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> normalize any differences! Elsevier could easily make this completely non-trivial. For a very silly example, imagine how this would work if each user got a P
by simiones 5y ago
> normalize any differences!
Elsevier could easily make this completely non-trivial. For a very silly example, imagine how this would work if each user got a PDF using a different font. How do you automatically normalize the difference between Comic Sans and Times New Roman? Sure, it's trivial to write a tool that understands what "fonts" are and does this (especially for PDF), but you can't do it with a simple binary tool.
And of course Elsevier can do something entirely more complex.
- steerablesafe 5y agoYou just pick a font and always replace with that.
- amelius 5y agoThey could change "the" into "a" in different places. This is the kind of stuff done when documents that shouldn't be leaked are handed to politicians.
- asddubs 5y agoThen they'd be messing with the actual written content of papers not authored by them, though
- amelius 5y agoThey are editors, right?
- steerablesafe 5y agoEditing once, with the approval of the authors is one thing. "Automatic" editing on each download is an other.
- Isthatablackgsd 5y ago> They could change "the" into "a" in different places. Bad bad bad bad, again bad idea. That changes the structure and the meaning of the content. A single word replacement can change the context of the entire sentence which can change the content of the entire paper. Changing it can create unintended effects which can make Elsevier to thrash their reputation and universities will move on to different scientific/academic journals site. If Elsevier tries this method with peer-reviewed papers, then it have to go through the reviews again to ensure that the original and the revision have the equivalent expression which is difficult to do. Authors chose those words and structure to convey their expression in those papers. They chose it for a reason and Elsevier is not going to risk their reputation to change the authors papers without affecting the content of the paper.
- amelius 5y agoThey could also change word-spacing and line breaks.
- simiones 5y agoYes, but this works if your tool understands fonts. Maybe they also change paragraph spacing ever so slightly, AND they change some letters with cyrilic alternatives that look the same, AND they add some 0-width spaces, and and and.