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ARO
NEWS
Winter 1996
IN
THIS ISSUE:
President's
Report
Calendar of Events
Current Issues
Editor's Column
1997 MidWinter Meeting Program
Summary
Conferences and Workshops
Awards
Positions Available
Scholarly Publication Committee Report
Short Course on Molecular Biology
President's
Report
The final
form of the 1997 Midwinter Meeting is taking shape. A record number
of 945 abstracts were submitted by the October 1 deadline, representing
over a 10% increase over last year's total. The new electronic
submission capability was a tremendous success: about 80% of submissions
were made over the Internet. Members that I heard from were uniformly
pleased with the convenience, and decreased FedEx costs, of electronic
submission. I was pleased that the number of frantic calls in
early October from submitters whose abstracts missed the deadline
("but I mailed it in July!") decreased by an order of magnitude.
The ARO membership is greatly indebted to our tireless editor,
Jerry Popelka whose technical virtuosity and hard work have made
all this possible.
Thanks are also due to the Program Committee, under the able leadership
of Donata Oertel, who, in the days after October 1, organized
the submitted abstracts into a record number of poster and podium
sessions. The record number of submissions have forced us to make
one important change in the format of the meeting: on two of the
meeting days, there will be three simultaneous podium sessions,
rather than the customary two. For this year, we had no choice.
For future years, I believe the ARO should consider lengthening
the Midwinter Meeting by one full day. Otherwise, we may need
to find a larger hotel if the number of abstracts continues to
rise.
It gives me great pleasure to announce that the Award of Merit
Committee and the ARO Council have chosen Dr. Jay Goldberg of
the University of Chicago as the Award Recipient for 1997. This
Award is made in recognition of his fundamental contributions
to our understanding of the neurophysiology of the vestibular
periphery. I am also pleased to announce that Jay has agreed to
give the second annual Presidential Lecture, which he will present
on Monday evening, just before the Business Meeting. The Award
Ceremony and Reception will be held on Tuesday evening, as has
been the custom in years past.
The contents of most of the Symposia and Workshops for the upcoming
Midwinter meeting were described in my message in the Spring Newsletter.
Since that time, two new evening events have been added, which
are best described as "forums".
The first of these forums, to be held on Monday evening, will
focus on the recent attacks by the animal rights organization,
PETA, on the auditory research group at Boy's Town. This research,
which was NIH funded and carried out under approved animal protocols,
was targeted because it involved survival surgeries on kittens
(cutting the olivocochlear bundle). A PETA infiltrator, working
as a Boys Town security guard, took the kittens from their mothers
in the hours after surgery and videotaped them during the transient
ataxic phase. The PETA videos were publicized by the tabloid press
at the national level, and PETA clearly hopes to shut down the
animal research effort at Boys Town. The ARO forum is meant to
provide the opportunity for ARO members to learn from the Boys
Town incidents how to better prepare for, and respond to, such
attacks at their own institutions and to discuss the broader issue
of what role the ARO should take in this battle over animal research.
Because of the publicity surrounding these incidents, and because
results from the Boys Town research will be presented at the Midwinter
meeting, we also need to consider the (remote) possibility of
PETA disruptions at the meeting itself. Please wear your name
tags at all times in the meeting rooms and be alert for any unauthorized
groups of people.
The second of these evening forums, to be held on Wednesday, will
focus on the issue of Electronic Publishing and whether the ARO,
as a scholarly organization, should sponsor an Electronic Journal.
The idea that such a radical departure from the existing ARO mission
be seriously considered has been discussed informally for the
last couple of years. Last winter, the ARO Council voted to establish
an Ad Hoc Committee to formally consider the possibility. The
report of that Committee is reprinted in this Newsletter. The
purpose of the forum at the upcoming Midwinter Meeting is to allow
the Ad Hoc Committee the opportunity to present their conclusions
to the membership, to provide a demonstration of some of the ways
in which electronic publication might enhance the interchange
of scientific information, and to allow a free and open discussion
of the entire issue. Assuming there is sufficient support and
interest among the ARO membership to justify continued investigation
of these issues, this forum will serve only as the first step
in a process which would ultimately involve a formal vote of all
ARO members.
