FROM BOBST LIBRARY

The Electronic Journal: Is It Becoming Academically Respectable?

by Andrew Gessner

[Ed: Links to web pages and/or e-mail addresses which have become inactive since the publication of this article have been enclosed in curly brackets { }. Replacement links have been provided where possible.]

In a recent issue of Connect, the concept of electronic journals was discussed ("The Electronic Journal: Is It Here to Stay?" Summer 1995). Specifically, the article compared the electronic journal to its print equivalent, discussed the pros and cons of electronic versus print publishing, and identified the unique problems this emerging form of scholarly communication presents to the modern researcher. One of the issues to be discussed in more detail here is the full incorporation of electronic journals into the world of scholarly research.

Due in part to the factors discussed in the earlier article -- namely economics, space, and access -- the continued growth of electronic journals is inevitable. Add to these factors the explosive growth in the development and use of World-Wide Web browsers and the technology's great facility with graphics, and it is easy to see why many new users and publishers are being enticed into the world of electronic journals. The high bandwidth (carrying capacity) of the Internet, coupled with efficient algorithms to compress image files to manageable sizes, also make transmission of graphics practical.

Nonetheless, though the technological changes support the increasing frequency of e-journals over their print counterparts, changes in attitude are much slower to appear.

Are E-Journals "Respectable"?

At the International Conference on Refereed Electronic Journals, held at the University of Manitoba in October, 1993, the lack of scholarly respect for e-journals was directly addressed. In part the conference was an attempt to make academic merit the sole consideration in the publication of journal-type research, and it sought to advance the idea that the academic community should have a hand in determining what gets published and how it is disseminated; and it resolved to provide an outlet for research publication that is not subject to the severe economic constraints of traditional paper-journal publishing. The conference further attempted to outline ways in which the advantages of electronic publication (savings in production costs, speed-up in publication and dissemination) might be highlighted in the minds of academics, hopefully resulting in universities' taking on a greater role themselves as disseminators of research information, and not just as producers and consumers. These points underscore the concern with which elements of the academic community view the inferior status conferred on e-journals and recognize that the only practical future for the scholarly journal may be in electronic form.

Mark Bothwell, in an editorial appearing in the e-journal Neurotrophism (February 1995), points out two significant obstacles to electronic publishing in the scientific research community: "First, not all scientists have access to the World-Wide Web, and consequently, articles published on the Web will not be seen by all scientists. This situation is rapidly changing as the number of Web users grows exponentially. Second, career advancement in research science is determined, to a substantial degree, by publication record, and publication record is understood to mean print publication in refereed journals. At the moment, university tenure committees will undoubtedly discount publication in electronic journals." Bothwell predicts that within the next five years these attitudes will change, that electronic journals will become widespread, and that papers published in e-journals will be deemed equal to those published in print publications.

One additional issue is that the majority of e-journals are not included in the standard scholarly indexes, and therefore are virtually unavailable to the scholarly researcher; electronic journals are consequently perceived as lacking permanence. While this is changing, this real or perceived lack of permanence also contributes to the second-class status of the electronic journal within the academic world, which in turn reinforces the ambivalence with which most index publishers view the electronic journal.

Publish (in Print) or Perish?

The maxim "Publish or perish" is taken seriously by academics seeking tenure, and the issue of tenure looms large in any discussion of the legitimacy of electronic journals. Although in some disciplines it seems to be accepted that being published is being published, regardless of the medium, in most fields refereed print journals are more respected and therefore get more submissions. This, in turn, limits the first-rate material available to e-journals and helps to perpetuate their perceived inferiority.

Conversely, one study published in early 1995 supports the view that there is no scholarly disadvantage to e-journal publication. In her recent survey of 186 authors and editors at 10 electronic-only journals, Julene Butler of Rutgers University found that "it does seem safe to conclude . . . that . . . electronic publication has not led to a failure to receive rewards. Furthermore, although there is a strong perception that colleagues see e-publication as less significant than print publication, very few contributors have actually been challenged regarding their e-publication or asked to justify it through formal review channels."

Researchers in the United Kingdom, on the other hand, have a formal policy regarding the validity of the e-journal in the tenure process: "In the light of the recommendations of the Joint Funding Councils' Libraries Review Group Report (published in December 1993) refereed journal articles published through electronic means will be treated on the same basis as those appearing in printed journals." The existence of such a policy statement does indicate, however, that discrimination against e-journals does, or did, exist.

Here to Stay?

Statistics indicate that electronic journals are here to stay; the number of electronic journals has seen remarkable growth in the last few years, with over 6,000 as of mid-1995. These include print journals that have added an electronic version, some which have replaced their print versions completely with an electronic one, and the many new titles that have no print forerunners. Here to stay? Probably. But whether "here" means Academia or the vast Universe of the Internet remains to be seen. [ C ]

Andrew Gessner was a Reference Associate at Bobst Library at the time of this article's publications.
{gessnera@elmer1.bobst.nyu.edu}

Posted 27 February 1996. Revised 24 May 2004.