Electronic publishing in science

Pergamon Vistas in Astronomy Vol. 40, No. 3, pp. 369-380, 1996

Copyright © 1996 ICSU. Published by Elsevier Science Ltd Printed in Great Britain. All rights reserved

0083-6656/96 $32.00 + 0.00

P I h S 0 0 8 3 - 6 6 5 6 ( 9 6 ) 0 0 0 1 8 - 9

ELECTRONIC PUBLISHING IN SCIENCE D E N N I S S H A W

ICSU Press, Oxford *

Abstract- - This paper describes the planning by ICSU Press and UN- ESCO leading to a Conference of Experts on Electronic Publishing in Science held in Paris in February 1996. The origin of the conference arose from a resolution at the 1993 General Assembly of the Interna- tional Council of Scientific Unions. The experiences and views of expert scientists, librarians, publishers and information brokers are summarized together with their recommendations formulated by working groups and approved by the 150 invited participants drawn from 34 countries worldwide. In conclusion, an attempt is made to show the relevance of these deliberations to the aims of the 1996 workshop on Converging Comput- ing Methodologies in Astronomy. Copyright ©1996 The International Council of Scientific Unions. Published by Elsevier Science Ltd.

1. I N T R O D U C T I O N

One hundred and fifty experts in electronic publishing (EP) met in Paris for a week during February 1996 to identify issues of concern and to advise on future action so that electronic publishing is used for the benefit of science. On the last day members in conference approved 18 recommendations for future action towards this aim. This paper summarizes the studies leading to the proposal for such a conference, shows how it came to be sponsored by ICSU and UNESCO and justifies the selection of speakers, topics and participants. It aims to justify the status of the recommendations as definitive and comprehensive for the whole of the international scientific community including not only the creators and users of scientific research but also those intermediaries who play a part in the distribution and archiving of scientific information. Throughout the planning and during the actual conference emphasis was directed towards primary scientific publications. The purpose of this presentation is to outline the broad themes chosen by the speakers, the recommendations and conclusions. In addition future plans for implementation of the recommendations will be discussed with particular reference to the aims of this workshop on Converging Computing Methodologies in Astronomy. Thus it is hoped that your deliberations may take into account the likely developments in the next few years in the methods for communicating the results of scientific research.

*E-mail: [email protected].

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2. ORIGIN OF T H E C O N F E R E N C E

ICSU Press initiated a preliminary consultation in collaboration with UNESCO in June 1993 when a small group of experts gathered in Paris for a one-day meeting to consider the general problems of electronic publishing and intellectual property rights of authors (Shaw, 1993). This discussion, together with conclusions were reported to the 24th General Assembly of lCSU in Santiago (Chile) in October of that year and, as a result, a resolution was approved requesting ICSU Press, in close collaboration with the Scientific Unions, to maintain a watching brief on the rapid expansion of electronic publishing, expected to occur during the next few years, which may seriously affect the economic viability of journal publishing, engender a reduction in the use of the peer review system and a concurrent increase in problems concerning intellectual property (ICSU, 1993). Recognizing that the maintenance of the necessary infrastructure is of utmost importance to authors, publishers and readers as these developments take place ICSU Press was requested also to report pe- riodically to the ICSU Executive Board to ensure that the best interests of the international scientific community are taken into consideration.

3. T H E C O N F E R E N C E P L A N

During 1994 the ICSU Press Committee decided that the best way to respond to this request would be to convene a second much larger and fully representative meeting of experts to review the whole field of electronic publishing in primary science and to formulate recommendations which would have the support of a much wider body (Shaw, 1994). The collaboration of UNESCO was again sought and welcomed for the following reason: ICSU is an association of non-governmental unions whereas UNESCO is directly supported by National Governments; thus, the interests of all concerned may be accommodated and channeled through one of the two partners in this enterprise, as will be seen later when the recommendations are presented and discussed.

