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Subject:Doing vs. Publishing: An Important Distinction From:"George F. Hayhoe" <george -at- GHAYHOE -dot- COM> Date:Thu, 23 Jul 1998 10:19:57 -0400
A recent poster said:
<<The STC did a comparison on 4 Help tools, Doc-To-Help,
ForeHelp, RoboHelp.,
and HDK.>>
As the editor of STC's journal, I'd like to point out the
need for greater precision in statements like this.
STC didn't do the comparison of help tools in the article
the poster cited; Mike Hendry and Ian Johns did it.
STC--more specifically, the Philadelphia Metro chapter of
STC--published the comparison in their newsletter.
This might seem like a small point, but it isn't.
To say that STC did the comparison suggests that it has the
Society's cachet--whatever that may be worth to the
individual reading the statement. Even to say that STC
published it may be a bit misleading unless we specify the
publication in which it appeared. Newsletter and magazine
articles often contain valuable information, but they are
not subject to the kind of peer review that articles
appearing in journals typically receive.
For the record, STC itself performs very little research
other than the salary and membership profile surveys that
the STC Office staff does each year. In addition, a
technical communication core competencies study, begun by
volunteers with some support from an outside contractor
several years ago, is scheduled to be completed this year, I
believe.
STC does sponsor research with a significant research grants
program, and some of the work that has been done as a result
is very significant--for example, John Carroll's symposium
on minimalism that was recently published by MIT Press in
cooperation with STC as _Minimalism Beyond the Nurnberg
Funnel_.
Very occasionally, STC actually commissions research rather
than simply funding proposals submitted to the Society--for
example, Ginny Redish and Judy Ramey's value added project a
few years back.
I don't mean to criticize Mike Hendry's article. From what I
can tell based on a quick read, it contains a lot of very
helpful information. But if we are to be more informed
consumers of research and other information, we need to
describe it accurately when we cite it so that others can
accurately weigh its merits.
