What is e publishing

Ease of searchability of content is often cited as an advantage of electronic publication, however searchability varies considerably in different electronic publications at this time. The potential for increased collaboration between authors and readers increases as electronic journals move along the continuum from paper content transferred to the web to fully interactive journals.

The electronic medium allows for the opportunity for debate and discussion either by posting interchanges between readers and authors, as well as reviewers, related to specific articles, hosting listservs or chatrooms, and including datasets that are available to all. These discussions can be ongoing and not restricted to a one-time letter to the editor response.

Increased communication and collaboration are also the result of lack of space and time constraints in the journals. Since there are usually no page limitations with electronic journals, the author and readers are free to express their thoughts thoroughly and during a time frame that may be convenient for the individual. The accessibility associated with online journals results in increased diversity and frequency of communication, with a much larger audience than print journals as well as the potential for more interdisciplinary collaboration.

A major advantage of online journals is the immediacy of dissemination from review of articles to production and distribution of the articles. Things that are not possible to do with print journals are among the best features of online journals.

At the present time, multimedia capabilities are often limited by the user's equipment and services. The greatest facilitator of scholarly work is the ready and quick access to scientific materials, whether they be actual datasets or scholarly articles.

The scholar has the most up to date information available as compared to print articles which are usually at least years old. Articles in online journals can include retractions of incorrect information and additions of new information from either the original author or readers. The linkage of text with other scholarly works enables the scholar to easily retrieve articles that pertain to the area of scholarly inquiry without reliance on a library collection.

The scholar can develop a personal electronic file of articles that is individualized so that materials can be organized and accessed in the manner best suited to the scholar's own needs Tenopir, The ability to easily track use of electronic journal articles through user sessions or "hits" is a welcome benefit for scholars interested in documenting impact of their scholarly work for promotion and tenure committees.

Most electronic journals do not charge the reader at the present time, thus the cost for the reader of online journals is less than the cost for print journals. In addition, there is no cost to the reader for reprints. Many libraries have welcomed electronic journals as a way to circumvent the high cost of print journals Tenopir, The rising costs associated with print journals are associated with excessive increases in cost of paper and rising postage rates Miller, There are, however, costs to the publishers of electronic journals in terms of extensive time commitments to produce the journal, use of facilities, and use of materials and equipment.

Most of the disadvantages of electronic journals relate to technical difficulties of the user and network constraints. Other disadvantages are user unfriendliness, lack of accessibility, cost, misconduct and security issues, time commitment and lack of widespread acceptance within the scientific community. The reader must possess some basic computing and networking skills in order to take advantage of electronic journals.

Basic computer skills are needed, in addition to the ability to navigate the World Wide Web. In order to get the most out of the potential benefits of online journals, the reader should be able to create personal electronic files of articles of interest. The ability to do this is one that the reader must have acquired prior to use of the electronic journals.

Since the amount and helpfulness of instructions for specific journals varies widely, a novice computer user may find the experience of searching for and accessing online journals frustrating or impossible. Obviously someone without any computer experience will need help to use electronic journals. Readers with computer expertise may also find the experience of accessing online journals frustrating.

Network constraints and telecommunication problems abound. Electronic journals that include graphics and sound often are very slow to access. The lack of technical standardization sometimes results in the inability of the reader to access sites. It is not unusual to find the host site not accessible at the time the reader is trying to access it, and if the host site is not current, the ejournal is impossible to access. User friendliness varies widely.

Although many online journals contain excellent information, the user unfriendliness of some results in the nonuse of the journal. The reader is required to scroll linearly through the article which may create boredom, eyestrain, or discomfort reading the screen. In addition, there are no standard patterns for presentation of information.

People who are used to reading print journals may find the lack of conventional presentation troublesome. Frequency of publication and length of articles are considerably different in various online journals. Bishop reported that the number of scholarly papers published per year in electronic journals ranged from one to twelve.

The reader who wants to access a back issue may find the task daunting considering the number of steps required and simplicity of following commands highly variable among journals.

User friendliness is also limited by lack of consistency and availability of current and accurate information for subscribing to and retrieving electronic journals Bishop, Lastly, readers who are used to marking up copies of print articles may miss this print article advantage. However, they are able to print the electronic articles and mark to their hearts content. There are financial and time costs related to the use of electronic journals. The user must have a computer monitor, software, service provider and browser.

