Authors and Readers: The Keys to Success of Failure for Electronic Publishing

ALTHOUGH T ERE ARE MANY POSSIBLE links and ways to join them in the publishing chain for scholarly journal articles, the first and last links are always authors and readers. Unless it satisfies the motivations and goals of both authors and readers, electronic publishing cannot completely succeed. One of the most frequently cited advantages of electronic publishing is the loss of distinction between readers and authors and the shared motivation of both to have more opportunities for collaboration. Unfortunately, many goals of authors and readers are not shared. Authors are primarily motivated by career advancement and long-term contributions to their discipline, readers by keeping up in their field and work-related tasks. Many other factors enter into the process as well-some of which coincide while others conflict. INTRODUCTION The process of electronic publishing on commercial online systems traditionally involves many interrelated, but mostly separate, parts. These parts may be depicted as steps leading to a completed search request or, more commonly, as links that together form an information generation and use chain. Each component is dependent on the others, and together the whole leads to something greater than the parts. Like a value chain within a company’s operations, an information generation/use chain forms a system of interdependent activities, Carol Tenopir, School of Information Sciences, 804 Volunteer Blvd. University of Tennessee, Knoxville, T N 37996 LIBRARY TRENDS, Vol. 43, No. 4, Spring 1995, pp. 571-91