CHANGING TIMES FOR SCHOLARLY COMMUNICATION - THE CASE OF THE ELECTRONIC JOURNAL

In 1945, Vannevar Bush described his concept of the future of information storage and retrieval for scientists. His vision has been modified significantly as new developments in computer and telecommunications technology add capabilities beyond what he perceived as possible. The pursuit of a modern, multi-purpose workstation which would enable scholars to create powerful, flexible, and personalized databases remains active. Today, a part of that vision has been translated into the concept of the "electronic journal," a somewhat ambiguous, elusive, and appealing goal to many within the publishing and library and information science communities, and among the many other scholars who would use such a tool. This paper provides a history of efforts to develop and institutionalize computer-based systems for scholarly communication, focusing primarily on peer-reviewed scholarly journals. Although it would be an exaggeration to claim that these emerging systems are the cause of proliferating inter- and intra-disciplinary research activity within "invisible colleges," it is noted below how such activity is enhanced by these developments. It suggests that the changes now taking place make it possible to broaden the scope of scholarly communication and perhaps reduce the impact of mainstream journals. However, it also suggests that disciplinary structures have an interest in suppressing or channeling the development of such technology to reduce its potential to subvert disciplinary control.