One that hasn't been mentioned yet is Steve Aylett. His "Slaughtermatic" is easily the most insanely violent SF novel I've read, and I think I understood it less after finishing it than before I opened to the first page. Great fun, though.
I'll ready any science fiction that doesn't feature talking cats, or characters with names starting with "T'" (T'Pol, T'Snarg, T'....)
The statement "the public pays for the salaries of the professors who do peer review" is only partially true. My NIH grants pay for a certain percentage of my salary. By NIH regulations, activities such as peer review are to be done OUTSIDE of the percentage of time NIH pays for. Like most university faculty, I serve as a reviewer for several journals, and am happy to do so. Each journal article I review (and it works out to about 1 or 2 a month) takes a full day of work, since I try to write my review as carefully and constructively. I receive no payment for this, but do it because (1) I want to see good stuff in my field published, (2) I want to help marginal work get "over the hump" to being great work, and (3) I have an expectation that my work will be reviewed in the same way.
Information may be free (or may want to be free, I always screw up that quote), but vetting that information takes time and administrative overhead. If you're any one of the journal secretaries who's e-mailed/faxed/called me 3 times to get a review done you know how much administrative overhead it is! I wish Brown & Co. best of luck with the new endeavor, but also recognize that the "traditional" publishing houses and societies provide us with a lot of value.
Slashdot Mirror
Yeah, I know this is offtopic, but every time I hear about these things I can't help but look forward to the great TV shows they could spawn:
"America's Wildest Segway Chases"
"When Segways Attack!"
etc.
One that hasn't been mentioned yet is Steve Aylett. His "Slaughtermatic" is easily the most insanely violent SF novel I've read, and I think I understood it less after finishing it than before I opened to the first page. Great fun, though.
I'll ready any science fiction that doesn't feature talking cats, or characters with names starting with "T'" (T'Pol, T'Snarg, T'....)
The statement "the public pays for the salaries of the professors who do peer review" is only partially true. My NIH grants pay for a certain percentage of my salary. By NIH regulations, activities such as peer review are to be done OUTSIDE of the percentage of time NIH pays for. Like most university faculty, I serve as a reviewer for several journals, and am happy to do so. Each journal article I review (and it works out to about 1 or 2 a month) takes a full day of work, since I try to write my review as carefully and constructively. I receive no payment for this, but do it because (1) I want to see good stuff in my field published, (2) I want to help marginal work get "over the hump" to being great work, and (3) I have an expectation that my work will be reviewed in the same way.
Information may be free (or may want to be free, I always screw up that quote), but vetting that information takes time and administrative overhead. If you're any one of the journal secretaries who's e-mailed/faxed/called me 3 times to get a review done you know how much administrative overhead it is! I wish Brown & Co. best of luck with the new endeavor, but also recognize that the "traditional" publishing houses and societies provide us with a lot of value.