Note: This page was established to gain member and Governing Board support for making the articles in ESA's journals freely Web accessible in a fiscally responsible way. It was no longer updated after a successful petition drive in 1999 asking ESA to sell immediate free Web access to its authors at a fair price and to make all its journal articles freely Web accessible after no more than two years. Free access was to include posting the articles on PubMed Central.--TJW

Frequently asked questions about e-publication of ESA’s journals
No longer updated--TJW, March 2000.

Why should ESA put its journals on the Web?

Does putting ESA journals on the Web mean that paper publication will end?

What are the options for putting ESA’s journals on the Web?

What is the extra cost of offering screen-optimized HTML on a restricted-access site?

Why does posting articles on a restricted-access Web site increase the cost?

How will journals be paid for in the all-electronic future?

What have other entomological societies done toward e-publication of their journals?

Why should ESA put its journals on the Web?
No other action will do more to increase accessibility to the research results that are published in ESA journals. Authors, researchers, and the public will benefit.

Does putting ESA journals on the Web mean that paper publication will end?
No, but if it eventually makes paper publication a needless expense, paper publication will then be stopped. As long as scientists and librarians demand that the archived version of research results be in paper issues, paper publication will continue.

What are the options for putting ESA’s journals on the Web?
This is a complex question.  It concerns not only the format(s) of e-publication but also the means of recovering the extra costs.  If ESA decides that financing e-publication from sales of subscriptions and site licenses to Web-posted articles is likely to maintain its current publishing revenues, it should pay the high costs of restricted access.  If ESA decides that Web publication with free access is a desirable goal, it should start making access to articles free to the extent that authors are willing to pay the costs and to the extent that making access free does not substantially impact library subscriptions. [This dichotomy is discussed in an article in the Fall 1998 American Entomologist.]

The actions of the Florida Entomological Society and ESA illustrate the chief options that societies have in providing Web access to the articles in their journals.

Florida Entomological Society (FES)

• Since 1994, FES has made all articles in Florida Entomologist freely Web accessible shortly after they are paper published.
• All articles from June 1994 to date are on the Web in PDF format, which allows articles to be viewed and printed as they appear in the paper-published issues.  FES describes this service for its authors as providing them "electronic reprints," which are available to anyone on the Internet without cost and in unlimited supply.
• All articles from June 1994 to date are on the Web in HTML format.  This format has, at minimum, these advantages: (1) It allows the robots of Internet search engines such as Northern Light and AltaVista to index every word and phrase in every article.  [Robots can index HTML files only if they are freely accessible.]  (2) It allows the automatic updating of the index that FES's search engine uses to enable users to search only the articles in the online Florida Entomologist, 1994 to date.  (3) It accomodates metatags that are not displayed directly by Web browsers but that are used by programs that index and retrieve articles.  [To hold costs down, FES does not optimize its HTML files for on-screen viewing.  Instead the files link to the PDF files.]
• Current costs of the above services are less than $3 per page.
• In April 1999, FES made all articles from 1917 to March 1994 freely Web accessible in PDF format.  These 20,000 pages were made accessible for less than 60 cents a page, with the cost being paid by donors rather than by FES.
• All costs of e-publication have so far been taken from page charges, which have not been raised.
• Revenue from library subscriptions has not declined significantly.
• FES is negotiating with PubMed Central to post all old articles and some current articles.

Entomological Society of America (ESA)

• In Oct. 1997, ESA began selling "electronic reprints" to those authors who wanted their articles to be Web accessible.  Unlike the electronic reprints posted by FES, these were limited to a paid-for number of "hits" and priced the same as paper reprints.  For example, authors of 5- to 8-page articles had to pay $120 to have their articles Web accessible until 100 persons have clicked on it (or fewer persons have clicked on it more than once).  The same sum ($120) bought 100 paper reprints.
• In Oct 1998, ESA contracted with Cadmus Journal Services to put its four principal journals on the Web with restricted access.  The cost was set at about $14 per paper-published page.
• In March 1999, ESA begin a free trial of its four principal journals posted both in PDF and in HTML optimized for onscreen viewing.  [Unlike the Florida Entomologist's HTML files, ESA's HTML files have internal links that allow the viewer to jump from one place in the article to another, and the tables and figures are displayed as thumbnails that link to separate image files.]
• In June 1999, the ESA Governing Board voted to sell unlimited electronic reprints for a price less than the cost of 100 reprints.
• In December 1999, the ESA Governing Board voted to sell unlimited electronic reprints for for 75% of the price of 100 paper reprints.
• In January 2000, ESA began selling unlimited e-reprints.
• In January 2000, ESA restricted access to the full text of its online journals to those who had paper subscription to the same journals and had paid a surcharge.  The surcharge (for each journal) is $15 for members, $40 for nonmembers, and $80 for libraries.

What is the extra cost of offering screen-optimized HTML on a restricted-access site?
Perhaps more than $11 per page.  At least that is the difference between the less than $3 that FES pays and the $14 that ESA pays for otherwise similar Web publishing efforts.

Why does posting articles on a restricted-access Web site increase the cost?
Restricting access requires individuals who have paid for subscriptions to have usernames and passwords. For institutions that have paid for site licenses, it requires monitoring the Internet addresses of computers that try to access the site and the number of simultaneous users. For individuals that neither subscribe nor belong to an institution with a site license, access must be denied or there must be a means to pay per view. The costs of implementing and maintaining an “S/SL/PPV” site include licensing the required software, managing subscription lists on a continuing basis (as subscribers and site licensees change), maintaining a help desk for subscribers who forget their passwords, and paying for space on a commercial Web server.

How will journals be paid for in the all-electronic future?
When paper issues are no longer published, publishers can no longer sell subscriptions. That probably means that authors and their grants and institutions will pay. This and another view of the future are compared in the American Entomologist article, The future of scientific journals: free access or pay per view?. An update of this is in a March 2000, annotated PowerPoint presentation.

What have other scientific societies done toward e-publication of their journals?
The Florida Entomological Society has been a leader. It has all articles ever published in Florida Entomologist accessible toll-free on the Web (1917 to date). The files are permanently posted by the Florida Center for Library Automation at no cost to the Society. All articles from June 1994 to date are searchable by any word or phrase in the full text or by Boolean combinations thereof. FCLA promises to implement full-text searching of the articles in older issues in the near future.

Among the larger scientific societies, ESA is a leader.  It is the first to offer its authors immediate free Web access to their articles, and it is doing so at bargain prices.  It is currently investigating posting back issues on PubMed Central and thus is likely to be among the first societies to do so.

Other scientific societies should take advantage of more of the opportunities that the Web offers to better serve their authors, members, the research community, and the public.

Last revised 23 March 2000.