Posted-Date: Fri, 14 Aug 92 13:29:52 EDT
Newsgroups: bit.listserv.edstat-l
Date:         Fri, 14 Aug 1992 13:29:52 EDT
Reply-To:     Dan Solomon <solomon@STAT.NCSU.EDU>
From:         Dan Solomon <solomon@STAT.NCSU.EDU>
Subject:      Electronic Journal
X-To:         edstat-l@ncsuvm.cc.ncsu.edu
X-cc:         solomon@unity.ncsu.edu

	TO: EDSTAT-L subscribers
	FROM: Dan Solomon (solomon@stat.ncsu.edu)

	Thanks to Stephen Baker for alerting EDSTAT-L subscribers to
	the plans for an electronic journal on (postsecondary)
	statistics education.  As one of the planners, I can provide
	some additional information.  To the end of this message, I
	append a draft proposal which summarizes some of the history
	and current thinking on such a journal.  At the Joint
	Statistical Meetings in Boston this week, we presented the plan
	to the executive committees of the American Statistical
	Association's Section on Statistical Education and Section on
	Teaching Statistics in the Health Sciences.  A presentation was
	made to the general business meeting of the Section on
	Statistical Education as well.  The proposal was well received
	and a formal endorsement was given by the Section on
	Statistical Education.  However, the exact relationship of that
	and perhaps other Sections to the proposed journal is still not
	clear; sections cannot "publish" journals, but can "sponsor"
	them.  The definition of "sponsor" is being discussed.


        Dan Solomon
        Department of Statistics
        Campus Box 8203
        North Carolina State University
        Raleigh, NC 27695-8203
        (919) 515-2420

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                          ******DRAFT******


            Proposal to Found an Electronic Journal:
                 Journal of Statistics Education


Background

     Discussions were initiated in Fall 1991 in the Department of
Statistics at North Carolina State University (NCSU) on the
desirability of founding a new, rigorously-refereed journal that would
expand the opportunities for publishing on statistics education.  The
potential for exploiting new technologies and creating an electronic
journal were of particular interest.  These ideas were considered by a
more diverse group at a Workshop hosted by NCSU and held May 29-30; the
20 participants included statistics educators from large and small
institutions and departments across the country, experts on publishing
and the electronic medium, the Editor of Postmodern Culture (a
successful electronic journal in the humanities), and the Director of
the NCSU libraries, a leader in controlling spiraling library costs and
advocate of electronic storage and retrieval of research materials.
The following proposal derives from general ideas that found broad
support at the Workshop, and have been made more specific in subsequent
brainstorming sessions within the Department at NCSU.  The proposal
considers (1) editorial structure and management (personnel and their
roles), (2) procedures and policies, and (3) technical/electronic
considerations.  Details, such as proposed terms of office, should all
be viewed as tentative.


Editorial Structure and Management

     Key personnel will include an Editor (3-year term) to be the final
arbiter, a Managing Editor with responsibility for the
technical/electronic areas, and an Editorial Assistant.  The hardware
will be located at NCSU;  therefore, it is suggested that the above
personnel also be at NCSU, at least initially.

     There will be an Editorial Board (4-year terms) of approximately
25, with one quarter completing terms and being replaced or reappointed
each year.  The Board members would serve as referees for submitted
manuscripts and provide a pool from which Submissions Editors (see
below) could be drawn.

     A Submissions Editor (6-month term, with the Editor serving as the
first Submissions Editor) will be designated to handle to their
resolution all manuscripts initially submitted during her/his 6-month
term.

     Several departments will have their own editors (2-year terms).
Proposed departments include "Media Highlights," briefly summarizing
pertinent items published elsewhere, "Reviews" of software, books, and
materials, and "Data Sets and Stories," providing data sets and
contexts useful in teaching.

     If ASA's Section on Statistical Education elects to sponsor this
journal, it may wish to create an Advisory Board to serve as a policy
forum for the journal, as a "Board of Trustees" for the Editor, and as
a search committee at times of editorial succession.


Procedures and Policies

     Initial Submissions will be directed to the Submissions Editor.
Provided the Submissions Editor finds the work suitable for the Journal
(after conferring with the Editor, if in doubt), she/he will seek three
referees' reports.  Two of the referees will be from the Editorial
Board.  The third will be self-nominated;  the Submissions Editor will
broadcast the title and abstract of each submission with a request for
self-nominations, and select the self- nominated referee based on
"credentials" provided by the self-nominee.  Refereeing will be
double-blind.

     The server (machine) will offer instructions for authors,
suggestions as to how the media can be used effectively, and tips for
users.  As articles or items in the Departments are ready, they will
become accessible;  the Table of Contents will be evolving.  For
convenience in archiving and retrieval, quarterly issues will be
declared based on whatever has accumulated at the end of each quarter.
When an issue is declared to be complete, its Table of Contents
including abstracts will be sent to all subscribers on the list.

     It is the intent that not-for-profit use be made free and easy.
Authors will retain the copyright on their individual articles, the
Journal on the quarterly issues.

     A parallel electronic discussion forum will be maintained.
Highlights of recent activities on this discussion list may appear in
the Journal's Media Highlights Department.


Technical/Electronic Considerations

     The journal will be maintained as an information data-base, by an
information server that will handle requests for material.

     An associated discussion group, managed by a list-server or a
Usenet newsgroup or both, will be used to announce ``issues'', but the
content of the issues will typically already be publically available
through the information server.

1.  We need to define a ``minimal capability'' for readers (and a
policy about the heroics we are prepared to adopt to provide some kind
of service to the sub-minimally capable).  We also need to define one
or more higher levels of capability, since the minimum capability will
not allow the reader to take advantage of the more innovative aspects
of the journal.  We suggest:

1.1  The minimum capability is to view text on a standard device to be
determined (e.g.  VT100 compatible), to view graphics delivered in one
of a list of standard formats to be determined (e.g. TIFF, Tektronix
4014, PostScript, Mac), and to have access to Internet either by telnet
(preferred) or by e-mail.

1.2  The optimal capability is to present multimedia documents, and to
have wide-band access to Internet.

2.  We need to define the structure of the documents that will form the
journal archive.  There are competing needs for structure (to allow the
information server to provide the most flexibility in search and
retrieval) and simplicity (to attract and keep authors). We suggest:

2.1  Documents should be structured using SGML.  Since many if not most
authors will not be capable of using SGML, at least initially, the
journal will provide simple templates for the most common structures.
Since some authors will be unwilling or unable even to use these, the
journal will accept plain text files and will provide minimal SGML
structuring, provided the author adheres to some simple rules (such
as:  title; blank line; author; blank line; affiliation; blank line;
abstract; blank line; keywords; blank line; rest of text).

2.2  Mathematical material should be represented in a specific language
(e.g. LaTeX).  Examples are

\Phi(x) = \int_{-\infty}^{x} \phi(y) dy

and

y = \frac{a + bx}{c + dx}

Some authors will be able to submit material in this form.  For those
who cannot, the journal will take responsibility for the necessary
keyboarding.  The ``Instructions for authors'' will include estimates
of the additional handling time incurred for those not submitting
manuscripts in the preferred form.

2.3  Graphics should be kept as an integral part of a package
comprising the article, separate from the text.  The format of graphics
in the archive will be determined in part by the availability and
capabilities of information servers.  Graphics will be accepted from
authors in any format from a list to be determined, but essentially any
format that we can translate into the archive format.  Readers will be
able to request that graphics be translated into one of a (possibly
different) list of formats, also to be determined.  There are many
``standard'' graphics formats, but fortunately there are also some
robust translators.
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