ABSTRACT
Traditionally, data on crop growth are gathered, interpreted and used locally to advise farmers how to manage their crops. This work is repeated at sites all over the world. The data are published in scientific journals, but only as treatment means or as parameters for crude statistical models, and much of the information contained in the original data is lost. Collectively the data represent much more knowledge about crop growth than is available at any one location. They can be used to build and test crop simulators (models) and expert systems. However, agricultural journals will not publish complete data sets, or the full code of crop simulators or expert systems. A peer-reviewed journal to publish these data and software is needed.
Data and code are commonly stored and manipulated in electronic
form, and it makes sense to communicate them in that medium. An
electronic journal would be cheap, eminently searchable, and
immediately available on every scientist's terminal without
presenting a storage problem. It would also eliminate the time
articles spend tin press.. However, there is no way of mailing an
electronic article, in easily readable form, to administrators
and funding agencies. The publishers must provide authors with at
least one laser-printer copy of their article. In addition there
are two major problems to be overcome: (1) electronic journal
articles require graphics, but there is no universal standard.
The journal "publishers" must find or develop their own graphics
software, (2) most readers of such a journal will access it over
telephone lines, a slow and uncertain means of transmission. The
publishers must provide other access to the data, possibly via
magnetic tape or diskettes for current articles and CD-ROMs for
back issues.
HOW DATA ARE HANDLED AT PRESENT
Since J.B. Boussingault started field plot experimentation at
Bechelbron, Alsace in about 1834 (Russell, 1961), data on mop
growth have been gathered, interpreted, and used locally to
advise farmers how to manage their Hops. Wherever man cultivates
the soil, there are experiment stations testing various possible
management strategies. The researchers gather data on the soil
type, weather, management operations, crop growth and yield. Most
of these data are summarized as means or are fitted to Rude
statistical models and presented as parameters. This is done for
two reasons. First, scientific journals will not publish large
amounts of data. Second, very little of the information contained
in the data is actually used in advising the farmer. Usually the
farmers are just told what treatments work best under average
weather conditions on the types of soils in their region. Thus,
much of the information contained in the original data is lost.
Increasingly over the last 50 years, the data gathered at
experimental stations have been used by plant physiologists, soil
physicists and other specialists to develop an understanding of
why crop plants behave as they do. In these experiments the data
are effectively summarized as hypotheses about processes in the
soil/plant/atmosphere system. These hypotheses are published in
scientific journals, and as they are tested and become accepted,
some of them are translated into practical advice for farmers.
However, many of the hypotheses just languish in libraries
because no one sees a practical application for them.
MAKING BETTER USE OF THE DATA
Now that computers are cheap, powerful and widely available, we
can begin to make better use of these experiment station data and
our hypotheses derived from them Crop simulators (mechanistic
models) enable us to put in mathematical form our hypotheses
about the processes in the plant, soil and atmosphere that affect
crop growth These simulators allow us to gather up the scattered
hypotheses and relate them to each other to produce a summary of
all our knowledge about plant behavior. This knowledge, in the
form of computer codes, becomes a tool that can be handed to
farmers and other users to enable them to improve their farm
management. The farmer himself or an expert system shell can run
the simulator to predict the outcome of various possible
management strategies and determine which is the most beneficial.
In doing this, the farmer can enter into the computer, the
details of the soil in his filed, his management operations and
the weather experienced by the crop to date. He can then use a
number of different weather scenarios for the rest of the season,
to make his predictions. Used in this way, crop simulators can
give specific advice for a crop growing in a certain Reid in a
particular year. This is much superior to the general advice
currently given by farm advisory services but it is a potential
that yet has to be fully realized.
With crop simulators we can also make much better use of the data
gathered at experiment stations. These data can be used to test
or validate the simulator and its various component hypotheses.
The data from a single experiment station only test a given crop
simulator over a small pan of its possible operating range but,
collectively, the data from all experiment stations working on
that crop enable us to test the simulator over its entire range
of conditions. This potential for using worldwide data to test
and refine our understanding of plant behavior has been
recognized in the International Benchmark Sites Network for
Agrotechnology Transfer (IBSNAT) project funded by the U.S.
Agency for International Development. In this project, the
researchers have specified the variables and format for essential
input data to the crop simulators (IBSNAT, 1986). However, the
soils data specified are only suitable for running one particular
soil environment model. Other, more comprehensive, soil,
environment models need additional data.
