Page 142 - How to Write and Publish a Scientific Paper, 8th Edition 8th Edition

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you are currently offline) transmission.

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To reply to a message, click the Reply button when the message you wish to reply to is displayed. Fill in the
appropriate boxes and key in your message. If you wish to send a copy of your manuscript for comments along with
the message, it can be copied and pasted directly into the message box if it is short. Otherwise, send your manuscript
as an attachment. The attachment will be opened at the other end just as it appeared on your screen, as long as the
recipient has the same software you do. If this is not the case, save a copy of your file as Text Only or ASCII, and
send it in that format.

E-mail and the Copyright Law

All the e-mail you write is copyrighted, but it's not secret unless you have agreed to its secrecy with your
correspondent beforehand. If you have not so agreed, you can reveal what an e-mail says in general terms, and you
can even quote short segments of an e-mail under the fair-use provision of the copyright law. Posting an entire e-mail
is a violation, but revealing information from its content is acceptable.

Newsgroups

Newsgroups are composed of individuals in a specific area of interest who wish to read and write to each other about
topics that concern them. Some newsgroups have thousands of subscribers, while others are limited to as few as 10 or
15 members. Your online librarian can tell you if a newsgroup exists in your discipline.
Newsgroups depend on an Internet function called Usenet (Users Network). With this system, an Internet user
anywhere in the world can deliver a Usenet message to the members of a particular group. All newsgroups have a
name, set in lower case, with segments separated by dots, just like all access addresses on the Internet. For example,
topics having to do with science in general can be accessed under newsgroups with a "sci." prefix, and the prefix
"sci.med" covers topics related to medicine. A newsgroup devoted to electronic libraries is named
"comp.internet.library,'' with "comp" standing for computer group. A university newsgroup from MIT is prefixed
"mit." Access to Usenet newsgroups is free.

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You can post queries and articles on a newsgroup, and you will get replies concerning your topic from other members.
You can request that replies concerning your material be made by e-mail. If you wish, you can start your own
newsgroup. One word of caution—just because something is published in a newsgroup doesn't mean it is true or
factual. If you wish to correspond within the newsgroup format, select one that is moderated and appears to be at a
high level. Many newsgroups are run by universities or business research laboratories, and most of the correspondents
in these groups are fairly serious about their work. However, some professional and academic groups prefer not to
publish on the Web until a serious review process has taken place, or until a paper has been published in hardcopy
form. The New England Journal of Medicine has expressed fears about unscreened information appearing in an
unsecured environment such as the Web.
If you are concerned about posting your report on the Web prior to hardcopy publication, but would still like to work
collaboratively with associates or get work-in-progress evaluations from colleagues, other options are available to you.
E-mail, at this time, is relatively secure. Intranet sites, a subset of the Internet maintained by an individual school or
business for its own use, can be made secure through the use of passwords.

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