E-Prints Information

MEMORANDUM
TO: SCIENCE STAFF
FROM: SARAH STEVENS-RAYBURN
DATE: 10/7/2004
SUBJECT: INTRODUCING THE ST E-PRINT SERIES

As announced at the last Science Staff meeting, based on the obvious trends and a recommendation from SAR #4, we are eliminating the production and distribution of paper preprints, effective 1 October. This does not mean that our preprint series is ending, but rather it is moving into the 21st century in a form that will include the best of both the paper and electronic worlds. 

The Plan (what we're doing):
* We will include all ST ScI papers accepted into refereed journals. An Institute author should be among the first five authors, with the caveat that this is an arbitrary number and if you feel you made a significant contribution to a specific paper even if you're not among the first authors, it will be included.
* After acceptance, but prior to posting to astro-ph or some other preprint server, you will provide Sharon Toolan with the necessary metadata (author(s), title, journal) so she can add it to the Institute preprint page in exchange for an ST ScI E-Print Number that should go into the astro-ph posting. 
* If you decide to post to astro-ph before acceptance, Sharon will be still taking care of the posting for you and you will be assigned an E-Print Number after the paper has been accepted.
* If you decide to post to astro-ph without asking Sharon's help, please ask Sharon for an E-Print number anyway, and provide her with the necessary information (author(s), title, journal) to include in the webpage.
* Sharon will pass the metadata to the Library for our database (the STEPsheet) which means publication details will be available as soon as the paper is published.

The Carrot(s) (why you want to be involved):
* As we have done with paper preprints, you may supply a list of addresses to which the notice of the new paper should be sent. Sharon will maintain a distribution list for each author (as she now does for paper preprints) and will distribute metadata information and a link to the E-print by email.
* For those astro-ph-averse, Sharon will even take your word-processed or hand-written manuscript and turn it into acceptable LaTeX prior to your journal or astro-ph submission and even take care of the submission if you wish.
* The advantages to this plan are:
o it keeps ST ScI research in the "face" of the community; 
o it provides a site for outsiders to see what kinds of research are going on here (not just the mega-projects and the press releases); 
o since citation information is added to the STEPsheet database, collecting publication information for the annual report and science evaluations (and your updated CV) will be simplified;
o it's extremely simple in that all you are asked to do is provide author/title/journal information in exchange for a preprint number.