MOTIVATION
One of the problems with an exercise like IBSNAT is that
experimenters have no real motivation for contributing to the
project They must spend time collecting the data, putting them in
the correct format, and sending them to the modelers, but there
is little Heard for doing so. Researchers, like most laboratory
animals, do the things that they are rewarded for doing. Rewards
come in the form of promotion and additional research money
(grants, etc.). These are awarded mostly on the basis of single
authored, peer-reviewed journal articles. Posters, oral
presentations, book chapters and articles in popular journals all
count but are much less important The single act which would have
the greatest impact in persuading researchers to publish all the
data from their experiments would be to establish an electronic,
peer-reviewed journal that accepts the data.
WHY CONVENTIONAL PAPER JOURNALS ARE UNSATISFACTORY
As mentioned earlier, conventional journals will not publish
large amounts of data. Because of the cost and the limited number
of pages available they are also unable to publish the code and
documentation of crop simulators. Thus the data and the
simulators needed to make full use of them are published in
experiment station bulletins and other obscure places, if,
indeed, they are published at all. The authors get little reward
for doing this, apart from the private satisfaction of
communicating their ideas.
THE ADVANTAGES OF AN ELECTRONIC, PEER-REVIEWED JOURNAL
The new journal should be electronic because this is the obvious
means of storing and manipulating data and the computer code of
crop simulators. Communicating electronically means that data and
code would not have to be keyed into a computer again, with the
ever-present possibility of introducing errors. The journal
should be peer reviewed to maintain standards and to ensure that
published articles count towards the author's promotion. An
electronic journal would be cheap, eminently searchable and
immediately available on every scientist's terminal without
presenting a storage problem in his office. Because storage is
not a problem, articles could be of any length,
without invoking page charges. An electronic journal would also
eliminate the time articles spend "in press" because the authors
would, in effect, be doing their own typesetting.
Another possibility with electronic publication, that is not
available in paper publication is that of continuously adding to
an article after it has first appeared. We have in mind here not
amending an article but instead having a file associated with it
that refers the reader forward in time to subsequent discussion
of the original article.
While the scope of the journal must be defined, it does not need
to be too narrow because the subject matter can be subdivided and
indexed without inconveniencing the readers. For instance, a
plant physiologist, finding that 90% of his favorite journal
deals with soil physics will soon stop subscribing but if the
articles dealing with soil physics are transparent to him and he
is not paying a subscription anyway, there should be no problem.
DIFFICULTIES WITH ELECTRONIC JOURNALS
The idea of publishing an electronic journal is not new. An
electronic journal Genetic Information Retrieval System. has been
under consideration for several years, but publication is being
delayed because the US National Libraries of Medicine is
considering starting a similar journal. Recently Pergamon Press
announced a new journal "Tetrahedron Computer Methodology" to
publish articles on the use of computers in chemistry. This will
be available in both hardcopy and electronic forms, but the
latter will include supplementary material such as source code
and atomic coordinates of molecules. However, the Pergamon word
processing program ChemText will be needed to create and read
figures in the electronic journal. Clearly there is interest in
electronic journals, but there are also significant difficulties.
One difficulty is that the contents of computers do not have high
visibility. Most of us pay attention to external stimuli in
roughly the order: telephone calls, visitors in the office,
pieces of paper on the desk, and electronic mail. An electronic
journal, like electronic mail, but unlike paper journals, does
not intrude into the office environment or land with a thud on
the desk. An electronic journal has to be remembered and called
up. For this reason, we believe it is necessary for the
electronic journal to have a paper companion in the form of a
quarterly listing of newly published abstracts plus editorial
comments and letters. This would remind subscribers of the
existence of the journal and alert them to articles of potential
interest.
Another difficultly with an electronic journal is that monitor
screens are not as easy to read as a page of crisp, black type,
and they are much less portable. Even those of us who routinely
use word-processors to edit manuscripts, usually print out a copy
of the manuscript for marking up. It is easier to scan printed
pages for wanted information than to scan successive screens on
the monitor. For this reason, it seems likely that readers of the
journal will want to print out some articles in their own
offices.
There is nothing tangible about an electronic journal that can be
mailed to administrators, funding agencies, and admirers. In
time, the expectation of these people may change but for the
moment, we have to live with an infrastructure geared to paper
copies of articles. We therefore believe that we must provide
each author with at least one laser printout of his article which
he can photocopy for distribution at his own expense. Of course,
many authors have their own laser printers and could do this for
themselves. This would save the journal some work but might lead
to the appearance of bogus articles that had not been accepted or
even offered for publication in the journal. Some form of
authentication may be necessary but we will meet that problem
when it actually arises.
