REC Chairman
PREPRINT ROOM IN CYBERSPACE
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| Dale G. Platteter REC Chairman |
We have traditionally offered attendees at the Nuclear and Space Radiation Effects Conference (NSREC) a special room to request preprints from authors. At the July 2001 meeting in Vancouver, we will eliminate this room (in real space) and move it into cyberspace.
The physical preprint room will be transformed into a web page, located at www.nsrec.com. Our goal is facilitate exchange of technical information by electronically connecting NSREC attendees to NSREC authors via email.
Gone are those old-fashioned tractor-feed mailing labels in your registration packet. Gone are those “fried chicken” buckets used to collect your labels. Out with the old, in with the new. The plan is to make your conference experience easier.
It was time to change. We got this idea after watching our teenagers download their favorite digital music from Napster. This world-renowned web site facilitates sharing of MP3 files through a network of peer-to-peer communication. Could a similar concept allow NSREC attendees and NSREC authors to link up?
The solution was easy. We created an e-preprint web page for attendees. The page contains simple email links to the lead author of each paper. All requests travel by email, directly from the attendee to the author. All responses travel by email, directly from the author to the attendee. It is peer-to-peer communication, NSREC style.
Most authors will deliver preprints by return email. I expect to see our computer-savvy authors storing their email requests in a directory on their hard drive, while assembling the manuscript for publication. When the final manuscript is complete and copyright forms returned to IEEE, these authors would respond to each request by clicking on “reply to sender.” The manuscript is sent (attached to the return email) in either MSWord or PDF format.
Some NSREC authors will choose to distribute preprints using the traditional “snail mail” approach. To accommodate this, the web site requires attendees to include a postal mailing address in the body of each request. Windows hint: Instead of retyping your name and mailing address for each request, use the |edit|copy|paste| functions to make this job easier.
The e-preprint room will debut at the NSREC web site (www.nsrec.com) on July 16, 2001, and remain online for 3 weeks.
Dale Platteter serves as Chairman of the Radiation Effects Steering Group, which oversees the NSREC Conference. He is technical chair of the NPSS Radiation Effects Committee (REC). Dale can be reached at NAVSEA Crane, Code 605, Building 2088, Crane, IN 47522-5001; Phone +1 812 854-1206; Fax +1 812 854-1751; Email: platt@ieee.org