All in all, I look forward to an interesting and provocative
meeting.
M. Charles
Liberman, Ph.D.
President
Current
Issues
NIH Funding
Congressional
negotiators agreed to fund NIH at the full level approved by the
House in July. This agreement was ratified by the full House on
Saturday night, September 28th, and by the Senate on September
30th. The President signed the bill on September 30th.
The NIH
total agreed to by the conferees was identical to the House amount
of $12,747 million as recommended by Chairman John Porter (R-IL)
of the House LHHS Appropriations Subcommittee. This final level
was $334 million higher than the amount recommended by the Senate
Appropriations Committee earlier last month, and it represents
an increase of $820 million, or 6.9 percent, over last year. The
amount set aside for the initial phase of construction for NIH's
Clinical Center was $90 million &emdash; the same as the House
&emdash; leaving a full 6.5 percent increase for "core research".
There
was no consolidated AIDS account but AIDS funding appropriated
to each Institute will be apportioned directly to the Office of
AIDS Research by Office of Management and Budget. This process
was similar to the procedure being used during fiscal year 1996.
The conference report listed an "estimated" total for AIDS of
$1,502 million.
Jerger
Lecture Given By Musiek
Dr. Frank
E. Musiek, Director of Audiology, Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical
Center, Professor of Otolaryngology, Department of Surgery, and
Professor of Neurology, Department of Medicine, Dartmouth Medical
School presented the Fourth Annual Jerger Lecture in Audiology
on October 31, 1996 at the Baylor College of Medicine. The topic
of Dr. Musiek's presentation was "Central Deafness."
Dr. Musiek
received his Ph.D. in Audiology and Neurophysiology from Case
Western Reserve. He is co-editor of Central Auditory Assessment:
Foundations in Clinical Correlates, co- author of Neurology: Case
Studies and editor of a monograph, Contemporary Issues in Audiology.
He is a Fellow of the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association
and has received numerous awards for his publications, clinical
excellence and scientific achievements.
Journal
Donations
The Otolaryngology
Department of the General Hospital in Bitola, Republic of Macedonia
would appreciate donations of back and/or current issues of publications
in Otolaryngology. The Hospital cannot afford the subscriptions
and hasn't received them for the past five years. Please contact:
Slavko Mangovski, 924 NE 20th Ave, Ft. Lauderdale, FL 33304, phone
(954-523-0973), fax (954-523-8324), e-mail (mango@gate.net) if
you are able to help.
Hearing
Research Rate for ARO Members
Again
Elsevier Science is making a special offer to ARO members. The
annual subscription rate for Hearing Research for 1997 has been
set at $152.50 US including postage and handling. Members are
expected to abide by the motive underlying the offer, namely that
their subscription is for their personal use only and should not
take the place of an institutional subscription. Please contact
J. Henzen at Elsevier Science (e-mail: j.henzen@elsevier.nl; Phone:
+31 (20) 4853 301; Fax: +31 (20) 4853 342) for further information.
Editor's
Column
As we
approach the next millennium, the association is positioned well
to take advantage of electronic technology to conduct a majority
of its activities. I was pleasantly surprised this year when 725
of the 945 abstracts were submitted directly through the ARO web
site and showed up automatically on my laptop computer with no
intervention on my part. This far exceeded my expectations for
the first year that such capability was provided. It allowed rapid
publishing of the ARO Abstracts, both the web and printed
versions.
Everyone who had access to such technology had the same deadline
regardless of geographic location. One of our Japanese colleagues
was delighted to discover that on October 2 (for him) the deadline
of midnight October 1 was still valid to accommodate our Hawaiian
colleagues.
Nearly all of the electronic submissions occurred with no help
from me or the ARO office and only a few abstracts were received
incorrectly. The problems were related to two factors. First,
web technology at the present time does not easily allow for transmission
of special characters such mathematic inequality symbols or subscripts.
