Electronic journals, also known as ejournals, e-journals, and electronic serials, are scholarly journals or intellectual magazines that can be accessed via electronic transmission. In practice, this means that they are usually published on the Web. They are a specialized form of electronic document: they have the purpose of providing material for academic research and study, and they are formatted approximately like journal articles in traditional printed journals. Being in electronic form, articles sometimes contain metadata that can be entered into specialized databases, such as DOAJ or OACI, as well as the databases and search-engines for the academic discipline concerned.
Some electronic journals are online-only journals; some are online versions of printed journals, and some consist of the online equivalent of a printed journal, but with additional online-only (sometimes video and interactive media) material.
Most commercial journals are subscription-based, or allow pay-per-view access. Many universities subscribe in bulk to packages of electronic journals, so as to provide access to them to their students and faculty. It is generally also possible for individuals to purchase an annual subscription to a journal, via the original publisher.
An increasing number of journals are now available as online open access journals, requiring no subscription and offering free full-text articles and reviews to all. Individual articles from electronic journals will also be found online for free in an ad-hoc manner: in working paper archives; on personal homepages; and in the collections held in institutional repositories and subject repositories. Some commercial journals do find ways to offer free materials. They may offer their initial issue or issues free, and then charge thereafter. Some give away their book reviews section for free. Others offer the first few pages of each article for free.
Most electronic journals are published in HTML and/or PDF formats, but some are available in only one of the two formats. A small minority publish in DOC, and a few are starting to add MP3 audio. Some early electronic journals were first published in ASCII text, and some informally published ones continue in that format.
Famous quotes containing the words electronic and/or journal:
“The new electronic interdependence recreates the world in the image of a global village.”
—Marshall McLuhan (1911–1980)
“The obvious parallels between Star Wars and The Wizard of Oz have frequently been noted: in both there is the orphan hero who is raised on a farm by an aunt and uncle and yearns to escape to adventure. Obi-wan Kenobi resembles the Wizard; the loyal, plucky little robot R2D2 is Toto; C3PO is the Tin Man; and Chewbacca is the Cowardly Lion. Darth Vader replaces the Wicked Witch: this is a patriarchy rather than a matriarchy.”
—Andrew Gordon, U.S. educator, critic. “The Inescapable Family in American Science Fiction and Fantasy Films,” Journal of Popular Film and Television (Summer 1992)