form and go directly to an electronic journal. I
would again suggest using the WWW as the format, and put the Journal out in
HTML format. Have the papers submitted in HTML format so that the process
of "acceptance to press run" becomes simplified. The Journal should be
referred, and I'll leave that topic for others to figure out how to
implement. If such an Electronic Journal worked, then eventually enough
papers would accumulate that the bibliographic references could be in
hypertext format.
Regards
Mike
>Dear Isotopists,
>
>First of all, a peaceful and prosperous 1997 to all of you!
>
>As you might remember, I asked, roughly a month ago, the question
>whether or not you would think that our community needs a journal
>dedicated to publishing stable isotope research.
>
>The answers ranged from "jolly good idea" to "oh no, not another
>journal". Overall, this opinion poll resulted in a strong maybe, i.e.
>50% of the entries were all for and the other 50% totally against it
>- not counting two entries that promoted an alternative.
>
>Even most of the positive answers raised the same considerations, if
>not to say reservations, as did the negative replies. One key issue
>was the price of a new journal that would add to current subscription
>costs. It was pointed out that library subscription have increased
>over 28% last year, only to keep up the current number of
>subscriptions. Another point was subject coverage and distribution/
>circulation of such a new journal. But the same people who made this
>point also agreed that solution to this problem would largely depend
>on us, i.e. quality of submissions and of peer review and promotion
>(leading to subscriptions) of the journal within our community.
>
>Three suggestions were made addressing the aforementioned problems.
>(1) One should win the support of a society (which?, even the
>proposer admitted he could not name one right now) to run such a
>journal in order to reduce costs by cutting out the middle-man. (2)
>One should establish a bibliography web page that collates and
>updates IRMS articles which could be accessed via the ISOGEOCHEM
>website. (3) Two respondants (the two mentioned earlier on) suggested
>to support the already existing journal "Isotopes in Environmental
>and Health Studies". As pointed out in my enquiry of 5 December, this
>journal unfortunately does not enjoy a wide circulation (there are
>people who do not evenknow of this journal existence!) but is is
>certainly true that the same bona fide support a new journal would
>require can be put to better use when aimed at an already existing
>journal. So, it is up to us, the potential contributors, reviewers
>and subscribers to make this journal THE journal for the stable
>isotope community. If some of you think that the current title seems
>to exclude their line of work, why not get in touch with the editor?
>This would not be the first journal that changed its name to
>accommodate changing scopes and demands.
>
>The address is: Prof. Dr. P. Krumbiegel, Editor, UFZ-Evironmental
>Research Centre, Permoserstr. 15, D-04318 Leipzig, Germany.
>By the by, the subcription rate in 1995 was $127 per volume.
>
>And this would be a the end of it, wouldn't it be for two further
>private communications I received in conjunction with my enquiry
>accusing me of infamy and profile neurosis. Since I cannot know if
>these hard feelings are shared by others, albeit silently, I would
>like to make the following statements. (1) The query I raised was
>ment as such. However, I was rather hoping that it would generate
>enough interest to prompt some isotope heavyweights (no pun intented)
>into action since I wouldn't even think of putting myself in the
>shoes of a chief-editor. Another hope was that one of the existing
>journals dealing with mass spectrometry and analytical chemistry
>might contemplate creating an IRMS subsection. (2) I would like to
>apologize for any distress my query or the way it was phrased might
>have caused, however unintentional.
>
>I am afraid, this turned out to be rather a lengthy message. Thank
>you for bearing with me.
>
>
>All the best,
> Wolfram
>
>
>
>
>
>
>*****************************************************
>Dr. W. Meier-Augenstein
>Hon. Lecturer in Chemistry
>
>University of Dundee, Dept. of Anatomy & Physiology,
>Small's Wynd, DUNDEE DD1 4HN, United Kingdom
>
>Tel.: +44-(0)1382-34/5124, /4968
> +44-(0)468 -314563
>Fax: +44-(0)1382-34/5514
>
>e-mail: [log in to unmask]
>
>URL: http://www.dundee.ac.uk/AnatPhys/wolfram.htm
>*****************************************************
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Michael M. Cheatham
312 Heroy Geology Laboratory Phone (315)-443-1261
Syracuse University Fax (315)-443-3363
Syracuse, NY 13244
email:[log in to unmask]
http://www.geochemistry.syr.edu/cheatham/Cheatham.HTML
http://www.geochemistry.syr.edu/cheatham/InstrPages.html
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