Publishers have every right to feel themselves victims
of the famous Chinese curse, "May you live in interesting
times!" as the information revolution continues
to pick up speed. The OSA is a significant publisher in
the scientific world, and its main income stream, supporting
much of the Society's activities, comes from its journal subscriptions. Thus, there is little doubt that the decision two years ago that made electronic publishing the Society's top priority for innovation was correct. Although OSA already has existing electronic publishing products and is planning to offer several new ones by the end of the year, it does not yet publish an
all-electronic optics journal. That ground-breaking step was authorized recently.
by Paul Kelley and G. N. Rassam