Scholarly journal publishing: coming to terms with the Internet culture

It is claimed, in a rather pretentious way, that we are currently witnessing a paradigm shift from the traditional, old fashioned print publication system, directly descended from 15th century Gutenberg, to a pioneering, telematicbased system of science communication. Pretentious or not, the Internet has created a culture which is altering people’s perceptions about identifying, retrieving and assimilating information. As a consequence, the way information is formatted for distribution through the Internet is not necessarily similar to the system required to underpin a print-based publication. The changing social psychology of the academic and research communities, driven by the new informatic/telematic technologies, is having a profound effect on media selection. This in turn has implications as to how the new electronic journals are to be produced and delivered. Publishers cannot rely on past practices to equip them with relevant procedures for the future. The librarians also wonder whether their cherished edifices, their ‘citadels of learning’, have any relevance in a digital world. This article addresses points of conflict and tension which confront scholarly journal publishers in this migration from print to electronic. In so doing it highlights the inappropriateness of some of the commercial policies being pursued – that what is acceptable in a print-based library-orientated system is not tenable in an Internet culture where free access to information is one of the bulwarks. It is not only publishers who are facing the dilemma of setting appropriate business practices. The new intermediaries or aggregators find it more convenient, whilst developing modern communityLearned Publishing (1998) 11, 171–178