Academic Electronic Journals: Past, Present, and Future
2006; Elsevier BV; Linguagem: Inglês
10.1016/s0065-2458(05)67003-9
ISSN0065-2458
Autores Tópico(s)scientometrics and bibliometrics research
ResumoAlthough the use of the Internet and the World Wide Web (WWW) in academic publishing advanced since the early 1990s, the growth of electronic journals proved neither as rapid nor as significant as was initially expected. Exploratory work by information and library scientists predicted the demise of the traditional academic publishing system. The Internet and electronic journals (e-journals) were expected to change the way academia approaches scholarship and publishing. As in many other industries, immediately after the introduction of the WWW, a large number of e-journals were established, followed by a high mortality rate. The resulting dominant design for academic publishing is a continuation of existing paper journals, many with an electronic presence. A competing design is the electronic replica of a paper journal. These e-journals rarely use the full “electronicity” afforded by the Internet and usually look and feel like a paper journal. In this chapter, we investigate the rationale behind the slow adoption of e-journals by academia. The chapter examines the benefits and challenges introduced by e-journals vis-à-vis the objectives of academic scholarship. We conclude that all three forms of e-journals solve many of the economic and technical issues facing academic publishing such as reduced production and distribution costs, reduced time lag, increased available space and new formats. However, e-journals raise some fundamental social, political and institutional dilemmas such as the ability to control the quality of the published material, long term sustainability, institutional resistance, increased work for editors, reviewers and authors and backwards compatibility. Institutional resistance to e-journals increases in direct proportion to the level of electronicity used by these journals. These conflicts are difficult to resolve and will require a cultural change and power shift.1
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