Second, some authors used very old software, dating back as far
as 1995! These problems were very minor and corrected during the
galley proof process.
The cost of this technology is falling very rapidly. In the near
future we should be able to enhance the web site without incurring
much additional costs.
Gerald
R. Popelka
Editor
Awards
American
Academy of Otolaryngology 1996 Grant Winners
Ernest
A. Weymuller, Jr. M.D., Chairman, Committee for Research in Otolaryngology,
announced that eleven research grants were awarded in five categories
in 1996. The recipients, their sponsoring institutions, and the
titles of their research projects were:
Academy
Foundation Resident
Research Grants
Douglas
Trask, M.D., Ph.D.
University of Michigan
Modulation of Chemosensitivity in Squamous Cell Tumors
Eben Rosenthal,
M.D.
University of Michigan
Membrane Type Metalloproteinase in Squamous Cell Carcinoma
Paul Bikhazi
University of California, SF
Familial Unilateral Acoustic Neuroma: A New Syndrome or a Variable
Expression of NF Type II?
Marian
Hansen, M.D.
University of Iowa
Intracellular Signaling Mechanisms in Spiral Ganglion Neuron Survival
David
Dillard, M.D.
Emory University
TGF-b1: Effects on Healing in the Injured Rate Larynx
Lawrence
Lustig, M.D.
University of California, SF
The Efficacy of Direct and Adeno-associated Virus Mediated Introduction
of Neurotrophin-3 in Preventing Neural Degeneration following
Aminoglycocide-induced Ototoxicity in the Guinea Pig
Academy
Foundation Research
Training Award
Howard
Francis, M.D.
Johns Hopkins University
Neurophysiology of the Deafferented Cochlear Nucleus
Percy Memorial
Research Award
Carol
Bauer, M.D.
Southern Illinois University
A Behavioral Model of Chronic Tinnitus in Rats
Combined
PSEF/AAO-HNSF
Research Award
Eric Genden,
M.D.
Washington University
Alloantigen-Specific Immunosuppression/
Nerve Allotransplantation
Outcomes
Research
Small Project Grant
Judith
Cho, M.D.
Washington University
Pediatric Sinusitis Outcomes Study
Richard
Gliklich, M.D.
Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary
Assessment of Quality of Life Outcomes in Patients with Unilateral
Vocal Cord Paralysis
Applications
and guidelines for 1997 research grants are available from the
Department of Research Development at AAO-HNSF, One Prince Street,
Alexandria, VA 22314. For further information about the grant
categories or to discuss research plans, contact Maureen Hannley,
Ph.D., Associate Vice President for Research and Development,
at 703/519-1547. A letter of intent including the title and a
brief description of the project's scope must be submitted by
January 15, 1997. The deadline for receipt of the 1997 applications
is
February 1, 1997.
Association
for Research in Otolaryngology Grants Minority Travel
Awards
Eight
individuals out of a pool of eleven applicants were selected to
receive Minority Travel Awards which assisted them in attending
the 1996 MidWinter Meetings. Individuals receiving the awards
along with their ethnic designation are:
Pre-Doctoral
Candidates
Samuel
Márquez, M. Phil.,
Hispanic American
Dept. of Cell Biology & Anatomy
Mount Sinai School of Medicine
Bryan
V. Phillips, B.S.
Hispanic American
Dept. of Otorhinolaryngology
& Communicative Sciences
Baylor College of Medicine
Post-Doctoral
Candidates
Kamakshi
V. Gopal, Ph.D.,
Asian American
Dept. of Speech & Hearing Sciences
University of North Texas
Howard
W. Francis, M.D.,
African American
Dept. of Otolaryngology-HNS
Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine
Christian
S. Head, M.D.
African American
Division of Head & Neck Surgery
UCLA Medical Center
Jennifer
D. Porter, Ph.D.
African American
Dept. of Otolaryngology
Eye and Ear Institute
University of Pittsburgh
Rafael
E. Quinonez, Ph.D.
Hispanic American
Dept. of Otolaryngology
University of Iowa
Hospitals & Clinic
Saeed
Sheikhali, M.D.
