Publishers, publishing and the Internet: How journal publishing will survive and prosper in the electronic age

The role of the publishing process in adding value to, and disseminating, scholarship and research is independent of the means of output. It comprises the preparation and packaging of information in a form easily accessible by the user. It includes the technical processes of editing, peer review and revision, publication and marketing. The publishing process must continue to provide a guarantee of quality that is recognised throughout the academic community. The emerging importance of the Internet does not change that role in principle but it does have considerable impact on how publishers function in the future: 1. Publishers need to supplement existing skills with the acquisition of new skills in developing multimedia material and facilitating interaction between scholars without detracting from the authority of the definitive publication; 2. Publishers will become custodians of intellectual property rather than producers of printed artefacts. They must add more value to the literature by exploiting different media for different purposes or user requirements; 3. Publishers will have to acquire much more hands‐on knowledge of, and navigation through, the laws of copyright and contract, especially in respect of the international legal aspects of electronic publishing; 4. Publishers will work more closely in partnership with universities and the research community in order to deliver electronic information effectively and easily to end‐users. Printed and electronic editions of the journal literature will complement each other; their respective strengths and weaknesses will be analysed in this paper. Journals will become interest groups in which papers will be placed. New definitions of ‘publication’, ‘journal’ and ‘literature’ will be required.