User demographics suggest that there is not equal access to online journals. Miller reported that the 4th www user survey of over 23, users found These finding suggest that online journals are less accessible to those outside the United States, females, low income families, and older adults who did not grow up with computers and must learn computer skills from scratch.

Low use may also relate to the nonuse of English as a second language. Accessibility is also severely limited because electronic journals are not indexed in standard sources of indexing and abstracting. The reader is therefore limited by the personal ability to independently search the World Wide Web for electronic publications. The search is made more difficult because access modes vary. Although there are misconduct and security issues with print journals, there is a heightened fear of this with electronic journals.

Publishers and authors are concerned about falsification of information, piracy, and plagiarism. Electronic publication enables the reader to easily download an article or dataset.

Consequently, the reader can easily "edit" plagiarize, copy the entire document, or change the actual article, image or data Tenopir, Rosenberg believes that electronic publication will destroy copyright as we know it. The wide variability in quality of articles in electronic journals has resulted in lack of general acceptance of the scientific merit of articles published in online journals. This is due to the fact that only some of the articles are peer reviewed.

Although electronic journals are not as widely accepted as print journals as evidence of scholarly productivity at the present time, there has been a significant change with more widespread acceptance of scholarly electronic publications as seen in Schloman Print journals are advantageous compared to electronic journals, particularly for those with no access to computers and service providers or lacking in the prerequisite skills to search and access electronic publications.

Advantages of print journals are user friendliness and acceptance within the scientific community. User friendliness. Use of print journals only requires the ability to read and understand the language and no computer skills are required. Since print journals have been the medium that has been used for over five centuries, readers are comfortable with the format and display features including page layout, print quality, text structure, formatting features, table of contents and page numbers Bishop, Familiarity with print journals facilitates, the ease of reading of the actual article.

Scholars can easily create individualized files of journal articles. Of course, the articles can be "marked up" as the reader desires. The regularity by which print journals are published is established by each journal and are well known by the readers.

Readers can thus count on the publication of print journals at the specified times, unlike many electronic publications where the timetables are more fluid. Widespread acceptance within the scientific community. Print journals have widespread acceptance within the scientific community as a result of five centuries of established rules of engagement.

Print journals have served over time as the mechanism where by authenticity is guaranteed and work is preserved for the future Bishop, There are disadvantages associated with print journals including cost, dissemination, user friendliness, lack of communication and collaboration, and lack of facilitation of scholarly work.

The costs of print journals has been rising exponentially. Subscription prices to individuals and libraries are soaring Clement, as paper, ink and mailing expenses have risen. Individual scholars with limited financial resources, and limited access to libraries may not be able to access relevant print journals. The explosive growth in information production, along with the publication of the material in print journals has created a major problem for libraries as the cost of maintaining journal collections has skyrocketed.

Encyclopedia of Information Science and Tech Information acquisition and management has always Churn prediction, recognition, and mitigation have Simultaneous Localization and Mapping for Mo As mobile robots become more common in general kno Applied Natural Language Processing: Identif The amount of information that humans have gathere The ease of delivery and production of email newsletters has led to the development of a massive number of available email newsletters, mailing lists and discussion lists on a large variety of topics.

Some businesses have even launched services that do nothing but deliver newsletters to consumers. Newsletters are also widely used by media companies to complement their web and print offerings. Many authors and writers publish their own newsletters in order to attract new readers and to inform their fans about new books and booksignings. Web Publishing Web publishing is not a novel practice any longer, but it continues to change and develop with the introduction of new programming languages.

XML is valuable because it allows publishers to create content and data that is portable to other devices. Nearly every company in the World has some type of website, and most media companies provide a large amount of web-based content.

Wireless Publishing Wireless publishing is a rapidly developing publishing platform that publishers are using to reach wireless devices, such as mobile phones, cell phones and handheld devices. WAP translates Internet information so that it can be displayed on the screens of mobile phones and other wireless devices.

Staying Informed Keeping up with the epublishing world requires a constant watch of news headlines and frequent visits to your favorite websites. As a writer, you should familiarize yourself with the emerging technologies mentioned above.

The impact of the Internet on publishing has already been astounding, yet it is still in its early stages of development. The impact of ebooks and wireless content could be just as dramatic in the near future. The writing and publishing industries are changing, even as you read this page. If this all sounds a little too rosy, this form of publishing does have a number of disadvantages:. Despite the disadvantages, e-publishing can be a good way for a new writer to gain a following.