Scholarly communication and electronic journals: An impact study

Abstract

With the exception of a few experimental projects, peer-reviewed electronic journals (ejournals) have been in existence for only about ten years. The purpose of this research was to study the effects of ejournals, at this early point in their lives, on the scholarly communities they are serving. The study addresses the question: To what extent are scholars and researchers aware of, influenced by, using, or building their own work on research published in ejournals? To put the question another way: What impact are ejournals having on the process of scholarship, research, and the advancement of knowledge? A sample of scholarly, peer-reviewed ejournals was drawn and techniques of citation analysis were used to conduct several analyses. The data show, with a few possible exceptions, that the impact thus far of ejournals on scholarly communication has been minimal. © 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.