Noetica: Introduction

Aims and Scope

• Computer Science
• Linguistics
• Mathematics
• Neuroscience
• Philosophy
• Psychology

Contributions may be submitted to either the journal (just called Noetica), to the forum (called Noetica: Open Forum) or to the CogPsy mailing list. The cogpsy mailing list allows for fast unmoderated comment on articles and announcements of relevance to the community. The Open Fourm is intended to play the role of an initial testbed for new research. As such, the emphasis is on fast turn around. Articles are selected by the editorial board rather than being subjected to a full review process. Articles for the journal, however, are subject to normal review procedures (in this case three written reviews). The three tiered structure is designed to facilitate open communication between researchers while maintaining a high standard archival role.

The journal does not retain copyright, so authors are free to submit their work elsewhere having received the benefit of commentaries.

Advantages of an Electronic Journal

Being accessible through the Internet, electronic journals have several advantages over existing paper journals:

• for authors, it provides rapid publication and instant world-wide distribution of their work;
• all papers will be available on-line in hypermedia format (via World Wide Web), allowing rapid browsing and thematic searching.
• papers may exploit the advantages of multi-media including graphics, animation or audio, and of hypertext including live links to related electronic information.

Papers (for the open forum or the journal) may either be of conventional form (e.g. ASCII or postscript) or hypertext documents conforming to the World Wide Web standards. The objective is to move towards the emerging HTML 3.0 standard, as it provides several features including mathematical equation and table typesetting which would be useful in this discipline. The HTML 3.0 standard is due to be completed by mid 1995 and the development version of the Arena HTML 3.0 browser is currently available.

Categories of Contribution for the Journal and Open Forum

• Original Article (max. 10000 words);
• Commentaries (500-1000 words);
• Author's Responses (5000-8000 words);
• Reviews (max. 10,000 words);
• Educational or Research Resources (e.g. databases, software, tutorial material); Having passed the editorial process an original article is declared open for comment by being linked into the web site. A notice of its appearance will also be distributed to subscribers. Commentaries, which are also subject to editorial review, will be added as they are received. If there has been substantial debate the author may be invited to write an author's response summarising their reactions to the commentaries after which the issue is closed.

  A review is a summary of a topic area primarily for researchers in that area or fairly closely associated areas. Intending authors of reviews are encouraged to contact the editors in advance.

  Educational and research resources include information and software that may be of use to the cognitive science community. This would include database software and tutorial material . This type of contribution also includes educational overviews which provide introductory material suitable for a researcher from a different field or for postgraduate students.

  The cogpsy mailing list

  The cogpsy mailing list is intended for discussion of issues and the dissemination of information important to researchers in all fields of cognitive science. Contributions could include:
  • announcements of new techreports, dissertations, theses, conferences, seminars or courses
  • discussions of research issues (including those arising from articles in Noetica)
  • requests for information about bibliographic issues
  • reviews of software or hardware packages

  Contributions can be sent to: cogpsy@neuro.psy.soton.ac.uk.

  Copyright Policy

  By viewing the journal readers agree to acknowledge both authors and the journal for any use they make of the material. As a condition of publication, authors agree to make their material freely available to all readers for an indefinite period. Authors will be solely responsible for the accuracy and correctness of their contributions. However, neither the authors, or editors, will be held in any way liable for any use that may is made of information obtained from the journal. Authors are free to submit their material either in original or edited form for publication in other journals.

  Citation and Referencing

  The following is a suggestion for how articles in Noetica might be referenced in an American Psychological Association style. The reference contains the Uniform Resource Locator (URL) of Noetica which will allow others to access the journal. Please only provide the URL of the Noetica home page - not the URL of the specific document as this may change.

  Dennis, S. (1995). The Correspondence Between Psychological and Network Variables in Connectionist Models of Human Memory. Noetica: Open Forum, 1(2), http://psy.uq.edu.au/CogPsych/Noetica/.

  This document is an edited version of the Introduction and Call for Papers of Complexity International.

  Simon Dennis
  19 October 1995