Electronic Journals: Implications for Scholars
Symposium at the AERA Conference
Chicago, Illinois
March 26, 1997

Symposium Notes
Gregory B. Newby, University of Illinois

Main hypothesis:  The overall nature and role of scholarly publishing will not change over the next 20 years.

	Scholarly publishing consists mainly of:
	- Journals
	- Books and monographs
	- Conference proceedings

	The current/future nature and role of scholarly publishing focuses on:
	- Communicating research results, analysis, etc. to peers
	- Demonstrating competence of ideas and acceptance by peers for purposes of tenure/stature

	Additional goals served by scholarly publishing:
	- Creating a record of activities
	- Bringing materials to students & scholarls in other fields
	- Reaching out to the geneeral public

Secondary hypothesis:  Scholarly publishing will make a transition to electronic media.

	- Electronic forms of conference proceedings, journal articles, books will become commonplace.  
	- Some new forms, such as multimedia format documents, will be included.
	- Print versions will still exist for archiving & giving a posh impression
	- Problems of copyright, charging schemes, etc. will be solved by the commercial sector

Tertiary hypothesis:  Informal means of electronic communication will gain in importance for scholars, and lines of distinction between scholarly publishing and scholarly communication will become less distinct.

	- Leading journals, conferences, & instititutions will, for the most part, remain in the lead.
	- The disparity between the activities scholars engage in to obtain tenure & academic status and the activities engaged in to keep current & informed will continue.
	- Enhanced opportunities for student publications, ejournals, etc. will result in more scholarly materials becoming available for use.
	- The criteria of “quality” for goals (above) will remain the same:
		- Well-known editorial board
		- Stringent referee process
		- Publication quality, “value-added” through professional layout & publishing
		- Extent of distribution

Gregory B. Newby, Ph.D.  Assistant Professor in the Graduate School of Library and Information Science.  University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.  Champaign, IL, 61820. Email: gbnewby@uiuc.edu