Scholarly monographs: why would I want to publish electronically?

Looks at the implications of electronic scholarly monograph publishing for authors, publishers and readers. It stems from original research undertaken by the authors in 1998 as part of the JISC Electronic Libraries Programme (eLib). Since the formal completion of the work both authors have remained active in the area and have monitored new developments. The project included a comprehensive literature search and review; a survey of UK and international publishers of electronic monographs by means of an interrogation of their Web sites, and case studies conducted with selected UK publishers. A separate investigation of the publishers of national bibliographical sources and services was also undertaken, and UK university libraries were surveyed by means of an e‐mail questionnaire. Offers a description of the structure of electronic monograph publishing, including the roles of the various parties involved in the publishing process, and addresses such issues as provision, costing, authoring and editorial responsibilities and challenges. An analysis of the issues associated with the characteristics of Web monographs is provided, together with a delineation of the nature of narrative content, added value components, subject orientations and quality control. Concludes with a brief consideration of some of the challenges that confront the user of electronic scholarly monographs, including issues of access.