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by jmcgough 5233 days ago
This or some variant of it is most likely the future of scientific publications, now that physical publication isn't really necessary.

A really good example is arXiv (http://arxiv.org/).
2 comments
_delirium 5233 days ago
There are some DIY-ish journals in some areas as well, in addition to preprint archives. The top-ranked machine-learning journal is now run on an annual budget of $0, on volunteer labor, print-on-demand publishing, and MIT server space: http://jmlr.csail.mit.edu/
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cfn 5233 days ago
Cannot agree more. Paper publishing is no longer necessary at all (maybe with a few exceptions). Scientists should be publishing to an online application with universal access where their peers could review and comment on the papers. The current system made sense in the past because publishing was complex and expensive. With the advent of desktop publishing and the web, both publishing and the reviewing process were greatly simplified and are essentially done by the researchers themselves. I mean, you have to provide the publisher with "camera ready" files and, in some cases, you have to suggest a couple of names for possible reviewers. How hard is it to do the rest of the work?
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