NEW CHALLENGES FOR INDEPENDENT SCIENCE JOURNALS

Society and independent journals face difficult challenges as we enter the still unfamiliar territory of electronic publication and journal consolidation. We will discuss some of the larger issues facing science journals today in light of decisions recently made regarding Arctic, Antarctic, and Alpine Research. We will describe the process used by the Institute of Arctic and Alpine Research (INSTAAR), which supports the journal, to determine whether to retain the journal or sell it to a commercial publisher upon the retirement in 2002 of the longtime managing editor, and the reasons for deciding to keep the journal at INSTAAR. We will also discuss our recent decision to publish full text online and how we anticipate that this change may affect the journal and its authors in terms of balancing increased use and visibility with such negative effects as lost subscriptions and decreasing revenue. We will also discuss our efforts to create electronic methods to streamline and expedite the process of reviewing, revising, and editing manuscripts, and we will describe our as yet unresolved process of trying to determine whether to use a Web-based electronic manuscript tracking system. Though we can’t claim to have solved any of the problems associated with these questions, we can offer an inside perspective to authors and reviewers who want to know more about how these processes and issues may affect journal publishing.