Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
to make exact repetitions of conditions so the data storage capacity of modern IT
should be exploited to allow us to 'go back in time' whenever the need arises.
However, we stress that the value in adopting such an approach depends on the
quality of the meta-data which describe the contents of the archives of primary data,
in much the same way that the quality of databases of publications depends on the
quality of the indexing and searching tools which are employed in their construction
and interrogation.
Earlier comments notwithstanding, the power of IT for data storage and recovery
in the context of publications can lead to the impression that academic publication
libraries where hard-copy journals are classified and filed on shelves are obsolete.
Hard copy journals are available on-line but retain their page format using 'Portable
Document Format' (.pdf ) files and must be accessed by viewers such as 'Acrobat'.
Ideally, the advent of on-line publishing should have enhanced the value of
publications considerably, by allowing much greater access to: libraries of colour
graphics; data generated on demand; interactive software tools; active forward and
backward links to other information and databases; video images or even sound.
However, the vested interests and established system of the big publishing houses
simply means more colour images, easier on-line access, and occasionally additional
information on the publisher's web site. Indeed on-line publishing rarely even
results in faster publication times, which could be from 5 to 9 months less than
for 'conventional' journals since individual papers could be available almost
immediately they are accepted and formatted. The British Society for Plant
Pathology (BSPP) does publish 'New and Unusual Records' of plant diseases on-
line as soon as they are accepted, followed by annual hard-copy publication in Plant
Pathology. A few other journals are doing likewise. However, the best 'deals' often
involve site licences which have to be organised more formally, such as for access to
the major bibliographic databases.
Forward citations require the journal to regularly update from citation indices
that refer to the article, thereby positioning the publication within a network of
information allowing highly flexible citation. Furthermore, software tools can be
applied to data published in electronic format which enable each reader to read the
paper effectively in a different way by applying further data analyses, informed by
more recent data than the author had access to at the time of writing. The use of such
tools might lead to cultural changes in publishing allowing the concept of original
publication to be preserved, but enabling rapid re-interpretation in the light of more
recent data. Raw, or partly processed, data are rarely attached to published articles
except theses, but the new technologies open up opportunities to do so in appropriate
cases. This would allow further use of the data to the benefit of the original and
other authors.
Will textbooks (like this one) be obsolete soon? Should there be a new type of
'electronic text book'? (by 'text book' we mean an assimilating tool giving access to
a subject from its fundamental principles; dict: 'manual of instruction, standard topic
in a branch of study'). Take, for example, someone requiring information on one of
the best known plant pathogens,
Phytophthora infestans
, the cause of epidemics of
potato late blight. Potential sources of information and resources of interest may be:
topics (like this), scientific papers, bulletins, crop intelligence reports, conferences,
