Parallel Paper Submission

[Peter Andras]

I think that a better way of handling the publication problem would be to
have a publication clearing centre to which many publications would be
affiliated. Papers would be send to the clearing centre, and authors would
specify the preference list of journals where they wish to publish. The
clearing centre would manage the refereeing process, and referees would
suggest the place of publication, besides providing comments and
recommendations. If the suggested place of publication matches the author's
wishes, the paper would be published in that journal, otherwise the author
could be consulted whether he accepts the suggested place of publication.
The publications and referees would have ranks, depending on their measured
scientific impact (impact factor for journals, recent cumulative impact
factor and recent citation index for referees). Depending on the ranks of
the target journals the referees with appropriate ranks would be assigned to
evaluate the submissions. In this way the editorial boards of the journals
would be primarily responsible for defining the scientific orientation and
limits of the journal, and would release their role in the refereeing
process as an editorial body (the members would still provide individual
refereeing service to the publication clearing centre).

Having enough many journals and referees associated to a publication
clearing centre, this would provide an efficient way to publish scientific
results much faster than it is currently possible (in average; obviously the
established, well-known researchers publish relatively fast even today, but
those who are not-well-known, at the begining of their scientific carrier
may have to wait long time, until their papers appear in print). Having
shorter time delays between first submission and publication, in average,
would be very beneficial for the faster advancement of science.

I see that the creation of a such clearing centre needs efforts and
organization, but I don't see impossible the creation of a publication
clearing centre in the near future.

Best wishes,

Peter Andras

-----------------------
Dr Peter Andras
Lecturer
Neural Systems Group
Department of Psychology
University of Newcastle upon Tyne
Newcastle upon Tyne
NE1 7RU
UK

tel. +44-191-2225790
fax. +44-191-2225622
http://www.staff.ncl.ac.uk/peter.andras/