The conference plan provided for state-of-the-art presentations by speakers invited to review the following major topics and issues:

(1) A review of the present state of electronic publishing in science. (2) Electronic data storage, access and archiving. (3) Legal and ethical issues in electronic publishing. (4) Tools and standards for protection, control and presentation of data. (5) Scientists and publishers views of electronic publishing. (6) Economics and organization of primary electronic publishing. (7) Options for the future.

Participation was by invitation following nomination by one of the following: (1) an Inter- national Scientific Union; (2) a National Scientific member of ICSU; (3) an International Scientific Associate of ICSU; (4) a UNESCO National Delegation. In addition a limited number of scientific publishers were invited by inquiry through STM International.

A Programme Committee was formed from nominations received from ICSU bodies (ICSU, 1996a) and at its first meeting in December 1994 selected speakers were approved for the chosen topics. It was agreed that the main discussions should take place in working groups, which participants would be invited to join. In the event this scheme

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proved to be satisfactory and achieved the desired result. Further details of the initial plans may be found in Science International (ICSU, 1995).

4. SUMMARY OF PRESENTATIONS

The full text of each of the papers from the Conference is available on the World-wide Web in the ICSU Home Pages (ICSU, 1996b). This summary is selected from these papers and highlights those topics which were referred to in the recommendations. There have been six other summaries so far published since the Conference and these have all been prepared from different viewpoints. The article by Butler (1996) in Nature was the first to appear the week after the conference and highlighted the discussion on Peer Review. Shaw (1996) emphasized the recommendations which were published alongside his summary. Lex Lefebvre STM emphasized the importance of the various recommendations addressed to publishers in general whereas Sens (1996) concentrated on the way electronic publishing had already transformed the process of publishing and outlined the plans of physicists to re-engineer the whole scene by the construction of a seamless electronic web throughout the chain of processes leading to the final appearance of the definitive work. Brown (1996) summarized all the contributions in the order they were presented. Finally the report of the Conference Chairman (Elliott, 1996) identified those issues which are of concern to the four major constituencies; scientists, librarians, information brokers and publishers, and drew attention to the far-reaching nature of the recommendations to which we shall return shortly.

5. WHERE ARE WE NOW?---OR WHERE WERE WE THEN?

Although invited participants were experts in electronic publishing, it was realized that their experience ranged over a wide variety of subjects. In order that full benefit could be derived from the working group discussion it was necessary to ensure, as far as possible, that they all were familiar with the state of the art in the main themes of the conference. The first session included three papers on the present status presented by Bryan Coles a physicist and director of a commercial scientific publisher, Franco Mastroddi of DG XIII an information officer in the EEC (DG XIIIE), and Vanderlei Canhos a Biologist from the University of Campinas in Brazil.

Coles drew attention to the widespread submission of scientific papers in machine- readable format but few journal editors were yet using EP for refereeing. CD-ROM editions are now available for many hardcopy journals and reviews but the additional cost of subscription is beyond the resources of many potential users. In some scientific disciplines bulletin boards on the Web have replaced the preprint circulation which was its forerunner. However, there exists the need for a peer-reviewed version to be produced and authenticated. Citation presents problems unless there is a definitive version of an author's contribution.

Mastroddi reported studies in the European Union (EU) suggesting that ep would account for 20-30% of STM publishing in the next 10 years. The main challenge was for the user to occupy the driving seat and to enable him to get faster, cheaper and more accurate access to scientific information through the EP network. EP is still on a growth curve and the shape suggests that it will be at least 5 years before equilibrium is established. One EU study is designed to examine possible ways in which the current scientific information chain may be remodelled better to satisfy the needs of both user and provider. In

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an Appendix to this paper there was included a review of EU funded activities which are run by a consortia of information providers and users in the European Union.

Canhos drew attention to the importance of developing better interactive communication systems to enable scientists in developing countries to benefit from the advantages of electronic publishing. A change is required on the part of policy makers, publishers and the research community to a more proactive and sympathetic attitude to help their colleagues in the developing world. This would ultimately benefit the whole international community. Key interventions were called for to overcome the technical and political problems to be solved to improve Internet connectivity; the establishment of the infrastructure required for the operation of reliable information resources and to raise the awareness in these countries of the potential of telematics for commercial and economic uses as well as for the benefit of science.

