Do Users Want Electronic Journals?
Our research indicates that academic researchers do indeed want electronic journals, and access is the key benefit: quick and easy access, access from their desktop, and access any time. For readers and authors, the key benefit is time and convenience. Authors also noted that electronic versions of journals would get their article to more readers more easily. In both cases they want the full text article (not just the abstract) and ideally some backfile. We observed some variations over the different subject areas, with readers in the Life Sciences most interested in fast access, and readers in the Humanities most interested in long backfiles. However, they want both print and electronic versions for the foreseeable future; electronic access is a different and quicker way to get the same article. To create an electronic version of a journal, you need the article in electronic form. So we also asked authors about if they currently supply manuscripts on disk, and what the advantages woul