African American
Laboratory of Bio-Otology
Dept. of Otolaryngology
Wayne State University
School of Medicine
Otolaryngology
Research Community Recognizes Young Investigators
Four residents
in otolaryngology-head and neck surgery were chosen by a special
review committee to receive cash awards and commemorative plaques
donated by Smith and Nephew, ENT. The awards were given for the
best research papers in otolaryngology submitted for the 1996
Resident Research Award Competition. These papers were presented
during the 1996 Research Forum, co-sponsored by the American Academy
of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery Foundation (AAO-HNSF)
and the Association for Research in Otolaryngology (ARO) held
in conjunction with the 100th Annual Meeting, September 29-October
2, 1996 in Washington, DC.
This year's
winners were:
1st Place,
Basic Science
Joseph A. Califano, III, M.D.
Johns Hopkins University
A Genetic Progression Model for Head and Neck Cancer: Implications
for Field Cancerization
2nd Place,
Basic Science
David M. Huchton, M.D.
Johns Hopkins University
Ultrastructure of Primary Endings in Deaf White Cats: Morphologic
Alterations in Endbulbs of Held
3rd Place,
Basic Science
Andrew P. Lane, M.D., University of North Carolina
Nitric Oxide is a Mediator of Neurogenic Vascular Exudation in
the Nose
1st Place,
Clinical Science
Dennis Lee, State University of New York at Brooklyn
Adenoid Bacteriology and Sinonasal Symptoms in Children
Second
and third place awards were not made in this category.
Two students
were recipients of the 1996 Academy Medical Student Research Prize:
Austin S. Rose
University of North Carolina
Nitric Oxide Mediates Mucin Secretion in Endotoxin-induced Otitis
Media with Effusion
Noah Weisberg
Vanderbilt University
Stretch Induced Nerve Injury as an Etiology for RLN Paralysis
Secondary to the Anterior Cervical Approach
Now in
its 39th year, the Research Forum is a joint project of the Academy
Foundation's Research Committee and the ARO. 1996 Co-Chairpersons
for the event were Thomas R. Pasic, M.D., University of Wisconsin
Hospital, Madison, and Diane Durham, Ph.D., University of Kansas
Medical Center, Kansas City.
Association
for Research in Otolaryngology
Ad Hoc Committee on Scholarly Publications
September 23, 1996
As described
in the President's Report, the ARO Council approved the formation
of an Ad Hoc Committee to study and report on the feasibility
and advisability of the development of an ARO-sponsored Scholarly
Publication, in particular to consider the possibilities afforded
by electronic publication. What follows is the report of that
committee.
Members
Gerald
Popelka, Chair
William Brownell
Stephen Neely
Leonard Rybak
Alec Salt
Peter Santi
Bradley Schulte
M. Charles Liberman, ex officio
Charge
The costs
of producing printed scholarly journals have risen so high that
libraries are beginning to cancel subscriptions. Because of this,
scholarly societies are reevaluating their role in publishing.
The charge of this committee was to investigate the extent and
type of scholarly information the Association for Research in
Otolaryngology (ARO) should provide to its members.
Format
The committee
met asynchronously using world-wide-web browsers and e-mail. Dr.
Santi set up a web site that contained hypertext links to relevant
material for the committee. The web site also kept a systematic
record of the discussions among committee members using the concept
of threaded e-mail conferencing. Every two weeks or so, a relevant
article was selected for discussion and was made available as
a direct link from the web site. The members then read the article
at their convenience and then sent replies via e-mail that addressed
points in the article or points made by other members. The e-mail
responses were categorized according to one of several major points
and then stored sequentially. Members could read these e-mail
messages and respond at any time allowing a substantial amount
of work to be done with none of the usual restrictions such a
geographic distance, voice mail responses to telephone calls,
or even additional time to organize e-mail responses. Consequently,
the work of this committee proceeded very rapidly allowing a report
to be submitted at the September meeting of the ARO Council rather
than at the February meeting. The following report was prepared
based upon a consensus of committee discussions.