6. STORAGE, ACCESS AND ARCHIVING DATA IN DIGITAL FORMAT

Two librarians, Derek Law of King's College London and Robert Wedgeworth of the University of Illinois at Urbana/Champaign, were invited to speak on means of storage, providing access to data in digital format and the need for, and problems of, archiving texts and numerical data.

Law drew attention to the fact that although storage is essential for the pursuit of schol- arship and research it is unlikely to be commercially economic. The intellectual property rights in much modem science rests in private hands and without measures for the public good future access will be severely restricted. The causes of this restriction could be commercial, dogmatic, or through technical incompetence. Although bandwidth should be available enabling rapid transfer of data, it will not necessarily be cheap. Serious investiga- tions are needed on issues such as network topology, mirror sites and caching. Legal de- posit, which has enabled the creation of national archives of printed material, may provide a solution but the question of cost recovery is of paramount importance. An alternative would be for learned societies and national academies to accept responsibility but that does not solve the problem of funding.

Wedgeworth outlined the American programme of research into the problems of digital libraries through the Digital Library Initiative (DLI) which is sponsored by NSF, ARPA and NASA and focuses on technical and policy issues. Six universities (Carnegie-Mellon, Berkeley, Michigan, Santa Barbara, Stanford and Illinois) are participants with a total funding of $25 million. The UIUC programme is designed to establish a test-bed of digital articles from engineering and scientific journals supplied directly by major learned society and commercial publishers in SGML format. This project will make primary scientific literature available over the Internet via robust, full-text search and retrievable database technologies using intelligent multi-media interface software. One of the early products of this system is an EP edition of the proceedings of our ICSU/UNESCO Conference (ICSU, 1996a) where further details of this project may be found.


7. T O O L S A N D S T A N D A R D S F O R P R O T E C T I O N , C O N T R O L A N D P R E S E N T A T I O N O F DATA

Three speakers invited to contribute papers for this session were Edward Barrow, Li- censing Officer of the U.K. Copyright Licensing Agency, Douglas Armati an independent consultant and Andre Heck (who opened this workshop today).

Barrow emphasized the importance of protecting the investment made by publishers and the creativity of authors in order that the information superhighway may provide a more valuable service to society. In order that the necessary rights infrastructure may exist a five-layer model needs to be in place. The five layers proposed are: (a) a statutory and judicial layer; (b) a contractual and license layer; (c) a layer for copyright and accounting systems; (d) a layer for copyright management; and (e) a system for technical copyright protection (TCP). For the present audience the fifth layer is the most significant, although we should be concerned with the other four. Three principal protection systems are emerging as possibilities to achieve TCP. These are encryption, tattooing and fingerprinting. Encryption is the only technology which may prevent first unauthorized use. However, once a file is decrypted it can be passed to other unauthorized users. Tattooing involves the creation of a permanent indelible mark in the digital record. The UDID system described by Armati is one such method. Fingerprinting is an extension of this incorporating as well as a tattoo a mark identifying the user or system at the time of access.

Armati listed the readily available elements required to build a world class integrated EP system. These are: capable hardware, secure web server software, client/server web publishing tools, a powerful search engine, integrated groupware and document management, software for generating html code, a range of authoring tools and a portable document file generator to provide presentational integrity. These elements enable a system to provide data protection, control and presentation so long as the data remains in the server system. Problems arise when owners of the rights in the stored data wish to protect their interests, control further use, ensure integrity of presentation and receive financial reward. In his paper Armati covers the latter points, indicating what developments towards solutions are currently being undertaken.

Heck concentrated attention on the broader base of electronic information handling (EIH) which encompasses the activities usually associated with conventional EP. He emphasized that the emerging technologies should lead to a reinterpretation of the processes involved in information handling in view of the extended capabilities of emerging systems. There is much work to be done in ethics, law, security, robustness and user education. Many of these points were discussed by the working groups and figure in the recommendations. Heck's paper includes several examples showing the importance of addressing these problems as a matter of concern. In conclusion there was a brief discussion of many other issues at stake including improvement in the maintenance process of information resources, de- signing and testing quality control processes, the development of an ethical charter for the World-Wide Web, more frequent inclusion of references to original sources and improved methods of citation.

