News

In response to the widely circulated letter of resignation of
some members of the Machine Learning journal (MLJ), I would like to
make two points:
  - MLJ articles *are* universally electronically accessible
  - MLJ seeks your support and input to continue serving the community

The accessibility of MLJ papers has been dramatically improved
in the past 12 months.  The main changes are these:

  - the copyright agreement gives the author the right to distribute
    individual copies of an MLJ paper to students and colleagues,
    physically and electronically, including making the paper available
    from the author's personal web site.

  - all MLJ papers are freely available online at Kluwer's web page
http://www.wkap.nl/kaphtml.htm/MACHFCP
    from the time of acceptance until the paper appears in print.

  - the individual MLJ subscription price has been dramatically reduced.
    It is excellent value for money: for $120 Kluwer prints, binds,
    and mails to your door around 1350 pages.

As a consequence of the first two points, MLJ articles are universally
accessible -- from Kluwer's home page in the first six months or so,
and at any time from the author's home page.

The primary purpose of paid subscriptions, in this new distribution model,
is to enable an individual or institution to obtain a bound archival copy
of the journal printed on high-quality paper -- exactly the same role
served by the printed version of JMLR sold by MIT Press.

Turning to the second point, all members of both editorial boards have
the interests of the machine learning community at heart.
Our job is to serve you.

The current members of the MLJ board, and the new members we are
in the process of adding, believe it is in the best interests
of the research community to keep MLJ alive and strong at this time.
This is not to say we hope JMLR will fail.  There is ample excellent
research to support two high-quality journals, so it is not necessary
for one of the journals to be destroyed in order for the other to succeed.

If you agree that MLJ is useful to the community and has
a role to play in the future, I would like to hear from you -
feedback from the community is the very best way for me to know
how to steer MLJ's course so it best serves the community.

-- Robert Holte holte@cs.ualberta.ca
   Executive Editor
   Machine Learning