Re: [tlug] Journals, Authors and 'Free Peer Review'

[Raymond Wan <rwan.kyoto@example.com>]

On Tuesday, September 25, 2018 07:47 PM, Darren Cook wrote:
> > fields still do not.  I wished they did...then I don't need to have
> > Microsoft Word installed in a Win10 virtualbox...
>
> So they are using sophisticated/unusual features, and libre office won't
> work? Or you've been bitten once, and refused to try again.
>
> (I often encourage people to use the latter, so I am always interested
> in genuine cases where it is incompatible.)


Well, I'm not sure about "won't work" -- it looks different. 
 I was just asked a few days ago by a colleague who had 
until now worked with Microsoft Word and sat in front of an 
Ubuntu desktop for the first time.  Her file opened, but 
everything looked "different".  I didn't ask for a 
side-by-side comparison but I guess the location of the 
paragraphs were off or something?  I didn't look carefully 
but I think there were in-line images and it was the way the 
text flowed around them.  When it comes to WYSIWYG, there is 
an expectation that it should look identical...

But if Word has been used for so long, it's funny that it 
becomes the benchmark to which others compare with.

When the university has purchased a site license so that 
every computer on campus has a license, there isn't much us 
libreoffice users can do to counteract that.  At least, all 
administrative staff are using Microsoft Office, so that has 
a trickle down effect on everyone else (if we want to read 
what they wrote).  In addition to that, all staff can have 
an additional license for one home computer (which "must" be 
used for work).

Microsoft's marketing using their academic license is 
incredible.  Don't get me started on their Office 365 
e-mail...all of our e-mails have been switched to that 
within the last 1-2 years.  I can retrieve it find with 
Imap/Pop3 and Thunderbird, but I know behind the scenes, 
they switched to an off-site Microsoft-based e-mail service.


> Interesting point. I'd have said yes - an arxiv search should be done
> when doing journal searches. But then I mostly read computer science


Oops!!  Sorry, I should have given credit where credit was 
due...

The points I raised weren't actually by me but by an ACM 
society that was conducting a survey last year that was 
asking for opinions from their members.  That's when I 
realized this whole issue of preprint servers is by no means 
"solved".

I remember staring at the questions and thinking a long time 
about them...  One of those surveys where you answer the 
first few very quickly and then you realize your latter ones 
contradict what you already said.  ("Where is that Back 
button? :-) )

I should probably find out if the results of the survey are 
public.  Perhaps if they are, I will send a link to them.

Ray