8. L E G A L A N D E T H I C A L I S S U E S

Legal and ethical issues in EP were addressed by Thomas Dreier (a member of the research staff of the Max-Planck-Institute for Foreign and International Patent, Copyright

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and Competition Law in Munich) and Charles Clark (General Counsel for the International Publishers Copyright Council).

Dreier drew attention to the language of existing copyright laws which was a response to the invention and practical application of book publishing. These have been extended to cover new media such as phonograms, radio, television and video but the transition to the digital era is not going as smoothly as the other adaptations. The following were included in the list of fundamental issues needing to be addressed: the fact that offering material on-line constitutes an act subject to copyright, as well as the acts such as display on screen and temporary storage; the question of moral rights; contractual protection of creators and producers of primary material to ensure their adequate participation in the proceeds from digital exploitation; adequate organization of the acquisition and administration of rights in the digital environment; the matter of applicable law in a trans-border context; and international harmonization. Unfortunately, the World Intellectual Property Organization (Geneva) was unable to respond to the invitation to send a representative to the conference.

Clark started his presentation by emphasizing the revolutionary scale of the delivery of digital data now available on the Internet. Our present structure of laws covering contracts between providers and users of this information needs to be evolved to absorb the new means of delivery and new works in ways which encourage them on the traditional basis of reward. Copyright encourages creation of and the flow of information and is also the trading system for the works that are created. The challenge we face includes not only the means to secure reward for use but also to ensure that the securing of that reward is fast, simple and as painless as possible. Publishers need to consider the ways in which the copyright system might be refined and evolved to give proper place to their interests as prime investors of organizational and creative skills. He drew attention to the way in which international law needs to be extended to cover the new situations which now arise. The problems are being addressed by WlPO which has organized a series of international symposia (WIPO, 1995) to explore the problems and their solutions. The most recent of these was held in Italy in late 1995. Clark presented the agenda for these developments under seven headings: (1) Application of author's exclusive rights, (2) protection of publisher's investment, (3) limiting exceptions to rights, (4) multimedia, (5) upstream and downstream licensing (6) "the answer to the machine is the machine" and (7) the international perspective. Under the last heading attention was drawn to the increasing mismatch between the traditional concept of the nation state as the engine of economic and social management (which includes intellectual property), and the reality of the rise in trans-national activity. The Internet now operates in over 75 countries reaching over 25 million people who access the Internet via more than 2 million PCs with no concern for national boundaries. Other information delivery systems, e.g. distance learning systems will likewise show no concern. But our copyright system is based on the concept of the nation state as exemplified in the Berne Convention. The way ahead seems to require a practical alliance of national identification codes with a collective administration such as that referred to by Armati (loc.cit.).

9. SCIENTISTS' VIEW OF ELECTRONIC PUBLISHING AND ISSUES RAISED

Three papers were presented in this session by scientists from very different disciplines and with differing experiences. The contributions were made by Sydney Hall of the Crystal- lography Centre at the University of Western Australia, Juan Voutssas from the Scientific


Information Centre at the UNAM in Mexico City and Paul Ginsparg a theoretical physicist from Los Alamos National Laboratory, U.S.A.

