Electronic Dissertations Library

Exploring the development of the independent, electronic, scholarly journal, by Alison Wells

Possible future trends for electronic journals

Taking all these factors into account, Hitchcock et al. (1998) advocate four steps toward optimum e-journals:

• non-exclusive papers : Authors should keep the copyright on their papers, and be able to have them published wherever they see fit.
• comprehensive archives and new gateway services, these do not necessarily have to copy the journal format.
• open systems : Using non-proprietary software, such as HTML, allowing easy access to everyone.
• links : Exploiting the citation databases.

Bovenschulte (in Wilkinson, 1998) thinks that e-journals will take over in the next 5-10 years, while Boyce (in Wilkinson, 1998) quotes just three. Willis (1995) looks forward to 20 years of transition, and Wilkinson (1998) thinks that "print journals may evolve into hybrids", with detailed information on the Web, and extended abstracts in print for browsing. I think that this misses the point of electronic publishing, as this hybrid does not eliminate print costs or increase accessibility.

Nadasdy (1997) says that "unless [e-journals] exploit the Internet's potential for two-way communication, enabling readers to interact and contribute, they will still be pale imitations of paper journals", however Odlyzko (September 1997) laments that "many new electronic journals are deliberately conservative, since they are striving to establish themselves as respectable alternatives to traditional print journals".

Finally, Willis (1995) warns that "a paradigm shift does not generally take over a field completely in one generation", some people embrace new developments, looking for improvements in the old ways, while others prefer to remain on familiar territory.

References

Hitchcock, S., Carr, L. & Hall, W. (December 1998). Making the most of electronic journals. [http://xxx.lanl.gov/html/cs.DL/9812016]. Site visited at 16.4.99

Nadasdy, Z. (September 1997). "A truly all-electronic journal : let democracy replace peer review", Journal of Electronic Publishing, 3(1). [http://www.press.umich.edu/jep/03-01/EJCBS.html]. Site visited at 16.4.99

Odlyzko, A. (September 1997). The slow evolution of electronic publishing. [http://www.research.att.com/~amo/doc/slow.evolution.txt]. Site visited at 16.4.99

Wilkinson, S.L. (May 1998). "Electronic publishing takes journals into a new realm", Chemical and Engineering News, 18.5.98. [http://pubs.acs.org/hotartcl/cenear/980518/elec.html]. Site visited at 16.4.99

Willis, J. (1995). Bridging the gap between traditional and electronic scholarly publishing. [http://www.coe.uh.edu/~brobin/Educom95/EducomJW/index.html]. Site visited at 16.4.99

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