new electronic journal: AGT

new electronic journal: AGT

[Bob Rosebrugh]

[Note from moderator: while it was not submitted directly to categories,
the following announcement will be of interest to many members of the
list. The LaTeX/ps is deleted for this mailing, but can be forwarded on
request to me.]

Date: Sat, 7 Oct 2000 18:28:54 +0100 (BST)

Dear GT and AGT Subscribers

The attached letter is being widely mailed to topologists.  It
announces the launching of a new journal (Algebraic and Geometric
Topology) published by Geometry and Topology Publications.  Please
help to publicise this journal by circulating the letter as widely as
possible.

The letter is given as a text file, as a LaTeX file and as a
PostScript file:

******  text file *****

Fellow Topologists:

This letter announces the launching of a new international journal,
"Algebraic & Geometric Topology" (AGT). It is intended that this new
journal cover all of topology, broadly defined. Papers will be fully
refereed,  in the traditional manner and using standards which are
well-known in our field. Immediately after they are accepted for
publication, they will be published electronically. At the end of each
calendar year, that year's papers will be published in a paper volume,
which will be sold to the libraries at cost.  AGT is an ``independent
journal", i.e. a journal established by and run by mathematicians, with
the cooperation of commercial publishers who will handle the printing and
distribution of the paper version. 

The range of interests of AGT is defined by its Editorial
Board. It has two Editors-in-Chief, Bob Oliver for Algebraic Topology
and Marty Scharlemann for Geometric Topology.  The other members of the
Editorial Board are Selman Akbulut, Joan Birman, Ruth Charney, Fred Cohen,
Alexander Dranishnikov, John Etnyre, Mario Eudave-Mu\~noz, David Fried,
John Greenlees, Ian Hambleton, Hans-Werner Henn, Kathryn Hess, Stefan
Jackowski, Akio Kawauchi, Goro Nishida, Tomotada Ohtsuki, Fr\'ed\'eric
Paulin, Andrew Ranicki, Justin Roberts, Michah Sageev, Peter Scott, Ulrike
Tillmann, Vladimir Turaev, Shicheng Wang.   The Managing Editors (in
charge of publishing) are Colin Rourke and Brian Sanderson.  Manuscripts
may be submitted to any Editor, including the Editors-in-Chief (but not
the Managing Editors).  For details about the
mathematical interests of the members of the Editorial Board and for
instructions on the submission of manuscripts, visit our web site at 

		http://www.maths.warwick.ac.uk/agt/ 

As most of you probably know, the underlying reason for independent
journals  is that most of the commercial journals specializing in topology
have priced themselves beyond the reach of our libraries. AGT intends to
compete directly for the stronger papers in Topology and Its Applications,
K-Theory, Geometria Dedicata, Topology  and The Journal of Knot Theory and
its Ramifications. The 1999 prices for those journals range between $.45
and $.92/page, plus varying supplements (which are difficult to pin down
because they depend upon complex arrangements) for the electronic
version. On the other hand, we anticipate that AGT will cost about
$.10/page for the printed version and zero for the electronic version. The
issue of journal prices was the main reason for the founding of GTP, a
non-profit making publication enterprise specializing in electronic
publications. It is based in the Mathematics Department of the University
of Warwick at Coventry, UK, and it will publish the electronic versions of
Algebraic & Geometric Topology and its sister journal Geometry & Topology. 

This raises the immediate question: how is the new journal Algebraic &
Geometric Topology} related to the existing journal Geometry
& Topology? They are distinct competing journals owned by the same parent
organization, just as {\it Springer-Verlag} publishes competing graduate
textbooks in topology.  Each has its own editorial board. The mathematical
interests and tastes of the board members naturally shape the
journal.  These interests have some overlap, and many areas of
non-overlap.   Algebraic & Geometric Topology aims to be more inclusive
than Geometry & Topology, and it intends to concentrate more specifically
on topology. It will set its own standards as it evolves, with those
standards determined in part by the competing journals which we named
explicitly above. For many years topologists have had a choice of
commercial journals. Now they will also have a choice among independent
journals. 

Endorsement by SPARC (the Scholarly Publishing and Academic Resources
Coalition) has been requested and is pending. If we receive it, we
anticipate that subscriptions to the paper version will come in from a
broad selection of research libraries. Negotiations with publishers
for printing the paper version are underway. We anticipate
that they will be completed well before we have enough papers for our
first volume.  Archiving will be handled through the arXiv (at either
arXiv.org or xxx.lanl.gov), a free service which appears to us to be
sound and reliable. Note that we use the arXiv solely as an extra layer of
security (in case for some unknown reason the files stored electronically
at Warwick University are lost). The papers which are stored in the arXiv
will carry the AGT logo and will say, very clearly, ``Published in
Algebraic & Geometric Topology". They therefore cannot be confused with
preprints.

We solicit your submissions, and your assistance in encouraging your
library to provide convenient browsing access to AGT. We
hope that you will find this new journal as exciting as we do, and will
express that feeling by sending us your papers, contributing your
expertise as a referee when we call on you, and by telling your students
and colleagues about AGT. 

Sincerely,

Bob Oliver, Marty Scharlemann (for the Editorial Board of AGT)
and Joan Birman, John Jones, Rob Kirby,  Haynes Miller, Colin Rourke,
Brian Sanderson (Executive Committee of GTP)