Re: Swarm Journal

[glen e. p. ropella]

Benedikt Stefansson writes:
 > Launching a scholarly journal for Swarm modeling might be a misguided
 > effort at this point. By definition it would be marginalized. Since we
 > would be preaching to the converted the effect on the mainstream
 > academic community would be negligible. Many researchers might also be
 > reluctant to publish "real papers" there. 
 > 
 > So my point is that there is definitely call for a web-based
 > publication, a Swarm "gazzette" as Pietro called it, which would carry
 > short pieces on technical and methodological details and reports on
 > research in progress. This would enable Swarmers to discuss their work
 > in an informal context and help to document the evolution of tools and
 > techniques.

Yep!  I would agree that trying to publish an academic "real" journal
is not a good idea (unfortunately, my argument is based on the lack
of respect I have for supposedly scholarly journals rather than an
admission that scholarly journals are somehow worth the paper they're
printed on [grin]).

A Swarm Journal (or Swarm Gazette, if you prefer) should be a web-based
publication where standards of description (and, maybe, some content)
are ensured by a review process.  I would prefer it to take place in 
a "moderated" context rather than a "truth-confirming" context.  The
publisher and reviewers of the models published would be responsible
for making sure that all the relevant modelling points are made, but
would refrain from making statements about how *sound* those models
are (I'm using "sound" in the sense of some kind of "truth").  The
models should be *valid*, *consistent*, and well-explained.

And it would be natural for the review process to also be web-based.
The prospective modeller could put the model up on their web site
and entreat members of the community to review it.  Then there would
be an accepted set of moderators responsible for reviewing the model
themselves and monitoring the reviews of the other users.  They would
only move the model to the Swarm Gazette if it's up to snuff.  This
way, people looking for the benefits of a journal will have it (and
only read the "published" models) and the people who are just exploring
what's being done can go to any model, whether it's been published
in the gazetter or not.  Plus, the latter is what we already do.  So,
adding the gazette would be filling a need that's not currently being
filled (they call that "value-added," right? [grin]).

glen
-- 
{glen e. p. ropella <address@hidden> |  Send lawyers, guns, and money!  }
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