Re: Re: The Mathematica Journal-Supplements
- To: mathgroup at smc.vnet.net
- Subject: [mg4207] Re: [mg4112] Re: The Mathematica Journal-Supplements
- From: fateman at peoplesparc.cs.berkeley.edu (Richard J. Fateman)
- Date: Thu, 13 Jun 1996 23:11:55 -0400
- Organization: University of California, Berkeley
- Sender: owner-wri-mathgroup at wolfram.com
In article <4pirl9$iuo at dragonfly.wolfram.com>, Jens-Peer Kuska <jpk at apex.mpe.FTA-Berlin.de> wrote: >Hi all, > >I think it is in the interest of every author of >the Mathematica Journal that his software is distributed. >More over if anyone in say two years make a reference to >the article (and software) the reader must be able to obtain the >software. A lot of public librarys only have the journal >and *not* the software supplyments. I think the authors of >the software can still > >- send the software to MathSource >- offer the software on their private web/ftp site > >and they should do so. It is not clear whether the Mathematica Journal claims copyright ownership of material it publishes, but if it does, the author does not retain the right to redistribute as he/she sees fit. (Restricted use to authors is generally allowed). I think that you have to realize that the Mathematica Journal is just a business, and therefore has the primary, if not sole objective of (a) making money. in pursuit of this objective it motivates buyers/ readers by (b) attempting to separate wheat from chaff by reviewing, editing, etc. submissions, so they are not merely crass commercials (as they might be if WRI published it). it motivates authors by: (c) helping authors add to their resumes, get tenure, etc. (d) publicizing Mathematica and/or their own cleverness. (e) allowing them to appear to add to the sum total of human recorded knowledge. IF your sole motivation is (e) above, and especially if you want your work to be available at low or zero cost to anyone interested, then you can consider, in these days of WWW etc, publishing your work in some other way. Perhaps by network posting. (Here) Perhaps by submitting to some NONPROFIT organization like ACM, AMS, IEEE, etc. Although these publications are not free, and usually they too leech off volunteer author/editor/reviewer labor for journal production, at least they aren't primarily in business for (a). To make TMJ more respectful of the readership, I suggest that all authors request to retain full ownership of their work, and that be allowed to post their article and supplement on some free bulletin board or web page. If TMJ refuses such request, the author could withdraw the paper. -- Richard J. Fateman fateman at cs.berkeley.edu http://http.cs.berkeley.edu/~fateman/ ==== [MESSAGE SEPARATOR] ====