The impact of information technology and networks: new perspectives for scientific, technical and medical (STM) publishing (original) (raw)

This contribution is a strongly abbreviated notation of a much longer presentation at the Workshop on Strategies and Techniques of Information for Astronomy, organized by the European Science Foundation in Strasbourg on 21/22 June 1996. The process of publishing will undergo dramatic changes due to the influence of information technology and networks. The publishing business as a whole will shift from traditional print-and paper-based organisations to a fully digital workflow from author to end-user. Electronic publishing has moved from pre-print activities to digital preprints on a variety of servers, but still most scientific documentation is printed and not only for archival purposes. In this short contribution, a plea is made for new rules in scientific communication that authors, editors, publishers, societies, libraries and users can recognize. In addition, in the electronic age we need more security for copyright, transactions over networks and against misuse in general.