Overall
Focus
The focus
of the committee revolved around the concept of the ARO producing
a peer-reviewed electronic scholarly journal. The ARO functions
as a scholarly society in all respects with the exception of providing
a peer-reviewed scholarly journal. The new publishing capability
of the world-wide-web and the fact that ARO Abstracts have been
electronically published for several years have prompted the idea
of a peer-reviewed journal for the ARO. Contributing to this concept
were the traditional difficulties of print journals, particularly
problems related to cost, availability, the lack of multimedia
capability, the slowness of commercial publishers in adopting
electronic methods, and other factors. Consequently, the efforts
of the committee concentrated on the issues associated with producing
a peer-reviewed, electronic, scholarly journal. The word publication
was used regardless of the medium, electronic or paper, and regardless
of the type of communication being considered. The discussions
centered on several major categories.
Reasons
for Electronic Scholarly Publications
The world
is moving faster toward electronic publishing than anyone predicted.
Already several peer-reviewed journals exist on the internet.
The most recent and the most sophisticated journal to come on
line that enjoys wide readership by ARO members is the Journal
of Neuroscience. This journal which came on line August 1, 1996,
already embodies some of the concepts discussed below.
The move toward electronic journals at the present time is characterized
largely by two approaches:
1) Scholarly
societies acting as publishers. The publications are either
print, electronic, or both. The rate at which electronic versions
of journals is being added is very high.
2) Commercial
print publishers adding electronic versions of journals. This
approach does not address the fundamental flaw in scholarly
publishing associated with costs that have risen so high that
institutions are regularly dropping subscriptions. If a commercial
publisher adds electronic capability, the costs would be expected
to increase even further. The current direction of Elsevier
Science seems to bear this out.
It has
been suggested that "Publishers" should be separated from "Printers".
A "Publisher" (the ARO, e.g.) could be the entity interested in
the substance of the information and the "Printer" could be the
entity that would have an interest only in the production process
(electronic or print). The success of the journal would be solely
dependent on the publishing entity. This arrangement effectively
separates the need for profit from the true cost of information
distribution. Note that the publishing entity could choose to
make a profit if it wished, however, the profit motive would not
be a requirement as is the case with commercial publishers.
The committee believed that the ARO should not wait for commercial
publishers to add electronic versions of journals because the
availability of the internet has the potential to take the publishing
function out of the hands of the commercial publishers and place
it in the hands of a scholarly society. Virtually anyone can instantly
make an electronic publication available worldwide. The only substantial
issue concerns the quality of the electronic publication, and
whether it is managed in a professional manner.
The committee correctly predicted that over the previous six months,
even before the work of this committee was complete, a multitude
of new electronic journals would come online. Some were established
by small groups of scientists, performing peer review as with
conventional journals but also themselves managing web servers
within their academic institutions. Given the involvement of enough
scientists, such journals can be as stable as print journals.
The contents of such journals can readily be transferred to other
electronic sites (in the case of funding changes) or even duplicated
at multiple electronic sites to ensure availability. The advantages
of electronic publishing, including the speed of publication,
variety of formats (videos, color graphics, computer programs,
hyperlinked reference citations, etc), all guarantee such journals
will be quickly accepted. The committee rapidly concluded that
the discussion should not really be about whether electronic publishing
is appropriate but rather how such a journal should be set up
so that our field can take advantage of this new medium.
The ARO has been at the forefront of electronic communication
in the field of otolaryngology. The committee believed that every
effort should be made to maintain this lead, by establishing an
electronic "Journal of the ARO". Discussion should center around
the publication policies of this journal, how an editorial board
should be established, and which specific formats should be defined.
The committee believes that the ARO should act as a true scholarly
society and produce a peerreviewed, electronic scholarly publication.
