White paper on electronic publishing of NABS meeting presentations

By Randy Fuller, Antoine Morin, and Maurice Valett

Why are we concerned?

Membership of NABS is stable at best, if not declining.  We fear there might be a steeper decline in the coming years because of both our society's demographic trends and a reduction in the tangible benefits that NABS membership will provide.  Little can be done to rapidly change demographics and, therefore, immediate action should revolve around improving the benefits package.

Current membership benefits include:

1) paper copies of the Bulletin,

2) Membership directory

3) the bibliography

4) reduced registration costs for the annual meeting 

5) individual subscription to J-NABS. 

Of course, there is also the intangible benefit of being part of one of the most convivial of scientific societies.

Note: the Bulletin, Membership directory, and NABStracts  are available through the web site.  This has increased the visibility of the society, but partially reduced the added benefits of a paid membership. 

J-NABS will soon become electronically available through institutional subscriptions and   once this happens, a currently unknown fraction of J-NABS subscribers will drop their individual subscription.  This, of course, will affect revenues for the journal.  Presumably, losses of revenue from individual subscriptions will be offset by revenues from online institutional subscribers (N.B. The J-NABS Futures committee is examining separately this issue). 

Demographics compound the issue.  Many NABS baby boomers are approaching retirement age and may leave us.  Recruitment of new members would be facilitated by an improved benefits package.  We are open to all suggestions, and are proposing that online publication of communications at the annual meeting might be a desirable first step.

The proposal

As an added benefit to members, we propose to provide restricted access, through the NABS web site to the PowerPoint presentations of talks and to electronic copies of posters.  If there is sufficient support for this, we would implement it for NABS2003.  The exact technical details are yet to be determined, but the working model we propose is the following:

Submission is on a voluntary basis.  Authors may opt out, set an expiration date for their presentation, or manually remove it later.

This is non-refereed publication, not to be cited without permission of the authors, and provided by authors for the benefit of other NABS members.

Authors are responsible for the contents of their communication.  Upon receiving a complaint, NABS will remove communications that violate copyright or trigger valid objections.

Pros of the proposal

Improved communication.  Online access to presentations will help mitigate scheduling conflicts with simultaneous sessions and allow a second look at complex figures.  If available prior to the meeting, online access to presentations would allow more time to think and prepare constructive questions.  It will also help presenters and session chairs to make links among presentations.

Improved science.  It would provide a repository of pre-publication material.  This repository would allow easy searches and help reduce redundancy and foster collaboration.  It would also simplify tracking of early contributions to topics and may thus help to properly acknowledge influential research.

Improved teaching.  Online presentations would provide easy access to and distribution of original figures and photos that could, with the permission of the authors but without asking them to do additional work, be used for teaching or developing educational material.

Cons of the proposal

Plagiarism.  Plagiarism occurs and availability of online presentations will simplify the life of cheaters.  Since there is no sure way to prevent plagiarism, authors must be aware of this possibility.  They may choose to opt out and not make their communication available (at the limit they can also choose not to present at all).  Another way to reduce risk is to post a "censored" communication and complete it live with a couple of acetates or slides (or with a different version for the poster copy).  Another approach is to have a system that facilitates detection of plagiarism: if the risk of being caught is high and cheaters suffer enough social disapproval, cheating behavior will not be appealing.  We surmise that the easily searchable collection of online communications will facilitate the detection of cheaters.

Competitive disadvantage.  In highly competitive fields, release of preliminary results can put authors at a disadvantage.  As soon as results are communicated at the meeting, a risk is present.  Online availability of communications, beyond the current NABStracts, will increase the risk.  As for plagiarism, authors could opt out or submit a "censored" communication.

Lead-time.  Receiving, organizing, and validating several hundred electronic communications will take time.  Even if they were not published online, the safest and most cost-effective way to ensure a smooth meeting if electronic presentations are involved is, as for the abstracts, to have a permanent system on the NABS web site.  Online publication from the central repository on the NABS web will not add significantly to the lead-time.  But, the lead-time for electronic publication will prevent last minute work.  As the process is streamlined in following years, lead-time should be reduced.  Until then, authors can complement their electronic presentations with a couple of key acetates or slides.

Potential reduced attendance.  Having access to presentations from home could incite some potential attendees to stay home.  This might be a wise decision due to scheduling, financial, or personal reasons.  Some would even argue that they would stay home to reduce the ecological footprint of the meeting. 

Cost.  This will require work and some money.  However, information technologies, if cleverly used, can allow NABS to publish the communications in a very cost-effective way.

Liability.  Communications belong to their authors.  NABS will remove those creating problems.  Users will need to accept the rules of the game.

Damning evidence.  At some point we all do goofy things or make embarrassing mistakes.  To protect the innocent, all authors will be able to opt out or remove their presentation from the collection.  Authors will have to assume responsibility for their communication (and probably ask permission before posting an embarrassing picture of their supervisor, or otherwise risk that their communication would be pulled out if NABS receives a complaint)

We want your opinion

We urge you to participate in the online poll that is conducted through the NABS web site, starting on June 6th and until June 16th. Your participation is important, and we hope the white paper will help you cast an informed vote and contribute constructively to the discussion.

NABS Home | What's new? | Search | Contact | About NABS | Membership application | Taxonomic certification | Classified Ads | Students & Postdocs | Publications | Education & Outreach | Annual meeting | Journal (J-NABS) | Society Business | Members only | NABSWeb Admin