This immediately brings to mind another difficulty: the authors
and readers are going to have many different computers and word
processing programs. Fortunately, all computers handle ASCII text
and most word processors can read in or dump out ASCII. The
solution then is to have the entire journal in ASCII characters.
In addition to these minor difficulties there are two major
problems with starting an electronic journal: graphics and
access.
GRAPHICS IN ELECTRONIC JOURNALS
One major problem is that a scientific journal must handle
graphs. Some ideas can only be explained with the aid of graphs
and diagrams, and all arguments are easier to follow when
illustrations arc used. However, there is no universal graphics
standard for personal computers and the potential readers of the
Journal all have different hardware and software at their
disposal. We cannot expect them to buy specific pieces of
hardware and software just to read the journal. At some future
date, when the journal is established, this may seem worthwhile
if there is some hardware/software combination which offers
spectacular advantages. However, we believe that for the moment
we must cater to the hardware owned by readers and supply any
software needed.
Almost everybody in the U.S.A. either has, or has access to an
IBM-PC or compatible machine. This, then, is our de facto
hardware standard. At first we started to develop our own
graphics software for the journal but soon found that there were
considerable problems in working out all of the bugs, making it
sufficiently user-friendly, and documenting it. Then we realized
that the program Chart (3) by Microsoft could be used to generate
ASCII files (called SYLK files by Microsoft). Chart is
inexpensive and the authors of journal articles would have to
purchase their own copy to generate the ASCII files.
These files would be part of the article and would reside in the
journal along with a reconstruct-only version of Chart. Readers
would download this special version of Chart, plus the files,
into their own computer, reconstruct the figures and, if desired
print them out. We are currently negotiating with Microsoft to
provide us with this reconstruct-only version of Chart. As a
backup to this, we are considering distributing the figures for
each published article in hard copy in the quarterly bulletin.
ACCESS TO ELECTRONIC JOURNALS
A second major problem is that most readers of the proposed
journal will have to access it over telephone lines which are a
slow and uncertain means of transmission. This might not be a
problem for reading text but could be a problem for downloading
code. Errors introduced into text by noisy transmission are
easily overlooked but errors in code can be disastrous.
Therefore, we believe that we must also be prepared to answer
requests for making copies of individual articles on diskette
with the expense being borne by the requester. In any case, we
plan to make "back issues" of the journal available on CD-ROM as
often as warranted by the accumulation of articles. CD-ROM,
Compact Disc Read Only Memory, uses the same technology developed
for audio compact discs. A single S.25 inch disc holds up to 670
megabytes of information. Costs for producing the discs, which
are decreasing rapidly, are now as low as $1500 for the master
disc plus 100 copies. Cost per copy beyond this quantity is less
than $3 each.
PROGRESS TO DATE WITH ESTABLISHING AN ELECTRONIC, PEER-REVIEWED
JOURNAL
The idea of developing this journal was first mentioned in a letter
sent to about 400 modelers last year. From those who responded, an
editorial board has been assembled, consisting mostly of U.S.A
scientists but with some overseas representatives. The problems of
reaching overseas readers electronically are, of course, much
greater than those of reaching U.S.A. readers. However, it is
conceivable that if the journal does well, copies of it could be
held on computers in other countries where they would be more
accessible to the readers in those countries. The editorial board
has decided on the aim and scope of the journal and the criteria to
be used for accepting articles for publication. As soon as the
agreement with Microsoft is concluded and the reconstruct-only
version of Chan is received, we will commence publication.
Initially, the journal will reside on a computer in the USDA, ARS,
Systems Research Laboratory at Beltsville, MD, U.S.A. as a pan of
the Agricultural Systems Research Resource (an electronic
conference and bulletin board). However, when the journal is
functioning satisfactorily, we intend to transfer it to some
existing or newly created scientific society which can provide for
its long-term nurture and a democratic means of changing journal
policy and cycling the editorial board. Another important
consideration is that a private society can collect subscription
fees and charge for services; actions which are nearly impossible
for a U.S. federal government laboratory.
REFERENCES
[1] IBSNAT, Decision Support System for Agrotechnology Transfer:
Documentation for IBSNAT Crop Model Input and Output Files, version
1.Q U.S. Agency for International Development and Dr. Gogo Uehara,
University of Hawaii, 1986.
[2] Russell, E.W., Soil Conditions and Plant Growth, 9th ea., pp.
1688, Longmans, Green and Co., London, 1961.
[3] Chart, version 3.0. A scientific and business graphics program by Microsoft Corp., PO Box 97017, Redmond, WA 98073-9717, USA.