About Electronic Journal (E-Journal)

Electronic Journal

E-journals are the simple electronic representation of a journal. In most cases, they replicate exactly the printed version of the journal, occasionally including additional information (such) as interactive graphs or external links), but in some cases, there are no parallel print sources as the journal was ‘born digital’. Any journal available on the Internet can be called and electronic journal’. It may or may not have a print equivalent. There is no standard definition available for electronic journals. As a result, they have been called by various names, such as e-journals, virtual journals, paperless journals, online journals, scholarly electronic journals, networked journals, and CD-ROM journal is one, which is available electronically to be used with the help of computer and other communication technologies. Journals available on Internet are also referred to as Internet journals or networked journals. They include newspapers, magazines, periodicals, and discussion lists. Perhaps, no other form of electronic publishing has received more attention than the electronic journals, particularly when libraries are experiencing cutbacks in funding. As they apply to scholarly research, there is a strong move among scholars to find less costly ways to support their research work.

Definitions of E-journal:

The Encyclopedic Dictionary of Library and Information Science defines a journal as “The record of proceedings or transactions of a learned society”. According to Harrods’s Librarian’s Glossary, it is a journal for which the full end- product is available on an optical disc, over a network or in any other electronic form, strictly a journal in which the entire process is carried out electronically.

In other words, an electronic journal is one where writing, editing, refereeing and distribution of items are carried out electronically without paper intermediaries. The idea of an electronic journal was first described in 1945. The main motive behind their emergence had been that the information can be disseminated to the scientific community much quickly when compared to its print counterpart where the considerable delay is caused in communicating the information to the end-user because of the slowness in the flow of manuscripts, their editing process and publishing.

Electronic journals are often referred to interchangeable as [highlight] “Electronic serials”, “Online journals”, Paperless journals:, Virtual journals”, “CD-ROM journals”‘ and Electronic journals” [/highlight] . The Internet has rapidly become a publishing platform and electronic journals covering a wide range of subject areas are now available. University of Glasgow Library defines e-journal as “any journal that is available over the Internet can be called on the electronic journal. In some cases, print equivalents exist, in some cases not. Some electronic journals are freely available: others have to charge mechanisms of different types. Established publishers issue some; others are produced from an individual academic’s office. As with print journals, the quality and relevance of e-journals can vary considerably”. Jones and Cook say, “An e-journal is a digital periodical that publishes on the Internet or WWW. An e-journal may not be all that different from a print journal in the fundamental editorial process. Articles are submitted by individuals to the academic and professional community, are peer-reviewed by editorial board members of the journal to be accepted or rejected, and are subsequently published. It is the digital medium that is different. Electronic journals are primarily those journals that are published and distributed in electronic format as CD-ROMs or online on the Internet”. In light of the above definitions, it can be said that any journal, magazine, webzine, newsletter type of e- serial publication, which is on the Internet, accessed using WWW, gopher, FTP, etc is called e-journal. E-Journals may be an only electronic version of former print journals, simultaneously electronic and print. The term e-journal has been applied to journals that are available through CD-ROM, such as ADONIS online, as for example- through DIALOG, and network such as the Internet. E-Journals can be free, paid subscription, pay per use or licensed for access right. They can be stored on a local library or campus computer or accessed from a remote site.

Historical development of E-journals:

The evolution of e-journal began with the full-text databases offered by traditional online vendors like DIALOG during the late 1980s. The term ‘full-text’ was a misnomer, as it was not making the complete text available. What they offered was bare ASCII files of the journals and magazines, which stripped off the diagrams, photographs, graphs, and other image objects of the article. During the early 1990s, online vendors used the CD-ROM technology and the FAX technology to deliver almost instantly the complete- text, through technological integration of online bibliographic databases with a CD-ROM collection of image files residing in a network of jukeboxes. It was like online ordering for articles found during a bibliographic search, to be delivered by fax within a span of 15-30 minutes. In this process, for the first time the bibliographic database, document collection in electronic format and the document delivery activity were integrated through different pieces of technology. With the emergence of the Internet and the web during the mid- 90s, the full- text databases started including image objects like photographs and charts as link files. The text was ASCII. There would be a thumbnail image of the graphic object, which could be zoomed or an icon with the caption of the image object to act as a link. The text was searchable. The e-journal we see today is a transformation of this Internet version, which is generally a PDF image and an exact look-alike of the print with the text as a searchable file. While PDF is the preferred format for e-journals by a number of leading publishers and the libraries, a large number of publishers and third-party aggregators, offer e-journals in a variety of other formats, like HTML, SGML. Etc. e-journals in the latter formats are not exact look-alike of the print although they offer complete text of the journal with graphic objects in the articles as embedded images. As a major benefit of the e-journal revolution, the table of contents and abstracts for most of the scholarly and scientific journals are accessible free today. This development can fill the database access gaps for Indian libraries to some extent”

Characteristics’ of E-journals:

Electronic composition and transmission have led to fast production, distribution, and reviewing of the product, thus users can access a particular article or the entire issue of the journals within no time. Large collections can be searched and retrieved simultaneously and instantly. A user interest profile can be created. The system notifies the user, as and when any new publication relevant and useful to the person is added into the database automatically. The production model of e-journals offers opportunities to establish network communication among the authors, editors, and referees; therefore, they are quite cost-effective as compared to the printed version. The publishers, research groups, authors, and so on can be easily contacted, if needed, via electronic mail links. Hence, use udders have more creative ways to have their information queries answered. Feeko stated that it is possible to make use of hyperlinks both internally and to other publications, thus, they can retrieve articles directly through links from indexing and abstracting databases. He further states that e-journals can facilitate multimedia and graphics in color at marginal cost and the content can be reproduced, forwarded and modified according to the requirements.

