Publish and perish: the meaning of publication in an online world

The term ‘publish’ is understood in many ways – in common use, in specialist fields, and in legislation. The advent of the Web has added another range of meanings, and has both extended and distorted traditional understandings of the word. However, the paper is not about semantics but about access to and use of information. What happens in the publishing space is changing very rapidly, and without much coherent thought. For example, a PhD thesis is undeniably an unpublished document, but when added to the CAUL (Council of Australian University Librarians) Australian Digital Thesis program, is accessible throughout the known universe; what does this mean? The paper will: (1) Explore the ways in which the term ‘publish’ has been used in legal contexts (such as copyright, legal deposit, defamation) and in popular and specialist environments (such as the book and journal publishing industries); (2) Analyse the ways in which the term has changed with the advent of the World Wide Web in these same environments – legal, popular, and specialist (such as the areas of web editing/authoring and commercial publishing in particular). The paper will also take as examples some recent debates in which the protagonists have failed to come to grips with rapidly evolving realities; (3) Explore some ways in which these issues may be dealt with more proactively, so that access to and distribution of information is enhanced. There are conclusions for legislators, information managers, universities, researchers, web authors and editors, and of course publishers.