This will require support from the members.
Important quotes from an article by Ginsparg:
The essential question at this point is not 'whether' the scientific
research literature will migrate to fully electronic dissemination,
but rather 'how quickly' this transition will take place now that
all of the requisite tools are on-line."
"A major lesson we learn is that the current model of funding
publishing companies through research libraries (in turn funded
by overhead on research grants) is unlikely to survive in the
electronic realm."
"So the essential point is now self-evident: if we the researchers
are not writing with the expectation of making money directly
from our efforts, then there is no earthly reason why anyone else
should make money in the process (except for a fair return on
any non-trivial "value-added" they may provide; or except if,
as was formerly the case in the paper-only era, the true costs
of making our documents publicly available are sufficiently high
to require that they be sold for a fee)."
Our print publishing heritage has the potential of limiting the
possibilities of electronic publishing.
Some members believed that a new journal should only be in electronic
form. However, a compromise approach is possible. The ARO could
produce an electronic journal with all of its advantages yet offer
a paper version for those who need a transition period. Of course,
the paper version would be limited compared to the electronic
version. However, it could be "print on demand". That is, print
a single copy for every request for one (including a request from
a library that chose to archive a paper version). We already have
such technology in place and the cost is not high. The actual
production costs for preparing a paper version become trivial
once the effort has been put into place to construct the electronic
version. The ARO already uses this approach when preparing the
ARO Abstracts. Significant effort is put into producing the ARO
Abstracts in a database program that no one sees (other than the
ARO editor and the ARO executive secretary). Push a button and
an electronic version for the ARO web page is produced. Push another
button and the paper version that is distributed at the ARO meeting
is produced. This approach allows the ARO to offer the ARO Abstracts
on two different media without much additional cost. The real
question is which factors of either medium influences the other.
It is possible to create the best electronic version possible
including linked references and multimedia formats and still produce
a paper version that mimics the electronic version as much as
is possible.
A major problem is that the "gold standard" measure of research
productivity currently is linked to the printed journal articles,
a mode of communication that has a long history. Eventually, we
may learn to communicate using electronic journals that have the
capability of leaving a trail of our accomplishments and a place
for everyone to examine the current state of knowledge in a particular
scientific field. However, until we become comfortable with this
way of doing science we can at least make our art of printed publications
more current by publishing electronically.
Archiving
Several
concerns were raised about long term aspects of an electronic
journal. These concerns fell into two categories:
1) Stability.
Authors need to be assured that the electronic site will be
around forever and that the costs will never escalate to the
point that libraries will quit buying subscriptions as they
are now doing for paper journals. This is why the committee
believed that the role of not-for-profit publishers will increase
substantially in the future. Dominant not-for-profit publishers
in the future likely will be entities within universities or
some large governmental or quasi-governmental entities such
as the National Library of Medicine.
2) Adaptation to the future. The "publisher" should intimately
be involved with the various standards organizations concerned
with digital formats that can be produced by all publishers.
A Dean of a university library already does this for the Association
of Research Libraries. A university publisher could join this
or related groups.
If the ARO begins an electronic journal, it should be archived
at a site that is independent of any member's individual institution.
The ARO office could maintain this site, e.g., or add to the
existing electronic site it already uses. Further, should a
commercial publisher offer an electronic "printing" service
at a price that is competitive, the archive could be transferred
over to it and as far as the readers and authors would be concerned,
the stability of the journal would not be affected in any way
because it would be the stability of the ARO that would be governing
the stability of the journal and not the stability of the service
providing the electronic files.
3) The role of indexing services such as MEDLINE, should be
considered. It is likely that indexing services will also routinely
include electronic journals in the future.
Peer
Review
Most scientists
would agree that peer-review is essential. In fact, many include
peer-review as the final step of the scientific process. An electronic
journal can have the identical peer-review process as a traditional
print journal. However, the electronic format can provide some
new capabilities that may enhance the peer-review process. Here
are some:
1) Shift
the responsibility of peer-review to the scholarly society.
