Anonymous Digital Signatures - an Oxymoron?

["Scott-Lichter, Diane" <diane.scottlichter@aacr.org>]

Many of you will be interested in the July issue of Learned 
Publishing.

Learned Publishing - Issue 3 - 2011
>From the Editor

No, it's not. But surely it's a key function of a signature of 
any type, that it can be reliably associated with its owner? Yes, 
and no. One clue - you'll find it explained in one of three 
pieces we have, each from an eminent academic editor, describing 
various types of peer review, and their supposed advantages.

Peer review is very topical in the UK at present, and we are 
happy to be on that bandwagon. As well as the three pieces above, 
we have a book review on the topic, and an incidental paper 
recommending some changes. Of course, the editor has to get in on 
the act, and offers his opinions on what it's all about - 
editorials are always free to access - a kind of desperation OA 
in this case (i.e. saying 'please, somebody read it').

What else? Lots.  A nice research article summarising whether and 
how researchers use social media. We even have an article from 
Google itself (well, from someone who works at Google) about 
their book digitisation project. It's also Open Access. 
Coincidentally, three other articles in this issue mention 
Google's project in passing, and refer to it as a 'threat' - not 
the way Google describes it, of course.

One of the doyens of scholarly publishing, Bob Campbell, of 
Wiley, together with Alice Meadows, offer their reflections of 
the history, present and possible future of journal publishing - 
that must be worth reading. And then there's a pioneer treating 
us to an insider's view of 10 years' history of e-books. Another 
luminary, but from the library world, MacKenzie Smith, talks 
about another topical issue - data and its management.

Lastly, and definitely not least, we have one of the most 
eloquently written articles that I have seen in Learned 
Publishing - and one that unusually if not uniquely, has part of 
its title in French - 'Ceci n'est-ce pas un hamburger' - now what 
can that be about? It's open access, so anyone can find out. But 
three clues: Magritte; if you can bear to think of it, how would 
you go about re-assembling a cow from a hamburger? are you 
interested in the flexibility of pdfs?

Alan Singleton
Editor, Learned Publishing
editor@alpsp.org


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Diane Scott-Lichter
North American Editor, Learned Publishing
us-editor@alpsp.org