APE 2008

I’m off the the APE meeting in Berlin: APE 2008 “Quality and Publishing”, which asks some questions:

• What do we really know about publishing?
• Is ‘Open Access’ a never ending story?
• Will there be a battle between for-profit and non-for-profit publishing and who will be the survivors?
•  Which is the best peer review system in the public interest?
• What does impact mean in times of the Internet?
• What are the plans of the European Commission for digital libraries, access and dissemination of information?
• Will libraries become university presses or repositories?
•  How efficient is ‘OA’ in terms of information delivery?
•  What are the full costs of information?
•  Business models versus subsidies?
•  What is the future role of books and reference works?
•   How important are local languages?
•  Which kind of search engines do we all need?
•  What about non-text and multi media publications?
•  Which models for bundling and pricing will be accepted?
•  What makes publications so different?
•  Why are some journals in a defined subject field much more successful than other journals?
•  How important is the role of editors and editorial boards?
•  What education and training is required?
•  What skills are needed?
•  Barrier-free information: do we provide sufficient access for the visually impaired?

I often sit at the back and blog so maybe I’ll give some answers. OTOH the hotel offers Internet for a price of 10 EUR/hour so maybe I won’t be able to post anything. (From what I can see Germany is one of the worst countries for charging for casual internet time – can’t we initiate some “Open Access”?)