Writing papers

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rachel
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Joined: Sat Sep 05, 2009 11:47 pm

Writing papers

Postby rachel » Mon Sep 07, 2009 4:10 pm

Who has authority to write papers & distribute them? Can anyone do it?

Diogenes
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Joined: Tue Sep 08, 2009 10:25 am

Re: Writing papers

Postby Diogenes » Wed Sep 09, 2009 2:09 pm

Yes, anyone can write a paper or papers. Any fresh, new insights are welcomed.

londonoak
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Joined: Tue Sep 08, 2009 4:38 pm
Group: Colet House Tuesday lunchtime

Re: Writing papers

Postby londonoak » Thu Sep 10, 2009 1:42 pm

Anyone can write them, and it is great if they do. Help and guidance is available from the Materials Group chaired by Richard Larcombe, and that group will also accept a paper for distribution and schedule it into the termly programme as needed.

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Rumpelteazer
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Re: Writing papers

Postby Rumpelteazer » Sun Sep 13, 2009 11:50 am

londonoak wrote:Anyone can write them, and it is great if they do. Help and guidance is available from the Materials Group chaired by Richard Larcombe, and that group will also accept a paper for distribution and schedule it into the termly programme as needed.

Should people get approval from the Materials Group before putting a paper up on this forum?

DickL
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Joined: Sun Aug 30, 2009 12:59 pm

Re: Writing papers

Postby DickL » Sun Sep 20, 2009 9:01 am

Yes, I think so. This is, after all, one of the informal terms of reference of the Materials Group. The Group will be meeting soon, and I will make sure that we discuss this. Thanks for asking. What do other members think about this?

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Rumpelteazer
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Re: Writing papers

Postby Rumpelteazer » Mon Sep 21, 2009 9:55 am

Rumpelteazer wrote:Should people get approval from the Materials Group before putting a paper up on this forum?

larcombe wrote:Yes, I think so. This is, after all, one of the informal terms of reference of the Materials Group. The Group will be meeting soon, and I will make sure that we discuss this. Thanks for asking. What do other members think about this?

I've been thinking further about how to make this work without discouraging people from uploading papers. Suppose we said that people could upload a paper into this forum, but it would get added to the archive only if it has approval from the Materials Group? This would make it clear which papers are approved and which aren't.

DickL
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Re: Writing papers

Postby DickL » Tue Sep 22, 2009 8:49 am

There's more to it than that. Part of the Materials Group's role is to "approve" papers before they are distributed for use by the weekly groups. Most of these papers see the light of day first at a Colet meeting on a Monday, but not all. In practice this approval sometimes depends on who writes the paper - for example, Bill Hager has been writing papers for the New York group for years; they are of the highest quality, and the Materials Group trust him absolutely. But we would expect a new author to come through the Group first.

If we need a guidance note on this, I would say that all authors ought to submit papers to the Materials Group; any author in doubt about the procedure must do so.

Is that helpful?

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Rumpelteazer
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Re: Writing papers

Postby Rumpelteazer » Tue Sep 22, 2009 7:51 pm

larcombe wrote:There's more to it than that. Part of the Materials Group's role is to "approve" papers before they are distributed for use by the weekly groups. Most of these papers see the light of day first at a Colet meeting on a Monday, but not all. In practice this approval sometimes depends on who writes the paper - for example, Bill Hager has been writing papers for the New York group for years; they are of the highest quality, and the Materials Group trust him absolutely. But we would expect a new author to come through the Group first.

If we need a guidance note on this, I would say that all authors ought to submit papers to the Materials Group; any author in doubt about the procedure must do so.

Is that helpful?


Well yes and no. I was really referring to informal material rather than something that is formally distributed to groups. Let me explain what happens in our Country Group. We have no group leader so we each take it in turns to take the meeting. Sometimes there is a paper from the Materials Committee (as there was last week.) Sometimes there isn't. If there isn't a paper when it's my turn to take the meeting, I usually try to take some unresolved issue from the previous meeting and find material from previous papers, Voyage of Discovery, the Record or other sources for us to discuss. So effectively, I have put together an informal, unapproved paper. Fiona does the same. I'm sure people in other groups must do this too. I'm sure you don't mean that we should not upload these within a message for the benefit of other people, explaining the context and explaining that it is unofficial. If we can't upload the material we discussed, then it's difficult to post meeting reports about the meeting.

The whole idea of a Forum is that it should encourage informal, up-to-the-minute communication and be a place where new ideas can grow and flourish. Younger people who are used to using forums know that not everything that is posted is reliable. While I agree that it is absolutely essential to make it clear which papers have been approved and which are unofficial, I feel quite strongly that we should do all we can to encourage those who are contributing new ideas and material.

DickL
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Re: Writing papers

Postby DickL » Tue Sep 22, 2009 10:18 pm

OK - I think that I understand now - I told you that I was as thick as two short planks - you just have to be patient....

Let's have two distinct categories. In the first, we have "papers" - a technical term for papers that have been approved by the Materials Group for worldwide distribution. In the second, we have what you describe. We need to find a name for these, different from "papers", which can also be used as a technical term. How about "meeting notes"? Then you can have a box for each category.

DickL
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Re: Writing papers

Postby DickL » Tue Sep 22, 2009 10:22 pm

P.S. Meeting reports is even better than meeting notes, because it's already in the title of the section box.


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