Hall drew attention first to the fact that scientific journals, although of great importance in the scientific communication process, represent only a small part of information dissem- ination in contemporary society. The Internet is used for a wide variety of other disciplines and not only for the serious matter of primary scholarly information flow. He chose to address both a scientist's and an editor's view of desirable outcomes resulting from EP. As an author of scientific papers he drew attention to the concerns of many authors who are confronted with an array of submission requirements as a result of the introduction of EE Are these changes necessary; are they effective; and are the publishers considering authors' needs and priorities when they introduce the new requirements? As a reader Hall questioned whether publication will be faster, "better" and of high quality. Also, will peer review be maintained and will data continue to be evaluated (considered a sine qua non by the majority of scientists)? As an editor of Aeta Crystallographica, Hall related the main changes for the professional and editorial staff resulting from the introduction of EP This is a major topic and those interested are referred to the original paper for full details. Ref- erence is made there to the introduction of data exchange standards, the need to insist on conformity with specified software and data definitions, the provision of automatic e-mail servers enabling authors to check their CIF prior to submission, the role of co-editors at the reviewing stage and the procedures for generating the final proof. The CIF archive is a crucial part of the delivery strategy since the CIF contains much more information than the published paper. In conclusion a summary was presented of delivery modes. Since many scientists seeking IUCr publications do not have ready access to the World-Wide Web the EP editions complement rather than replace the hard-copy edition. For various reasons, particularly the uncertain additional costs and the relatively small proportion of scientists yet able to fully utilize EP techniques, it is considered that most hard-copy journals will survive this generation of scientists.

Voutssas discussed the issues raised by the contemporary scene for those countries not yet part of the globalization of electronic communications and information management. The issues are quite different from those cited by scientists in most western societies and other technologically developed countries. There is a need to define development policies and infrastructures as well as strategies and policies for development. This is essential to provide an equitable basis for more active participation by scientists in these less well endowed countries. The motivation for such improvements is not solely to create a niche for the weaker members of the international community in the global electronic market. Rather, it demands the creation of a genuine universal global network of scientists thus ensuring a balanced international EP network.

Paul Ginsparg described a set of automated electronic archives in many fields of physics which has been operational since 1991. These archives, in February 1996 served over 35,000 users worldwide from over 70 countries and processed over 70,000 electronic transactions daily. The system conveys both topical and archival research information. The archive is available alike to researchers in the developed and less developed countries. It is suggested that the current model of funding publishing companies through research libraries, which in turn are funded from research grants, is unlikely to survive in the electronic realm. The print-on paper medium has proved difficult to produce, distribute, archive and duplicate, thus requiring numerous local redistribution points in the form of research libraries. The electronic medium shares none of these features thus enabling a more efficient distribution of research information which is also more cost-effective. Ginsparg claimed that a correctly

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configured fully electronic scholarly journal could be operated at a fraction of the cost of a conventional print-on paper journal. It could be fully supported by author subsidy (including the work of digital file construction) which, ideally, would allow for free network distribution and maximum benefit to both authors and users. Easily implemented quality appraisal mechanisms in the electronic era would be dramatically superior to the one-time, all or nothing, procedure employed in the print medium. Furthermore, authors and their funding institutions will be able to insist on the retention of distribution rights for both research documents and attachments in the format originally composed. The issue is how quickly the transition will occur since the requisite tools are now available on-line. Open questions remain as to the most effective means of costs recovery, what agencies will be responsible for the various databases, and integrity of the archive material. Finally, the question is raised how, and to what extent, provision must be made for online peer review and authentication of the contents. The presentation concluded with an analysis of outstanding problems and suggestions how they may be resolved. The most important of these arose from the impossibility of continuing the present level of financial support for libraries. The continued development of mirror sites would improve global access particularly in those parts of the world where telecommunications are restricted by political and technological considerations. There is a need for better means of handling meta-level indexing information. Development of electronic formats will proceed so that the current preferred software packages (such as TeX, PostScript, PDF and Microsoft Word) will likely be superseded. However, there is a need to ensure that the means of access to and presentation of archive material will continue to be possible.

