[236] in Public-Access_Computer_Systems_Forum
PSYC Indexing/Formatting Compromise
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Stevan Harnad)
Tue May 12 12:15:47 1992
Date: Tue, 12 May 1992 10:37:53 CDT
Reply-To: Public-Access Computer Systems Forum <PACS-L%UHUPVM1.BITNET@RICEVM1.RICE.EDU>
From: Stevan Harnad <harnad%Princeton.EDU@RICEVM1.RICE.EDU>
To: Multiple recipients of list PACS-L <PACS-L@UHUPVM1.BITNET>
----------------------------Original message----------------------------
Below are four interesting messages about citation and archiving format
for electronic journals. One agrees with PSYCOLOQUY's proposal to drop
volume/issue numbers in favor of searchable keyword and thread number
codes, two are against dropping them, and one offers a sample of the
kind of useful electronic solution the new medium specializes in spawning.
Clearly the medium is evolving and no one can yet speak with authority
on what will turn out to be the optimal solution. To be safe,
PSYCOLOQUY will retain volume and issue numbers for the time being.
Hence, instead of being indexed merely as:
psycoloquy.92.consciousness.1.bridgeman
and cited merely as:
Bridgeman, Bruce (1992) On the Evolution of Consciousness
and Language. PSYCOLOQUY: consciousness.1
The index and citation will include a volume and item number (in this
case, Volume 3, Number 15) as follows:
psycoloquy.92.3.15.consciousness.1.bridgeman
Bridgeman, Bruce (1992) On the Evolution of Consciousness
and Language. PSYCOLOQUY 3(15) consciousness.1
However, as soon as the world is ready for it, we will drop this
extra uninformative and redundant information...
-- SH
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(1)
Sender: "Publishing E-Journals : Publishing, Archiving,
and Access" <VPIEJ-L@VTVM1.BITNET>
From: BURNET%ZODIAC.bitnet@VTVM1.CC.VT.EDU
Like Chris Borgman, I am a library and information studies educator, which
is not to say a librarian. Unlike Chris, I don't see any real problem with
the format proposed for PSYCOLOQUY. It may take the style manuals a bit
to catch up, but rest assured, they will. We are dealing with a new
medium here, and it doesn't make sense to perpetuate a volume and
numbering schema that is meaningless. Perhaps it will even inspire a
change in print journals! I've often wished, when searching for an
issue of Library Trends which I know by its subject matter rather than
volume/issue that some key to the contents might be provided. Yes, it
will make it harder to deal with using current standardized formats (such
as MARC), but these are not immutable structures. There is room for
growth and change.
Kathleen Burnett Dept. of LIS Rutgers University
burnet@zodiac.rutgers.edu
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(2)
From: david@ruc.dk (David Stodolsky)
volume and issue numbers can be used in archiving and are useful for people
getting issues by mail. I see no reason not to use them.
David S. Stodolsky Messages: + 45 46 75 77 11 x 24 41
Department of Computer Science Tel: + 45 31 95 92 82
Bldg. 20.1, Roskilde University Center Internet: david@ruc.dk
Post Box 260, DK-4000 Roskilde, Denmark Fax: + 45 46 75 42 01
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(3)
From: jaffe@gandalf.rutgers.edu (Saul)
I've been reading the mail passing about volume and issue numbers on
your electronic journal. As the moderator of SF-Lovers Digest, the
largest Internet mail digest/journal, I can tell you that volume
numbers and issue numbers are nearly *vital* in looking up back issues
and for people to refer back to previous articles in future
submissions. Even with online search methods, it's a lot easier for
someone to refer to "issue #133" than "the issue with the article about
Isaac Asimov" especially since there are *many* issues with articles
about Asimov.
Also, there is an RFC in existence which should be followed which
defines how an electric journal or digest should appear. It gives
volume and issue numbers in the specifications.
And last, there are societal issues involved - many people and
organizations simply will not accept something as a "magazine" if it
does not have volume and issue numbers. In discussing things in regard
to copyrights for SF-Lovers, an attorney stated that I could not get
certain "ratings" by various organizations (such as the Post Office if
they start handling electric mail regularly) or copyright protection as
a magazine without the issue and volume numbers.
Your statement "For an electronic journal, volume and issue numbers are
minimally informative and actually unnecessary" is only partly true.
Yes, they are minimally informative but they are *very necessary* for a
number of reasons, as partially described above. Dummy volume and issue
numbers may only solve half your problem - acceptance by organizations
that require them. It does not solve the problem in regard to
referencing back issues nor does it solve the copyright problem.
If you would like to discuss this further, please don't hesitate to
contact me.
Saul Jaffe Rutgers University Jaffe@gandalf.rutgers.edu
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(4)
From: Todd Ogasawara <todd@uhunix.uhcc.Hawaii.Edu>
I read your message in PSYCOLOQUY (actually in USENET's
sci.psychology.digest) about the new citation format. I ftp'ed your
psyc.92.index file from princeton.edu:/pub/harnad soon after reading
your citation message. It occurred to me that your new format lends
itself well to automated formatting and search/retrieval.
I wrote a pair of 'quick & dirty' programs in the (relatively) portable
PERL language to: take a file formatted as psyc.92.index is (with
header, trailer, extraneous spaces in various places, etc.) and
reformat each citation into a single line which can be searched by any
keyword (or key fragment), name, etc. and print it in the original
format. (FYI: The source code for PERL is available free of charge for
many computer platforms).
The following is an example of how it works.
The following command line (on either a UNIX or MS-DOS system running PERL)
takes your file 'psyc.92.index' and writes the reformatted output to
'psyc.92.data'.
---------
psyxform.pl < psyc.92.index > psyc.92.data
The data in 'psyc.92.data' consists of one entry per line that look like
the following (note that each line is now separated by a pipe '|').
---------
Dow, James. |External and Internal Approaches to Emotion|PSYCOLOQUY, Sunday,
January 5th, 1992.|psyc.92.mood.2.dow
Nesse, Randolf. |Mood as a communication medium (Reply to Dow)|PSYCOLOQUY,
Sunday, January 5th, 1992.|psyc.92.mood.3.nesse
Sloman, Leon. |How Mood Variation Regulates Aggression|PSYCOLOQUY, Sunday,
January 5th, 1992.|psyc.92.mood.4.sloman
The search program (greppsy.pl) uses the same argument sequence as the UNIX
'grep' command: "greppsy.pl keyword-or-author-name file-to-search-in". The
following command results in the output shown below it (note that the search
request is insensitive to case):
-----------
greppsy.pl reply psyc.92.data
output from the greppsy.pl query is below:
-----------
Nesse, Randolf.
Mood as a communication medium (Reply to Dow)
PSYCOLOQUY, Sunday, January 5th, 1992.
psyc.92.mood.3.nesse
Nesse, Randolf.
Social functions of Mood: Reply to Sloman
PSYCOLOQUY, Sunday, January 5th, 1992.
psyc.92.mood.5.nesse
Skoyles, John R.
Not All Phonological... (Reply to Cassidy)
PSYCOLOQUY, Sunday, Janurary 5th, 1992.
psyc.92.reading.7.skoyles
If you think that others might want to use my software, please let me
know and I will be happy to give you the source code (a mere total of
86 lines of PERL code) for you to store on princeton.edu. I can place
the source code and a README file in a 'shar' file for UNIX machines
and a ZOO file for MS-DOS computers.
Todd Ogasawara
Todd Ogasawara, U. of Hawaii
BITNET todd@uhunix
INTERNET todd@uhunix.UHCC.HAWAII.EDU