Subscription to an e-journal includes careful review and analysis of many factors, such as licensing agreements: the vendor is aggregator package; consortia package or single library package; print- plus- electronic access is electronic only access; library only, campus only and off-campus access; and content coverage. Some of the distinguishing characteristics of e-journals are:

• It provides timely access.
• It supports searching capabilities.
• Accommodate unique features such as links to related items.
• Save physical storage space.
• Contain multimedia information.
• Do not require physical processing.
• Environmental friendly.
• Automatically generate alerting and other secondary services.
• No multimedia or destruction to pages as in print counterpart.

Types of E-journal publications:

There are currently two types of e-journals:

1. Offline the CD-ROM version.
2. Online or Internet-based journals.

Offline CD-ROM version: CD-ROM represents a way of digitally storing large amounts of information in a way that’s easy to search and retrieve. CD-ROM has a high storage capacity and reliability. It is a cost-effective medium of bringing computerized literature searching. It is portable and has the ability to store graphic data. The most important advantage of CD’s is no network the same can be shared by an unlimited number of users, sitting at far off places at their doorsteps.

Online or Internet-based journals: Online journals are available through online hosts as DIALOG at high costs they are not likely to be part of library collections. As online journals allow remotes access. More than one user can use it simultaneously. It provides timely access. E-Journals support different searching capabilities and saves physicals storage.

Classification of E-journals:

On the basis of the distribution methods, the e-journals can classify as follows:-

a. Classic e-journals or Internet e-journals: Some of the electronic journals are available are available through Internet applications, which are also called classic journals. Originally they were distribution via-e-mail but now are available on the web and only announcements of new issues are distributed by e- mail. Access to this category of e- journal is free of cost.

b. Parallel E- journals: These types of journals are published simultaneously in both forms print and electronic. The online version may include the full text of journal, only table of content (TOC) of selected articles and excerpts from the print version.

c. Database Model and software Model: Under the database model articles reside in a centralized database maintained by the publisher and subscribers are given permission to access the database and use search software on central computer to locate and download articles. The software model provides a piece of software, which runs on Internet connection computer and connects to the database to the journals central computer. The users can search and download information, which will be sent in proprietary encrypted from. The software would have an expiration date that corresponds with the length of the subscription.

d. CD-ROM journals: Commercial publishers have also made journals titles available on CD-ROM. The full text of journals and newspapers has been made available on CD-ROM. In many cases these duplication print titles held by the libraries. Libraries have often subscribed to journals both in print and in microform.”

Advantages of E-journal:

There are several advantages of e- journals. They are:

a) E—Journals takes less time to publish and distribute as they does not require time — consuming printing and mailing process.

b) Several users can access an electronic journal simultaneously.

c) Generally an electronic journal has no space restrictions, i.e. an electronic journal can publish a greater number of articles and lengthy articles compared with a printed journal.

d) Electronic journals are accessible to any one in the world regardless of geographic location provided one has basic infrastructure.

e) Many electronic journals even provide the facility for translation of articles into other language with just click of a button.

f) Electronic journals occupy very little shelf space if stored in a compact disk and none, if accessed through the Internet.

g) Electronic journals can include sound, video, interactive three-dimensional models. Electronic journals can publish colour figures and graphics at no extra cost.

h) Print journals are usually purchased as a volume including all issues in a year but in an electronic environment, a user may request single article by paying for the single article. They need to subscribe the complete volume of the journal.

i) Some online electronic journals can be accessed without paying any subscription charges or membership fee but printed journals always require a subscription feel’.

Disadvantages of E-journal:

There are several disadvantages of E- journals. Few of them are giving below:

i. Credibility: The credibility of E- journals is often questioned in reference to the following issues, E- journals do not carry the same weight as print journals in academic credit and advancement decisions, e- journals are neither accepted nor supported by universities because e-journal publishing effort may not be recognized as an official university activity, and peer interest that generates the authorship and readership to print journals may not exist.

ii. Accessibility: Few e- journals are indexed in common indexing services. This lack of indexing is the reason many scholars are not even aware that an electronic journal exist in their field. Even if the existence is known one does not always know where to find it, and once found, it is sometimes difficult, especially for computer novices to determine the content of back issues and how to access current or future issues.

iii. Permanence: There is the problem of permanence. Authors want to know that years from now their work will still be available to other researchers, and scholars in the field want to know that the text they are reading in an authoritative version with a definitive date of creation. The lack of physical permanence of electronic publications leads to worries about how they will be available in future years, and whether they can be adapted to new technology.

In addition, there are some other disadvantages like:

a) Most of the electronic journals are not yet indexed and abstracted in the indexing and abstracting tools.

b) In order to use electronic journals, users and librarian must have basic computer and networking skills.

c) Electronic journals that include graphic and sound are often very slow to access.

d) The libraries and users (if using from home) must have computer, software, services provider and browser.

e) Articles of electronic journals are very easy to download and they can be easily copied and changed, therefore, changes of plagiarism may increase.

f) Changes made by publishers without warning are difficult even for computer-literate readers to disentangle.”