Information Technology Reference
In-Depth Information
submitted. Readers may comment and critique the work. The authors, at their dis-
cretion or by request from the editor will modify the article. The comments become
an integral part of the manuscript. Skywriting can transfer much of the work from
the reviewers to the community. This transfer can reduce the need to find qualified
reviewers but it also puts a great deal of responsibility on the editors and the commu-
nity. The response from the community is usually weak (Section
6.3
) since engaging
in “unofficial” reviews is not rewarded.
6.5.4 Conclusions on Stakeholders
The higher the electronicity of an e-journal, the more work, time and skills are
required for submitters and reviewers. As a result, e-journals (particularly advanced
electronicity journals) require a major social change for their acceptance. The exis-
tence of e-journals is expected to diminish the control of gatekeepers because these
journals can be created rapidly, increase the number of pages published, and ulti-
mately reengineer the review process. Skywriting and community reviews, described
in Section
6.5.3
are examples of reengineering the process.
7.
Conclusions
In this chapter, we described the development of academic publishing as a means
of knowledge building and dissemination, communication among scholars and as an
instrument to measure scholarly productivity and to grant rewards. We detailed the
forces that affect that development and the challenges facing the paper-based pub-
lishing industry. We classified e-journals into three categories, which we term paper
replacement, hybrid, and advanced electronicity and list their prospective benefits
and challenges. We concluded by examining the effect of e-journals on their stake-
holders, the authors, editors, libraries, reviewers, and gatekeepers. From our analysis,
we conclude that:
A rose is (not) a rose
. Most studies assume either that all electronic journals are the
same or they neglect to define the type of e-journal they are investigating. The three
types of e-journals we defined each resolves a different set of challenges and intro-
duces a different set of issues. We found that at present, the two dominant designs
are the commercial publisher's hybrid journal and the paper replacement journal pub-
lished by professional societies and entrepreneurial ventures. These designs require
the least social and cultural changes and are likely to remain the dominant design for
some time. Advanced electronicity e-journals offer additional advantages but require
major changes in the academic reward system. Although they may dominate in the
future, they are still rare.