10. VIEWS OF COMMERCIAL AND LEARNED SOCIETY PUBLISHERS ON ISSUES RAISED

To complement the scientists' views, there were four short contributions from represen- tatives of commercial and learned society publishers. Peter Boyce, of the American As- tronomical Society, outlined the plans for the Electronic Astrophysical Journal (EApJL) which was launched in September 1995 and the Astronomical Journal which is scheduled for on-line availability later this year. The problems facing a learned society which uses profits from sales of hard-copy journals to finance other scholarly activities were shared with Harry Lustig of the American Physical Society, who presented a concise view of the economics of publishing a comprehensive range of physics journals. The advent of EP has added several new challenges and raised expectations. APS has committed itself to a number of goals including all its journals available electronically within 5 years, following the successful launch of the EP version of Physical Review Letters, Physical Review C and Nu- clear Physics. The remainder of the programme is summarized in the paper which includes a listing of anticipated problems and difficulties to be overcome.

Hans Roosendaal of Elsevier Science gave an outline of a research study jointly au- thored with Joost Kircz which was a two-fold approach to the issues and opportunities for scientific information posed by modern electronic media. The first part of the paper addressed a number of elements in the process of information needs, transfer and disclosure, in academia, and presented the results of in-depth interviews with university scientists in medical sciences, chemistry, engineering and high energy physics. This was followed by considering the changes electronic publishing will bring about in the processes of information handling. An attempt was made to analyze the different cognitive components which lead

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to a variety of ways in which information may be presented. Johannes Sens presented the IUPAP programme for electronic publishing by scientific

societies which it is expected will demonstrate how the current problems may be solved without loss of benefits. The major difficulties to be addressed are ever rising costs, ever increasing delays in publication and inadequate peer-review. The proposal has as its principle element a full-text database run by Regional physical societies with links to existing journals for the editing, refereeing, printing and distribution of papers which will be published in either, or both, paper and electronic forms. The advantages envisaged are the introduction of a full-scale one step automation of the electronic submission process, the placement of the Physical Societies in the centre of the world of communication of scientific results and the continued use of private companies with increased efficiency while reducing costs. Public on-line review by referees is possible and a single platform is provided for discussion and dialogue between the six regional Physical Societies envisaged for the project.

11. E C O N O M I C S A N D O R G A N I Z A T I O N O F P R I M A R Y

E L E C T R O N I C P U B L I S H I N G

Ann Okerson, Associate Librarian of Yale University and David Pullinger, Electronic Publisher for Nature-Macmillan, were invited to state their views on the economic and organizational issues to be faced in EP. Ann Okerson summarized a large number of issues, many of which had already been introduced by other speakers and drew some conclusions by comparison. The costs for accessing, integrating and maintaining electronic formats are beyond the resources of individuals and will need to be part of the central provision which means ultimately the taxpayer. Also, the emerging technologies will require no less a demanding system and service than the present paper-based ones. This will be equally true of staff skills. Another problem is that of ownership which in the case of EP involves expense for every consultation. The cost of browsing will increase if the "pay by the drink" system of licensing is retained. In summary, librarians will seek products that are widely used, if possible by a wider audience, they will vote with their pocketbooks rather than their knowledge and experience of the value of information. There is an important social dimension to all of this since society, ultimately, must sustain and enhance the remarkable system of scholarly and scientific communication that has been built up during the last four centuries since the birth of the first scientific journal.

Pullinger suggested that the transformation of the process of scientific communication is as dramatic today as was the introduction of the postal system. The publisher has tradi- tionally added value to the author's work in three ways: quality control, editorial and distribution. These functions increase as the demand increases for a performance assessment of scientists. There is a pressing need in developing EP to concentrate effort on processes which contribute to cost effectiveness in these areas. In the continuing evolution of electronic formats certain aspects should be retained particularly: a title; peer review; dates to establish precedence; an archive; and a statement of relationship between the electronic and other versions (hardcopy/CD and other formats for viewing). In summary PuUinger listed ten reasons for expecting change as EP evolves.

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12. O P T I O N S F O R T H E F U T U R E

Arnoud de Kemp and Joshua Lederberg concluded the formal presentations by expressing opinions on future options.

In summary, de Kemp stated that the future will be hybrid. We need document identifiers and means for protection and preservation of content. Global accessibility and retrievability is essential. There must be a stimulus towards effective pricing and user awareness which requires action on the part of organized groups of scientists and publishers. A code of practice must be developed and accepted throughout the intellectual world and formal training in this, as well as in methods for creation and using digital information, must be part of every scientists training. Finally, scientists have moral rights and must show greater concern for the value of the intellectual property content of their publications.

