ELECTRONIC PUBLISHING: A SUBVERSIVE PROPOSAL, AN EVEN MORE SUBVERSIVE PROPOSAL, AND A COUNTER ARGUMENT

摘要

In The Information Society (Oct.-Dec. 1995), three authors presented arguments on the future of electronic journals (e-journals) which raised key questions that should be considered in trying to project into the future. Perhaps in the four year run-up to the millennium there will no be dramatic change in the world of scholarly publishing. However, the three papers together pose interesting ideas for speculation. Harnad (1995) suggested that there will be an important parting of the ways as literature moves into cyberspace. There would be a division between what he called trade literature, which is written to be sold, and the esoteric literature: he defines this as the literature of specialised scholarly and scientific research. Esoteric literature is written for a small number of fellow experts and has a small readership, although the literature itself is substantial. He estimates that, if all the esoteric literature were identified, the total of both trade and scholarly journals would be about 130 000 titles. The criteria for esoteric literature are that authors are not paid for their texts; readership is small; and some authors are willing to pay distribution costs.