Electronic journals and proceedings: Is there a future for small publishers?

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Research and Development in Higher Education Vol. 23: Flexible Learning for a Flexible Society

July, 2000, 755 pages
Published by
Lesley Richardson & John Lidstone
ISBN
0908557477
Abstract 

Although many scholarly journals and conference proceedings owe their origins to professional societies, much of this kind of publishing has been relinquished to large scale commercial publishers. However, the rapidly growing acceptance of Internet based delivery of journals and proceedings now offers societies a unique opportunity to retain their publishing activities, on a small but viable and sustainable scale.

This article reviews the diverse perspectives upon electronic journals and proceedings held by readers, authors, professional societies, libraries and publishers. As many people have concerns about excessive amounts of screen reading, we adopt the perspective that a designer's role is to facilitate easy selection of preferred options, including whether to convert to hard copy or not. Authors have interests in facilitating the widest possible readership for their work, and in the amount of prestige associated with a publisher and the media of publication. We consider also the perspectives of librarians, professional societies, academics who serve as honorary editors and reviewers, and the commercial publishers which own many of the most prestigious titles.

For small scale, society based publishing, electronic journals and proceedings reduce the delays and expenses associated with conventional publishing. Internet delivery offers an immense increase in potential audience compared with the relatively small numbers of hardcopies distributed to society members, to participants in a particular conference, and to libraries.