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- Path: sparky!uunet!utcsri!torn!news.ccs.queensu.ca!qucdn!forsdyke
- Organization: Queen's University at Kingston
- Date: Mon, 21 Dec 1992 11:05:15 EST
- From: <FORSDYKE@QUCDN.QueensU.CA>
- Message-ID: <92356.110515FORSDYKE@QUCDN.QueensU.CA>
- Newsgroups: bionet.journals.note
- Subject: Author's Rights
- Lines: 29
-
- AUTHOR'S RIGHTS
-
- One useful function of this forum might be discussion of author's
- rights. Then, somewhere down the line someone might be prepared to draft
- a Charter of Author's Rights which individual authors could refer to when
- having problems with an editor. By the same taken, perhaps there should
- be a Charter of Editor's Rights.
-
- I present here one obvious, and one not-so-obvious, item for consider-
- ation:
-
- 1. Judgements concerning the acceptance, reviewing and publication of a
- paper should be concerned with the characteristics of the paper itself
- and not with the race, sex, creed or colour of the author.
- [One can recall that a century ago, female authors had to adopt a
- male pseudonym to ensure fair evaluation (e.g. George Eliot).
-
- 2. A letter from an editor to an author stating that a paper has been
- accepted (without qualification), means that the journal is irrevocably
- committed to publishing the paper without undue delay.
- [Several years ago I had a firm letter of acceptance from an Editor.
- Subsequently the editorship was changed and the the new editor declined
- to honour the previous editor's commitments.]
-
- Do these two statements seem appropriate for inclusion in a Charter?
-
- Sincerely,
- Don Forsdyke
- Discussion Leader
-