The Changing Shape of the Electronic Journal

Abstract

In ten years--perhaps fewer--you may be reading articles like this one on your computer screen, rather than on paper, as journal publication becomes an increasingly computerized procedure and the electronic journal comes into its own. A true electronic journal is defined as one that exists in electronic format only, rather than a parallel version of a print journal. These journals are generally available through the major telecommunications networks, likeBitnet, Internet, and UseNet. A review of the information technology literature yields a profusion of contradictory predictions about the electronic journal: it will both reduce the proliferation of superfluous scholarly publication and expand opportunities for scholars to publish more, faster, and with fewer restrictions; it will offset the high cost of up-front journal subscriptions fees and it will encumber library budgets with the necessity to purchase machinery and online time to capture electronic articles; it will open up untold new avenues of access to information and it will create a new underclass of information impoverished. The start of the debate about the status of the electronic journal is typically traced to F.W. Lancaster's 1978 treatise, Toward Paperless Information Systems.1 Building on Lancaster's premise of moving towards electronic publication, some early experiments in electronic journal publishing developed. One such project, undertaken in the late 1970s, was the New Jersey Institute of Technology's EIES (Electronic

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