Webcasting is not publication

Increasingly, scientific conferences are being webcast to extend the benefits beyond the few who are privileged to attend. Generally, the content is archived on the web site of the organizers, where it can be subsequently accessed. This practice is already well established in the physical sciences and is growing rapidly in other areas of science.

Should a webcast scientific talk be viewed as a publication? In an April 1999 policy statement by the PNAS Editorial Board on Prior Publication of Papers, we wrote that results “have already been published if they have appeared in sufficient detail to allow replication, are publicly accessible with a fixed content, and have been validated by review.” A seminar archived on the web fails to meet the first and third of these three standards and thus does not prejudice subsequent publication in PNAS. …