Michael Mabe, SuperJournal: The Publisher's Perspective, Paper Presented at UKSG Conference, 1 April 1998

Table 3. Problems with Electronic Journals

Cluster/University	MGP				CCS				PS
Feature	C	O	U	N	B	Ul	W	S	D	L
Screen Issues
"Flipping" is easier in print	x	x	x		x		x	x		x
Manipulating text/tables easier in print			x		x	x	x			x
Don't like to read on screen	x	x	x		x	x	x	x		x
Can't annotate articles on screen		x	x		x
Portability						x	x	x
Easier to "connect to" the content							x	x
Access Issues
Access could be interrupted or stopped									x
Easier for publishers to control access										x
Concern about access for Third World and those without PCs		x						x
Technical/Performance Issues
Speed of the Internet (when US wakes up)		x	x						x
Long download times, eg to display or print PDF files	x	x	x						x
Availability of good printers, especially colour printers	x	x	x		x	x		x
Other Reader Issues
Less serendipity	x		x				x
Unnecessary citations or poor quality links (because it's easy)						x				x
Multimedia will be non-core, "bells & smells"						x
May not be sufficient backfile							x		x
Author Issues
Multimedia is more work for authors									x	x
Multimedia is more work for referees		x				x
Need to exhaust the potential of your data before you disclose it to others		x					x			x
Others will take/use your data					x		x		x	x
Fraud and plagiarism (because it's easy)		x							x
Copyright for multimedia elements			x		x	x				x

Keys:

Clusters: CCS = Communication & Cultural Studies, MGP = Molecular Genetics & Proteins, PS = Political Science

Universities: C = Cambridge, O = Oxford, U = UCL, N = NIMR, B = Birmingham, Ul = Ulster, W = Warwick, S = Sussex, D = DMU, L = LSE

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Last modified: June 21, 1998