Submitting manuscripts

[cowen@geology.ucdavis.edu]

Ken Carpenter mentioned the manuscript that he and his colleagues have sent
off to J.v.p. I'm certainly not picking on Ken here. The mention of a
manuscript submission brings up the question of giving it a wider readership
at the review stage. I don't think the list here is the right place for
that, but here's a suggestion:
AN author could perhaps place a submitted manuscript on a gopher or WWW
server, and simply announce to the list that it's available for scrutiny
and private, personal comment. An author could thereby get a broader array
of feedback.  The idea would be bad if the privilege was abused, say by
inappropriate comments on the net. We have occasional comments by net
contributors that they have seen a manuscript by this, that, or the other
colleague, but you notice that those remarks are always general, non-specific,
and careful not to post details that don't yet belong in *public* discussion
unless the original author chooses to post those details.

Richard Cowen