Information Technology Reference
In-Depth Information
time lags,
increasing production and distribution costs,
shrinking markets,
decreasing ability to publish innovative and unorthodox work,
space limitations,
limited accessibility,
limited format, and
lack of interactivity.
An alternative is the publication of academic articles in electronic form using a
medium such as the Internet. As we will show in this chapter, introducing electronic
publishing offers benefits such as:
reduced costs,
reduced cycle time,
increased space availability,
increased accessibility, and
increased interactivity.
At the same time, electronic publishing introduces new challenges such as:
protecting copyrights,
controlling publication quality,
maintaining long-term sustainable copies,
maintaining backwards compatibility, and
developing an appropriate fee structure in a seemingly “free” medium.
Although the use of the Internet and the World Wide Web (WWW) in academic
publishing advanced since the early 1990s, the penetration of e-journals is not as
rapid and significant as was initially predicted. Exploratory work by information
and library scientists predicted the demise of the traditional academic publishing
system (e.g.,
[38]
). The Internet and electronic journals (which we will refer to as
e-journals) were expected to change the way academia approaches scholarship and
publishing
[14]
. Yet, the current trend in academic publishing differs from this pre-
diction.
Much like startups 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 continua-
tion of existing paper journals, many with an electronic presence. This arrangement
