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economic sense. The advanced electronicity e-journals develop despite some resis-
tance to change by stakeholders (e.g., tenure committees, gatekeepers).
4 . 3 C h a l l e n g e s S o l v e d b y E - J o u r n a l s
As of 2005, all three forms are in existence. The paper replacement and the hybrid
forms are more common whereas advanced electronicity e-journals are rare. As indi-
cated in
Table I
, each e-journal type solves some of the challenges facing academic
publishing.
Space
. Effectively infinite space is only available to advanced and paper replace-
ment e-journals since the hybrid journal is limited by the space constraints of the
paper version. Some paper replacement journals, in attempt to look like traditional
paper journals do not use their additional space (e.g., the length of all articles in
Foundations of Information Systems
is 15-20 pages which is the acceptable page
limit in traditional p-journals).
New formats
. For the same reasons, the hybrid journals and the paper replacement
e-journals do not use new formats or interactivity. An exception is a hybrid jour-
nal that offers multi media extensions (e.g., the
International Journal of Robotics
Research
).
Cycle-time
. Both paper replacement and advanced electronicity e-journals reduce
cycle time. Advanced e-journals publish accepted manuscripts, as they are ready.
Paper replacement e-journals collect articles into issues and volumes.
20
This prac-
tice can increase the cycle-time somewhat. However, because paper replacement
e-journals have unlimited available space, they do not need to create a backlog of
accepted articles. Hybrid journals have the option to publish the electronic version
of manuscripts, as they are ready and the paper version when an issue is due. This
practice can create some confusion in citation (Section
4.4
).
Accessibility
. Ease of access seems to be the main driver for the existence of hybrid
journals. Articles can be read at any time and from anywhere. Scholars do not have to
carry hard copies of an entire issue or borrow an entire volume from the library; they
can print articles of interest. Therefore, e-journals (regardless of the form they take)
provide easier access to scholarly work. Traditionally, scholars used to subscribe to
a few journals in their discipline and that is mostly what they read and referenced.
Today scholars search for articles based on a topic of interest. Because more and
more articles are available electronically (not just the abstracts), the following occurs:
scholars drop individual paper subscriptions because the paper accumulates and
clutters their offices and their homes,
20
In many cases, paper replacement e-journals post articles as they are ready. However, they send e-mail
announcements periodically to reduce information overload. In addition, paper replacement e-journals
arrange articles in volumes and issues to conform to traditional citation standards.
