I. Peer review and codes of practice

• 1. The Conference overwhelmingly recommends that strict peer review should be applied to all scientific material submitted for publication in electronic journals.

• 2. The peer review system should yield definitive authenticated and dated versions of papers for publication, although the subsequent attachment of tags indicating later developments or revisions of papers should not be precluded.

• 3. Attention should be given to the definition of acceptable ways of establishing priority of publication, for these appear to differ between scientific disciplines.

• 4. ICSU and UNESCO are encouraged to organize the most appropriate type of forum involving scientific societies in order to formulate codes of ethics and of conduct for electronic publication which would spell out the reciprocal obligations of the scientist and the community on such matters as peer review, citation, integrity and authentication of material and archiving.

II. Electronic archives

• 1. Given the traditional role of publication in science in providing an archive, it is timely and urgent that attention be given to ensuring the archiving of science in electronic formats. The malleable nature of digitized information requires the establishment of verifiable electronic archives including databases.

• 2. The Conference recommends that scientific societies, publishers and librarians come together to establish principles and guidelines for electronic archives covering, but not limited to: maintenance, content, structure, finance, eligibility, accessibility and compatibility. Consultation with the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) should be ensured concerning the use and development of appropriate international standards.

• 3. It is further recommended that a registry be created for electronic archives in scientific fields, together with the establishment of principles and guidelines for its operation.

• 1. The Conference recommends that funding agencies regard the costs, both of the publication of research results and of access to required information, as an essential component of research funding.

• 2. The Conference recognizes that the availability of electronic information in a searchable form is potentially of great advantage to the world scientific community for the efficient conduct of research and education. Funds should be directed so as to allow full use to be made of the potential and development of this source of information.

• 3. A technical study of the costs and benefits of electronic publication should be carried out by an international committee established by ICSU in coordination with ICSU members and associates, and involving representatives of the library and scientific, technical and medical publishing communities.

IV. The scientist's working environment

• 1. Although each scientific discipline has its particular information gathering and dissemination methods, a set of basic skills needed by scientists can nevertheless be identified. All scientists should receive training in information resources and library use and in good authoring skills, adapted to the electronic environment, if possible as early as the undergraduate level. ICSU and UNESCO should assist those developing countries which do not have the resources and expertise to organize this training.

• 2. The Conference unanimously endorses the view that adequate and reasonably priced network access is essential for scientific work and scientific education. National authorities should ensure that appropriate infrastructure be established for this purpose and that scientific data traffic receive appropriate priority. Scientists in all countries should have good access to computer communications to participate in information exchange needed for their work, and ICSU and UNESCO should promote such access with all available means.

• 3. In keeping with the increasing role of the scientists in the electronic publishing process, the international scientific community should facilitate exchange of experience between scientists and scientific disciplines in this field with a view to identifying best practice and encouraging cooperative training, research and development. This work should be facilitated by the international committee proposed in (III.3) above.

• 4. As a useful first step, an information network should be established to refer users to information resources, tools and standards relating to electronic publishing in science. Direct, immediate access to this information should be incorporated into the ICSU WWW site and facilities should be provided for discussion groups and for E-mail access for those users without WWW capacity.

V. Developing countries

• 1. The scientific community in developing countries is becoming increasingly involved in all stages of electronic publishing, including locally published on-line journals, CD-ROM technology and appropriate databases. These scientists should assume greater control of the technologies involved. UNESCO, ICSU and the international community should take this into account in planning and implementing cooperative projects.

• 2. The scientific community in developing countries should become involved as a partner in the development of methodologies, tools and standards relating to electronic publishing and archiving so that these can be adapted to its needs. In particular, regional cooperation should be encouraged and language-independent systems adopted where possible.

• 3. UNESCO should be encouraged to support one or two developing country pilot projects in the area of electronic publishing.

• 4. The costs of infrastructure and information provision are particularly heavy for developing countries. This problem is ultimately the responsibility of the governments concerned. The assistance of UNESCO and other UN agencies in promoting solutions should continue, while better linkages to the local private sector, regional cooperation relying on local expertise, and competitive and flexible regulatory regimes should all be fostered.

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