Online Peer-Reviewed Journals Have Had Success

To the editors:

Re: “Keep Science in Print,” editorial, Oct. 5.

Unconscionably, the editors fail to mention the most prominent experiment in web-only publishing, called the “arXiv” (www.arxiv.org). This, in fact, is where Grigory Perelman placed his proof of the Poincaré conjecture.

The arXiv was first set up by a former Harvard professor of theoretical physics, Paul Ginsparg, in 1991, to facilitate the exchange of preprints amongst particle physicists and string theorists. Since then, it has grown into a huge site, publishing thousands of research papers in dozens of branches of physics, mathematics, computer science and even quantitative biology.

In string theory and theoretical particle physics, the arXiv has completely replaced journals as the mode of communication amongst researchers. Far from being inundated by “junk science,” the arXiv has in fact managed to maintain a consistent level of quality and has greatly facilitated the growth of the field by allowing instant exchange of information across continents and easy access to research papers. Hundreds of discoveries are reported first on the arXiv, and only much later (and sometimes never) are they sent to peer-reviewed journals.

While this may not fit in with the editors’ pre-conceived notions that “open publication will create a morass from which science might not emerge,” it is impossible to deny the overwhelming evidence that the best-known example of online publishing has been an outstanding success.



SUVRAT RAJU

SUBHANEIL LAHIRI

LARS GRANT

Cambridge, Mass.

October 5, 2006



The writers are graduate students in the physics department.