The Electronic Journal: Replica of the Printed Medium or a Innovative Platform for Scholarly

Communication

Alice Keller, ETH-Bibliothek ZurichSwets Blackwell Workshop Warsaw, March 2001

Replica of the Printed Medium

Online Medium with Enhanced Features

Interactive Platform with Innovative Features

Or, no peer-reviewed journals at all?

Los Alamos E-Print Archive

Replica or Innovative Platform?

• EZB: January 2001: 8.000 Title entries– 74% STM-Journals

– 26% Social Sciences, Art & Humanities

– 89% Doppelgänger (print + online publications)

• Will e-journals remain replicas of the printed medium or will they become innovative scholarly communication platforms?

Selected results from a Delphi-Survey

„Future development of electronic journals“

(Jan-Dec 99)

Round 3Round 1 Round 2

Feedback Feedback

The Expert PanelThe Expert Panel

International expert panel,

45 specialists

Publishers

Journal agents

Teaching & research

Consultants

Librarians

Selected Results of the Selected Results of the Delphi SurveyDelphi Survey

Query: „Journals with peer review will represent the most important form of formal scholarly communication.“

0.00%

10.00%

20.00%

30.00%

40.00%

50.00%

60.00%

70.00%

80.00%

90.00%

100.00%

20

00

20

01

20

02

20

03

20

04

20

05

20

06

20

07

20

08

20

09

20

10

An

sw

ers

invalid

"Not correct"

"Correct"

Query: „The current situation with digital doppelgängers represents a transient period.“ (median: 2005)

0.00%

10.00%

20.00%

30.00%

40.00%

50.00%

60.00%

70.00%

1 2 3 4 5 invalid

1=not at all likely - 5=very likely

Ans

wer

s

0.00%

5.00%

10.00%

15.00%

20.00%

25.00%

30.00%

35.00%

1 2 3 4 5

1=not at all likely - 5=very likely

Ans

wers

Query: „When will all major subject areas be served by large preprint archives?“ (median: 2008, 20% never)

The Journal of the Future• Customised collections of articles, put together

according to the users’ personal interest profiles.

• Articles will be tagged with quality labels and stored in large knowledge environments.

• Articles will be replaced by dynamic information objects that represent versions of a paper over time.

All options are possible. Possibly along side each other.

Access modelAccess model

Agree 87,2%Don‘t agree 7,7%(Not valid: 5.1.%)

Query: „Libraries will in future offer unrestricted access to core journals through license agreements and pay-per-use access to journals of secondary importance.“

Considering the variety of options and requirements it is likely that librarians will in future be confronted with a considerable range of

- different publishing formats- different publishing formats- different access models- different access models- different cost and pricing models- different cost and pricing models

Choosing the right option will be our challenge for the future

The EndThe Endhttp://www.ethbib.ethz.ch/pub/vortr2001.html