12.12.2006 12:01

Strange, how different the concerns can be. There is a discussion about online publication of papers in philosophy (via Vanessa's blog). I have Most of the people there seem to be concerned with the fact that prior online publication spoils blind reviewing.
In high energy physics the line of discussion is pretty much different. For us it's standard to submit a paper to the arXiv. Normally, first publication is there, once you have submitted online, you also send your paper to a journal. Of course this makes blind publication impossible, but on the other hand if your paper is on the arXiv, it's published, freely accessible to everyone, nobody can steal your ideas, and if your paper is important, it will have a huge impact, because interested people can always read it there.