Should IUFRO World Congress papers be reviewed and competed for? Knut Veisten raised a good question, I think. I share his thoughts, I do admit. Other similar large-scale congresses that I attend (mainly in computer science) issue an open call for papers. They may get over a thousand submissions. All will be peer-reviewed, and about one-fourth chosen for the programme and for printing. Majority of the remaining ones will find their way elsewhere. Of course, there are plenaries and all sorts of additional activities in addition to these technical papers. Advantages: o Everybody has an equal chance for a paper. o Papers have a high status and so has the proceedings volume. o Quality, in general, is high. Disadvantages: o Often the papers selected this way describe very narrow problems, and are difficult to understand, except for a handful of the audience. o Lots of work for reviewers (IUFRO has a good structure to handle this, though). The advantages may supersede the disadvantages. - Waiter of the Internet Cafe in Tampere Hannu Saarenmaa hannu.saarenmaa@efi.joensuu.fi European Forest Institute http://www.efi.joensuu.fi/~saarenma/ Torikatu 34 +358-73-2520226 TEL +358-73-124393 FAX 80100 Joensuu, Finland +358-40-5560283 GSM
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