My Experiences with Web Publishing: HUFFMAN (con't.)

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My reflections on the process can be summarized in five points.

First, one of the great advantages of publishing an encyclopedia article on the web is that there are not as many restrictions on the length of the article. Anyone who has written for a print encyclopedia knows that it is a real art to summarize the main points on a given topic in, say, 250 words, without being totally unintelligible. In the case of an on-line encyclopedia, or at least in the case of the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, there were not any word limits of this sort. The article can be as long as it needs to be. Of course, one still has to be aware of the audience and not go into more detail than appropriate, but it is a real relief to be able to present a coherent account without being bound by those 250 words.

Second, composing in HTML was surprisingly easy. Stanford provided a template for the article that I downloaded. I was then able to open this template in Word and use Word as the HTML editor. What you see looks very much like a normal Word document, and you do not need to know HTML in order to write your article. You just replace the text in the template with your own text and your text is thus formatted according to the standards of the encyclopedia. The article begins with an outline of the whole article in the form of links that can take the reader to the part of the article, in which he or she is interested. I did need to learn how to anchor these links to the appropriate parts of my text, but this was not too hard.

Third, the time between submission of the article and its publication on the web is very quick, about a month in my case. Once I was done with the article, I followed instructions to upload the article to the encyclopedia's server. When I did this an e-mail was sent to the editor (John Cooper of Princeton), who then took 2-3 weeks to read over and revise my submission. When he was done, I received an e-mail and was able to log onto the Stanford Encyclopedia web site and view my original text along with the suggested corrections. I then revised my article on-line, which took a day or two, and then resubmitted the article, which was then published in a day or two after that. It is very rewarding to have your work appear so quickly after you write it and to have it available to a wide audience so quickly. I have already been able to use the articles in my classes.

Fourth, it is easy to update and correct your articles. As part of the agreement to write the articles for the encyclopedia, I am required to update them on a regular basis in light of new scholarship in the field. It is also nice to be able to correct any typographical errors that you missed the first time around. If you find a typo in a print article or book, you just have to live with it in many cases, but with on-line publishing you can correct it immediately.

Fifth, it is relatively easy to add diagrams and illustrations to your publications. Print publishers are not very excited about including numerous illustrations and drawings but they are very easy in on-line publishing. I wanted a diagram of Philolaus' astronomical system for my article so I asked a student who was good with graphics programs to devise one for me and then sent it by e-mail to Stanford and they quickly put it up.

As you can see, my experiences have all been positive. This may in part be due to the people at Stanford and the excellent system they have worked out. I wish I could do all my publishing on-line! Check out my articles and see what you think.

Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
Choose the letter of the alphabet, and click on the entries (Alcmaeon, Archytas, and Philolaus)