A plea for publishing without loss of data

Present habits of publication (print and electronic) are unsuitable in experimental sciences if they restrict themselves to full text with links and pixel graphics, because all primary data are lost. Primary high-tech data are highly interactive at the site of data production. The tools for their full communication for critical analyses, use and data mining are available and so are the data storage capacities, but these features are not yet used in publications, even though the feasibility is amply shown in databases and on the Internet. The authors try to change this disastrous situation in a comprehensive way by pointing to the available data-interactive publishing devices. This covers fully interactive hypermolecules, hyperspectra, chemometric data sets, and complex 3D objects. The data formats are XML/CML and the widespread PDB/VRML/JCAMP-DX standards rather than TIFF/GIF/JPEG projections. The present hesitancy of authors and publishers to accept the superior techniques has to be overcome by teaching, advertising and various other aids.