In a masterly concluding address Joshua Lederberg summarized the issues as he could foresee the interests of the research scientist. He reviewed the nature and content of primary scientific literature indicating its vital role in the communication of scientific ideas, particularly the registration of claims to discovery. A scientific publication is a grave act to be undertaken with the utmost seriousness and EP must adapt to this requirement. Then, there is a community of actors participating in the publication process with sometimes con- vergent but at other times divergent interests. EP must accommodate this. Librarians and publishers are increasingly at odds with one another. Pricing policies lead to a black hole; the subscription base goes down and the price goes up eventually leading to a single copy at $1 million! Why not go to EP now? Producers (publishers and editors) have an important role in quality control and editorial review. But do not forget the sponsors and the benefi- ciaries. A well ordered publication system can minimize waste from duplication of effort. We are witnessing a re-enactment of the 17th Century birth of the journal, with bulletin boards, discussions groups and lists, just as in the early years. What is now needed is for the professional scientists to get together and work out a code of conduct about what we regard as responsible scientific communication through electronic media. Lederberg concluded by considering some of the consequences which are referred to later. Finally, he drew attention to the source of conflict resulting from scientists having disposed of copyright to publishing houses unthinkingly, in order to get our papers published. This must not continue in the electronic era. The definition and applicability of fair use needs to be addressed and there is the problem of assignment of intellectual property content between the various interested parties. Finally, there remains the problem of archiving. There is no need to limit input to the system but there must be an authenticated and identified selection for the archives. How this is to be achieved is a major problem which, it is suggested, should be addressed by an international group chosen as representing the world's scientists.

13. WORKING GROUP REPORTS

There were five working groups, viz: (1) Real Costs (Anthony Watkinson, Chairperson), (2) The Electronic Archive (Robert Wedgeworth, Chairperson), (3) Developing Countries (Ana Maria Cetto, Chairperson), (4) Implications for Training and Work-styles (John Rose, Chairperson) and (5) Peer Review (Bernard Donovan, Chairperson). Summary reports of these working groups will be found at ICSU (1996c).

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14. RECOMMENDATIONS

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The recommendations have been published on the ICSU Home pages and will be found at ICSU (1996b). They will appear in hardcopy format in Science International (ICSU, 1996e).

15. FUTURE ACTION

What action will follow the publication of the Conference Proceedings remains to be seen. It will be for each participant to publicize the recommendations among their colleagues and seek to implement them within their own sphere of influence. For our part, ICSU Press has informed the ICSU Executive Board of these recommendations which have been welcomed and arrangements are being made for the proceedings to be published in hardcopy for wide distribution within ICSU and UNESCO. It is expected that the report will be presented and discussed by the ICSU General Assembly in Washington in September 1996 from which action lines will be agreed.

16. LOCATION OF PUBLISHED PROCEEDINGS

The definitive EP version of the conference proceedings will be found in the ICSU Home Pages (ICSU, 1996b). Mirror copies are held at UIUC Illinois (UIUC 1996), and on the Thomson Network (Neurofile, 1996). A hard-copy edition is to be published by UNESCO in August (Shaw and Moore, 1996).

17. PLANS FOR IMPLEMENTATION

Plans are now being formulated by ICSU Press for possible implementation of selected recommendations. Three recommendations have been identified as particularly apposite for action by ICSU. These are: recommendations 1.4, I1.2 and III.3.UNESCO and ICSU together are consulting on recommendations V. 1 to V.4 with regard to developing countries.

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or http://www.grainger.uiuc.edu/icsulconfchm.htm. ICSU (1993) Resolutions of the 24th General Assembly of ICSU. Science International,

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ICSU (1996b) URL: http://www.lmcp.jussieu.fr/icsu/InformationlProc_O2961confprog.html or http://www.grainger.uiuc.edu/icsu/title.htm

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Electronic publishing in science