OR/MS Today - June 2002 - Cyberspace

<BODY bgcolor="#ffffff" link="cc0000" vlink="cc0000" text="#000000"> <img src="../cleardot.gif" width=1 height=1 vspace=4 border=0><br>   <table border=0 cellspacing=0 cellpadding=0 width=480><tr valign=top> <td width=10><img src="../cleardot.gif" width=1 height=1 hspace=4 border=0></td> <td width=470> <FONT face="verdana, arial, helvetica" SIZE=2><B><I><A HREF="../../ORMS.shtml" TARGET="_top">OR/MS Today</A> - June 2002</I></B></font><BR> <hr size="1"> <img src="cleardot.gif" width=1 height=1 vspace=4 border=0><br> <font face="times new roman, times"> <img src="../cleardot.gif" width=1 height=1 vspace=4 border=0><br> <FONT face="verdana, arial, helvetica" SIZE=2><B>Cyberspace</B></FONT><br> <IMG SRC="../barbluehook.gif" WIDTH="468" HEIGHT="4"><br> <img src="../cleardot.gif" width=1 height=1 vspace=8 border=0><br> <FONT SIZE="+2"><B>The Information That Wasn't There:<BR> A Proposal to INFORMS</B></FONT><BR> <img src="../cleardot.gif" width=1 height=1 vspace=6 border=0><br> <FONT face="verdana, arial, helvetica" SIZE=2><B>By ManMohan S. Sodhi</B></FONT><br> <hr size="1"> <img src="../cleardot.gif" width=1 height=1 vspace=12 border=0><br>    Billy Bob Thornton, who gets my vote as Best Actor for 2001, plays the role of a largely ignored man in the movie "The Man Who Wasn't There." But, though ignored, his character is key. Recent reading and events have made me wonder about the value of the information that is ignored in the print medium. The notion began with my reading of a 1993 book about fuzzy logic [1]. The most fascinating part of the book for me was the description of the academic publication process and "the control of the agenda." Perceived differences between British and U.S. newspapers reporting on recent events sharpened this idea. In my October 1996 column [2], I quoted Dom Claude from Victor Hugo's "Hunchback of Notre Dame" that the book will kill the edifice. I do not think the Web will kill the print medium in that vein. On the contrary, we can use the Web to get valuable information in addition to the printed word.<BR> <img src="../cleardot.gif" width=1 height=1 vspace=12 border=0><br> <FONT face="verdana, arial, helvetica" SIZE=3><B>A News Divide Across the Atlantic</B></FONT><BR> <IMG SRC="../barbluehook.gif" WIDTH="468" HEIGHT="4"><br> <img src="../cleardot.gif" width=1 height=1 vspace=2 border=0><br> After reading newspapers in London in the morning and more newspapers in Chicago later that same day, I know I have been on different continents altogether. The violence in the Middle East with its gripping two-eyes-for-an-eye logic has topped the news for quite some time now and sensible voices like Tony Judt [3] are rare. The U.S. papers appear to be different from their British counterparts in what they do not print. This "news divide" has engendered comment and, in the United States, election-year rhetoric. The <I>Economist</I> mentioned it recently. More than one U.S. senator has talked darkly about the Europeans' "burden of history" in this context. And the concerted action of a segment of subscribers against some U.S. newspapers may result in this news divide growing. Whatever your beliefs on this topic, the Web makes more information available to you. You can read, for instance, the <I>New York Times,</I> the <I>Jerusalem Times,</I> the <I>Christian Science Monitor,</I> the <I>Economist,</I> the <I>Financial Times</I> or the <I>Independent.</I> You can find newspapers that strengthen your beliefs. But, you can also access newspapers online that enlighten you.<BR> <img src="../cleardot.gif" width=1 height=1 vspace=12 border=0><br> <FONT face="verdana, arial, helvetica" SIZE=3><B>Scholarly Publication</B></FONT><BR> <IMG SRC="../barbluehook.gif" WIDTH="468" HEIGHT="4"><br> <img src="../cleardot.gif" width=1 height=1 vspace=2 border=0><br> Scholarly journals divide submitted articles into what gets accepted by peer review and what gets rejected. We only see what gets accepted and published. The review process protects readers from bad or irrelevant articles, and my own experience on both sides of the reviewer-reviewee fence is that the process is taken extremely seriously. But two types of errors can take place in any review process: a Type I error of a "bad" article getting published, and a Type II error of a good article getting rejected. Another Type II error is that even a bad article may nonetheless contain a nugget of valuable insight (in contrast to an accepted article that is only competent). <BR> <img src="../cleardot.gif" width=1 height=1 vspace=6 border=0><br> Each error has its consequences. For scholarly journals, given the shortage of print and the resultant exclusivity to help tenure and promotion decisions, editorial intent is to minimize Type I error (subject, of course, to human failing) while accepting the consequent cost of Type II errors. But Type II errors can be tragic; recall Galois' inability to get his articles published which eventually led to his getting killed in a duel at 21 (see, for instance, [4]).