[Bioperl-l] 'Papers'

Eugen Leitl eugen@leitl.org
Fri, 5 Apr 2002 10:36:52 +0200 (CEST)


On Fri, 5 Apr 2002, Andrew Hynes wrote:

> That is not to say that 'references' cannot cite online articles, but
> if they do those articles should be 'peer reviewed', otherwise the
> scientific process will be compromised.

All true, but nevertheless arXiv <http://xxx.lanl.gov> exists and thrives. 
And it's very easy to mount a (free, or per pay) referee service on top of 
that, just using a number of digitally signed links. Digital signatures 
are trivial to verify, and basically impossible to forge.

If your service is any good, it will rapidly accrue prestige. Peer review 
is not intrinsic to dead tree, it's just dead tree has been there first, 
and scientists are conservative.