-------- Original Message --------
Subject: Re: PubScience under threat
   Date: Thu, 28 Jun 2001 09:42:02 -0400
   From: Tim Ingoldsby <TINGOLDSBY@aip.org>

 Steven, PubSCIENCE is not an "archive" - it is a collection of
bibliographic citations and abstracts, similar to (but much less
complete than) already available secondary databases such as INSPEC,
Compendex, Web of Science, Chemical Abstracts, etc.  PubSCIENCE also
lacks the rich classification and indexing of these established
databases.  PubSCIENCE links to the publisher's web site for access to
full text.  In my opinion, the demise of PubSCIENCE will have little
effect on the scientific community, given that the OJPS (AIP's Online
Journal Publishing Service that hosts more than 100 of the leading
physics and engineering journals) receives only about 100 link requests
from PubSCIENCE each month.  (That figure represents less than 0.08% of
the average monthly link requests coming into the OJPS.) Tim Ingoldsby

>>> Stevan Harnad <harnad@cogprints.soton.ac.uk> 6/28/01 8:55:36 AM >>>
First, it is not at all clear that this will happen. Second, if it
does, it is not clear that it will have an effect on the centralized
archives in question (e.g. PubScience). Third, even if it should have
such
an effect on those centralized archives, a much more powerful
alternative, immune to such legislative whims, is already available:
Distributed, Author/Institution Archiving, all linked into a global
virtual archive through OAI interoperability
(http://www.openarchives.org).
Free open-source software for institutions to create such immune
OAI-interoperable archives is available too: http://www.eprints.org

So don't despair: prepare, by distributing and interoperating. -- SH

On Wed, 27 Jun 2001, Declan Butler, Nature wrote:

> Dear Stevan
> This exclusive article...
>
> Budget proposal casts doubt over physics portal's future
>
> A powerful congressional committee has passed a budget bill which, if
> enacted, could close down PubScience, a free search service for the
physical
> sciences literature, operated by the US Department of Energy (DoE).
>
> The budget bill, which was passed last week by the House
appropriations
> subcommittee for energy and water development and was expected to be
> endorsed by the full appropriations committee, is likely have a
chilling
> effect on other government-operated services, including the National
Library
> of Medicine's PubMed Central, according to some observers.
>
> ... and an associated leader...
>
> Defending tax-funded navigation
>
> Opinion, Nature
> A congressional committee has erred in its appropriate desire to
support
> free enterprise.
>
>
> ...will appear in tomorrow's Nature. I've arranged for them to be made

> available on free access now on
>
> http://www.nature.com/nature/debates/e-access/
>
>
> I thought this may be of interest to members of this forum. Please
feel free
> to copy this message to others who may be interested in this
development.
>
> Cheers
> Declan

--------------------------------------------------------------------
Stevan Harnad                     harnad@cogsci.soton.ac.uk
Professor of Cognitive Science    harnad@princeton.edu
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             Computer Science     fax:   +44 23-80 592-865
University of Southampton         http://www.cogsci.soton.ac.uk/~harnad/

Highfield, Southampton            http://www.princeton.edu/~harnad/
SO17 1BJ UNITED KINGDOM

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