2) In cases where a peer reviewer's comment was addressed but
resulted in no change in the article, include the particular
peer-reviewer's comment in question along with the published
article and provide an alternative version that links the reviewer's
comments to specific sections of the article.
3) Permit both the author's and reviewer's comments to be linked
simultaneously. Less informed readers can then balance the issues
involved and make their own assessment.
4) Incorporate different forms of peer-review. The electronic
journal format opens up new opportunities for comment in different
forms including the addition of peer-reviewers who are selfselected
rather than chosen solely by an editorial board, and comments
sent in by e-mail with links to other articles.
5) Acceptance of peer review in an electronic format. Peer review
still must be accepted for promotions, tenure, etc. Universities
will be slow to accept any significant changes in what they
will accept as peer reviewed - even if the new process clearly
is better. Perhaps there could be two stages - stage one would
be simply an electronic version of the tried and true - and
stage two would be the gradual incorporation of newer methods.
This would allow more conservative authors to still be willing
to submit papers - otherwise they will submit them to other
journals. In other words, the peer review mechanism may have
to be even more rigorous for a journal with an electronic emphasis.
Though
the committee did not reach consensus on a particular form of
peer-review, the new forms of peer review at least were considered.
Copyright
This area
is the least understood and the least likely to come to resolution
in the near future. The safest thing to do is to assume that copyright
exists and that the owner of the copyright should be clearly determined.
Once this is established, the other issues concerning copyright
will eventually be handled.
Every author of an original work automatically earns a copyright
(under international law) whether or not the work is registered
with a copyright office. The benefit of copyright registration
is in settling of any copyright disputes.
Authors typically transfer their copyright to the journal when
submitting an article for publication.
A copying policy for an ARO journal would have to be investigated
further before being adopted. Enforcement of the policy could
be difficult and might be an issue to be discussed.
Electronic
Databases
This is
probably the single most significant aspect of scholarly electronic
publishing. The genetics scientists already are employing this
concept of an electronic database actually becoming part of the
journal. The individual articles can serve as (and reference)
archival information. Simultaneously there also would exist a
single database that would constantly be updated and contain our
current, widely-accepted base of knowledge. This approach would
not interfere with an author's published interpretation yet would
still provide a continuously updated consensus of knowledge in
a particular area. This consensus portion would be terrific and
a likely source for those interested in textbooks. The consensus
portion also could generate revenue. The ARO could distribute
freely the individual articles and charge, on a pay-per-view basis,
access to the integrated current-state-ofthe-art summary that
an integrated database could provide.
Electronic databases need quality control also, to justify the
cost of maintaining them. It might be best to put data online
only in conjunction with the submission of a peer reviewed article.
This would serve the dual purpose of subjecting the database for
review and insuring the existence of documentation for the data.
Will an author balk at submitting raw data along with the manuscript?
He or she might be concerned about security during the review
process. An alternative would be to require the data for the database
only after acceptance of the paper. A policy regarding the use
of databases as a part of an electronic journal would have to
be determined.
Economics
Several
models exist for paying for a peer-reviewed journal. A common
model is based on the concept that the cost of the research is
paid for by some means other than the journal (the federal government,
foundations, charitable organizations) and that distribution of
the results should occur as inexpensively as possible. Scientific
scholarship differs from artistic scholarship in a fundamental
way. Artists wish to earn income from their creative work and
need to be concerned about royalties, pay-per-view, etc. Most
scientists, however, earn income from means other than publishing
their findings and therefore wish to have their findings distributed
as widely and as economically as is possible.
One method of funding such a journal was provided by direct experience
of one of the committee members (Schulte) who also is a member
of another society with fewer members than the ARO. A relatively
small annual fee from each member is sufficient to pay the salary
of a managing editor, and a secretary which is all that is necessary
to produce a journal. Additional costs such as those supporting
the ARO web server, are already being levied. Thus, a new peer-reviewed
electronic journal would be well within the economic capability
of the association.