<BR> <img src="../cleardot.gif" width=1 height=1 vspace=12 border=0><br> <FONT face="verdana, arial, helvetica" SIZE=3><B>A Proposal to INFORMS</B></FONT><BR> <IMG SRC="../barbluehook.gif" WIDTH="468" HEIGHT="4"><br> <img src="../cleardot.gif" width=1 height=1 vspace=2 border=0><br> The Web does not hinder scholarly journals in aiming at the twin goals of using exclusivity to provide criteria for tenure decisions of academics as well as to protect readers from the Type I error of having to read "bad" articles. But it can also help in reducing the consequences of Type II errors by providing access to rejected articles. The existing review process need not change much except for making submissions available on the Web with the authors' permission. Additionally, we can even allow formal and informal online rating and comment  the former by appointed editors and reviewers and the latter by readers in general not unlike the reviews on Amazon.com.<BR> <img src="../cleardot.gif" width=1 height=1 vspace=6 border=0><br> It would be very beneficial to the wider OR/MS community (i.e., not just academics) to have a single Web site where one can submit articles or revisions, search, rate and review informally (any one) and formally (appointed reviewers only), and see the acceptance status. Such a site would meet goals of timeliness of information (instant availability), low cost and breadth of access. Sorting would have to reflect not only the usual relevance regarding the search topic, but also timeliness, the formal/informal ratings and comments, and acceptance status. A small submission fee could fund not only the Web site, but also the formal reviewers' time.<BR> <img src="../cleardot.gif" width=1 height=1 vspace=6 border=0><br> INFORMS has already made great steps with PubsOnline where, for a flat annual fee, you can access all INFORMS journals in print from 1997 onward. Terry Harrison, the editor of <I>Interfaces,</I> installed threaded discussion software to allow comment on the online version of the special issue on e-business. Mike Trick, the first editor of INFORMS Online, is now president of INFORMS, so PubsOnline will likely grow in importance. These are "The Men Who Are There," and I hope that "missing" scholarly articles too will be there in the near future.<BR> <img src="../cleardot.gif" width=1 height=1 vspace=12 border=0><br> <FONT face="verdana, arial, helvetica" SIZE=3><B>References</B></FONT><BR> <IMG SRC="../barbluehook.gif" WIDTH="468" HEIGHT="4"><br> <img src="../cleardot.gif" width=1 height=1 vspace=2 border=0><br> <OL> <li>McNeill D. and P. Freiberger, "Fuzzy Logic," Simon and Schuster, New York, 1993 <LI>Sodhi, M., "Avenues for information," ORMS Today, October 1996. <LI>Judt, T., "Israel - A Road to Nowhere," New York Review of Books, May 9, 2002. <LI>Devlin, K., "Mathematics: The New Golden Age," Columbia University Press, New York, 1999.<BR> </OL> <IMG SRC="../barbluehook.gif" WIDTH="468" HEIGHT="4"><br> <img src="../cleardot.gif" width=1 height=1 vspace=2 border=0><br> <FONT face="verdana, arial, helvetica" SIZE=2><I>ManMohan S. Sodhi (<A HREF="mailto:MohanSodhi@aol.com">MohanSodhi@aol.com</A>) is vice president at Gandiva.</I><BR>  <img src="../cleardot.gif" width=1 height=1 vspace=5 border=0><br>  <img src="../barblue.gif" width=468 height=1 border=0 alt=" "><br> <img src="../cleardot.gif" width=1 height=1 vspace=8 border=0><br> <font face="verdana, arial, helvetica" size="1"> <CENTER><script type="text/javascript"></script> <script type="text/javascript" src="http://pagead2.googlesyndication.com/pagead/show_ads.js"> </script></CENTER><br> <img src="../cleardot.gif" width=1 height=1 vspace=8 border=0><br> <LI> <A HREF="tocfr.html" Target="_top"><I>Table of Contents</I></A><br> <img src="../cleardot.gif" width=1 height=1 vspace=4 border=0><br> <LI> <A HREF="../../ORMS.shtml" TARGET="_top"><I>OR/MS Today</I> Home Page</A><br>  <img src="../cleardot.gif" width=1 height=1 vspace=8 border=0><br> <img src="../barblue.gif" width=468 height=1 border=0 alt=" "><br> <b><i>OR/MS Today</i></b> copyright © 2002 by <A HREF="http://www.informs.org/" target="_new">the Institute for Operations Research and the Management Sciences</a>. 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