Ewing Shared Material

Most files in PDF format
Updated January 2009

Recent
Publishing
History/things
State of AMS

NOTE: The material on publishing is included at my blog
http://mathematicsjournals.blogspot.com/
 

• Citation Statistics
  A report from the IMU in cooperation with ICIAM and IMS. On the use and misuse of citation data and statistics in assessing research. (418K)
  *If you are interested in republishing this report, permission will be granted by writing to secretary@mathunion.org . A package of files, text and graphics, can be found here.
  **For additional articles on this subject, see the special theme volume of
   Ethics in Science and Environmental Politics.
   
• Where are journals headed? (v 6.0)
  Why we should worry about the author-pay model (25K)
  (Also in the Notice of the AMS, v. 55, no. 3, March 2008.
  http://www.ams.org/notices/200803/tx080300381p.pdf ).
   
• Digital fashion: The obsession with open access (ver 3.0)
  About the downside of electronic journals and why we are not dealing with it. (52K)
   
•  2006 Measuring Journals (ver 14.0)
  On the misuse of the impact factor and usage statistics. (68K)
  (Also in the Notices of the AMS, v53, no 9, October 2006, http://www.ams.org/notices/200609/comm-ewing.pdf ).
   
• 2004: Why the AMS does not provide journal usage statistics
  Explaining the reasons for the Society's decision not to provide usage statistics for its journals (until the scholarly community finds a way to assure they are used sensibly). September 2004. (34K)
   
• 2004: Misdirection
  About the debate on Open Access, which distracts us from the real crisis in journals -- exorbitant prices. August 2004. (27K)
  (Also appeared in Chronicle of Higher Education, October 1, 2004, Volume 51, Issue 6, Page B20, with the title "Open access to journals won't lower prices", http://chronicle.com/prm/weekly/v51/i06/06b02001.htm )
   
• 2004: Orthodoxy of Open Access
  Based on a debate that was held at the Society for Scholarly Publishing on Open Access. August 2004 (65K)
  (Also appeared in Nature Forum: Should scientists pay to publish? http://www.nature.com/nature/focus/accessdebate/32.html )
   
• 2004: The Future of Journals
  On shaping the debate about open access -- a web presentation of the talk at the PSP meeting (Washington, DC, 2/11/04) using frames. The presentation includes navigation tools at the bottom of page, and notes of the talk can be seen by expanding the frame at the bottom of slide window.
  A pdf-version is also available. February 2004. (308K)
   
• 2003: A Modest Proposal: Copyright and Scholarly Journals
  Changing the traditions of copyright for scholarly journals, December 2003 (26K)
   
• 2003: Authors and Copyright
  A brief history of copyright refuting the publishers' interpretation (104K)
  (Also appeared in First Monday, October 2003.)
   
• 2003: The Public Library and the Public Good
  Why author-supported journals may not be a good idea, October 2003 (21K)
  (A condensed version was a letter to the editor in Nature, Vol. 425, 9 October 2003, p. 559.)
   
• 2003: Digital Mathematics Library: Moving Forward
  Following the discussion at the Baltimore Joint Meetings, January 2003 (28K)
   
• 2003: Archiving Partnerships -- the AMS and JSTOR
  PowerPoint presentation  at the National Library of Medicine/American Medical Publisher's Association Electronic Archiving Forum, Philadelphia, March  (500K)
   
• 2002: Predicting the Future of Scholarly Publishing
  Based on talk given at the satellite conference on electronic publishing at Tsinghua University, Beijing, August [MATHEMATICAL INTELLIGENCER, Spring 2003, 25(2), 3-6, and Proceedings of the Conference, to be published by Springer-Verlag] (80K)
   
• 2002: How long should publishers own scholarship?
  PowerPoint presentation at the CEIC panel on electronic publishing, International Congress of Mathematicians, Beijing, August (590K)
   
• 2002: Best Practices
  Recommendations from the IMU Committee on Electronic Information and Communication, Vancouver, February  [Also in NOTICES] (160K)
   
• 2001: Who Owns Journals?
  Brief essay in support of placing scholarly literature in the public domain after some period of time, written for the AMS Executive Committee and Board of Trustees (25K)
   
• 2001: In Defense of Caution
  A response to those who chastise scientific societies because they do not fully embrace new experiments in scholarly communication. [Also in Chronicle for Higher Education and LEARNED PUBLISHING] (34K)
   
• 2000: Judging Journals
  The misuse of citations and the Impact Factor, written for the AMS Committee on Publications, September (75K)
   

HISTORY AND THINGS

• 2002: Graduate and Postdoctoral Education
  Essay for April meeting of AMS Council outlining some questions about graduate education (59K)
   
• 2002: Next Big Thing
  From the Chronicle on Higher Education; 2nd item on coming trends in mathematics (27K)
   
• 2001: Twenty Centuries of Mathematics (v 2.5)
  The rationale for digitizing the past mathematical literature -- and an outline of the obstacles. [Also in the NOTICES] (98K)
   
• 1999: History and Humility: A Defense of Basic Research
  Review of a book on 19th century mathematics for the College Math Journal (50K)
   
• 1999: E-mail Etiquette
  Some simple rules that would make our lives a lot easier (98K)
   
• 1998: Advice for Young Mathematicians
  Opinion column for the NOTICES, based on talks to Project NExT
   
• 1996: Mathematics: A Century Ago--A Century from Now
  Based on talk given at summer meeting, Burlington Vermont, August 1995.
   

STATE OF AMS

• 2007 (A focus on publishing)
• 2006 (Money-- earning, spending, saving)
• 2005 (From the member's perspective)
• 2004 (Focus on Mathematical Reviews)
• 2003 (Internal organization of the Society)
• 2002 (Emphasizing Public Awareness Office)
• 2001 (On making and spending money)
• 2000 (The AMS as a professional society)
• 1999 (Business aspects of AMS)
• 1998 (Three views of the Society)
• 1997 (Recent changes in publishing)
• 1996 (Overview of Society's activities)
  

Recent
Publishing
History/things
State of AMS

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