Conclusion
A consensus
of this committee was that the ARO could evolve into a true scholarly
society and produce its own peer reviewed journal. The consensus
also was that the recent and widespread availability of electronic
publishing including the experience of the association in publishing
its meeting abstracts, was a significant factor in reaching this
consensus. Though many individual decisions would have to be made
concerning the issues listed above, the solutions all were obtainable
and could be made easily if a consensus of the membership at large
wished the ARO to create a journal.
Recommendations
A forum
should be established to allow input from the membership at large
concerning the formation of a new peer-reviewed journal published
by the Association for Research in Otolaryngology. The forum should
begin with a tutorial to show the capabilities of electronic publishing,
then be opened up to allow input from the membership. Finally,
if widespread interest is engendered at the forum, a mechanism
for implementing a change in the bylaws should be investigated.
Association
for Research in Otolaryngology
Short Course
Molecular Biology Techniques and
Applications to Otolaryngology
Saturday, February 1, 1997, 6:00-9:45 pm
Tradewinds Hotel, St. Petersburg Beach, Florida
Techniques
of molecular biology are being successfully applied to a myriad
of biological problems. This course is aimed at scientists with
little or no experience with molecular biology who would like
an opportunity to become familiar with the terms and techniques
in the field. In addition to presenting basic information, the
course will cover applications of molecular biology to medical
and research questions in Otolaryngology. Individuals interested
in CEU or CMA credits should contact the ARO office.
The registration
fee ($35 before Jan. 1, 1997; $45 after) for this course should
be included with your ARO registration fee and indicated on the
registration form. On site registration will be available after
5:00 PM, Feb. 1, 1997. For information please contact James Kaltenbach,
Ph.D., Dept. of Otolaryngology, Wayne State University, Detroit,
MI 48201 (Phone: 313-577-1257; e-mail: jkalten@med.wayne.edu).
Faculty
Margaret
Lomax, Ph.D.
Kresge Hearing Research Institute
University of Michigan
Genetic Machinery of the Cell
Dr. Lomax
will review the genetic machinery of the cell including the basic
structure of nucleic acids and proteins, the structure of the
gene, the processes of replication, transcription (and reverse
transcription) and, protein synthesis.
William
Kimberling, Ph.D.
Boys Town National Research Hospital
Molecular Genetics and Linkage Analysis
Dr. Kimberling
will discuss the principles of molecular genetics with a special
emphasis on the linkage of genes to deafness.
Garth
Ehrlich, Ph.D.
Department of Pathology
University of Pittsburgh
Positional Cloning and Analysis of Expressed Genes
Dr. Ehrlich
will discuss the methodologies involved in the cloning of disease
or susceptibility genes with an emphasis on tools available through
the human genome project.
James
Battey, M.D., Ph.D.
NIDCD, National Institutes of Health
Nucleic Acid Isolation, PCR and Amplification
Dr. Battey
will discuss the Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) in the analysis
and identification of DNA, in forensics, in gene linkage analysis
and in cloning.
Allen
Ryan, Ph.D.
Division of Otolaryngology
University of California, San Diego
cDNA Cloning, Methods of Cell Transfection
and Viral Vectors in the Inner Ear
Dr. Ryan
will discuss the production of complementary DNA by reverse transcription,
the amplification of such copies and the introduction of this
material into the DNA of living cells. The use of such methods
in the inner ear will be described.
Robert
Wenthold, Ph.D.
NIDCD, National Institutes of Health
After the Cloning: Antibodies as
Links Between Genes and Proteins
Dr. Wenthold
will discuss the use of cloned cDNA to develop antibodies specific
to structurally and functionally significant inner-ear proteins.
Dennis
Drescher, Ph.D.
Departments of Otolaryngology and Biochemistry
Wayne State University
Summary and Perspectives
Dr. Drescher
will review the use of molecular biology techniques as tools to
provide mechanistic knowledge of key molecular elements in normal
and abnormal inner ear tissues.
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