Selection criteria for technical options available in electronic publishing — networks, CD‐ROM and micro‐products

The choice of strategy and the evolution of policy for electronic publishing as an aid to information dissemination are at present complicated by the variety of technical options and by uncertainty about the proper balance between relatively high risk innovative and more predictable conservative approaches. This paper is intended to provide a set of ‘route maps’ through the technical options available now and in the near future, and to indicate the criteria which would guide choice of technology for various application categories and investment priorities. A lucid and accessible guide to the publication and availability of scientific and technical papers will be found in Line, 1992; this paper has been followed in several places below, but Line's discussion of the impact of new technology on publishers is not repeated.