While some publishers are offering their journals collectively as part of a database, others are contracting with new players, such as Highwire, ingenta and Catchword, who provide the technology and support to offer electronic journals. The "journal" is increasingly dissolving into a "database" of content being offered by a publisher or aggregator and the article is emerging as the unit of choice.

The value of indexes as a tool was acknowledged in the last few years as publishers began linking them to fulltext. Not only is this a logical connection, it offers the added benefit of generating demand for the article. Fulltext searching of journal databases and reference linking also serve to help users identify pertinent resources.

The Chart

The chart that accompanies this article began as a result of a conversation with Phil Wallas, VP of Publisher Services for EBSCO Publishing, as we tried to sort out the sources of electronic journals available over the Web today. Following Katina's suggestion, I sent the chart out to each company on the list for feedback and the accompanying layout is the result.

Players are grouped into categories based on their origins to provide an overview of the industry and the changing roles of various players. Primary publishers who had specialized in content are offering search engines on their Websites that provide subscribers keyword access to the electronic versions of their journals. Secondary publishers who had specialized in creating indexes are finding ways to link directly to the fulltext of the journal.

New entrants reflect a blend of capabilities. Government initiatives with PubMedCentral and PubScience potentially offer new sources of competition to secondary publishers. BioOne and ingenta are public-private partnerships that focus on converting print to electronic formats. CrossRef is a not-for-profit cooperative among primary publishers to link directly to each other's documents via citations in the backs of the articles, typically a function of secondary publishers. No wonder we're confused.

In an attempt to provide a coherent perspective, this article is focused on Web-based electronic journals for the academic market. It does not address the established legal, business, news and reference services which have a different history in the online environment.

I'm grateful to the MANY contributors who helped produce this current snapshot. One of the revelations is how quickly the market is changing and the realization that this overview will soon be dated.

Chart Notes

Origins: their original business, their roots

Product: the one that contains the largest array of fulltext journals online

Market: to whom the product/service is sold

Value Add: primary value to the customer, ASAP=as soon as publishable

# Titles: in fulltext journals available or linked to (some files included other content or indexed more journal - this number is solely the number of fulltext journals a user could connect to using this service)

Back file: how many years are included, even for an added fee

Unit searched: tables of contents (TOCS)/ Abstracts/ fulltext

Unit of sale: what is being sold to the user (collection/journal/article)

URL: for reference

Trends in Collections

Remote access to content. In an electronic environment it is more efficient and cost effective, for both libraries and publishers, to house large electronic files in central locations and provide access via the Web. Electronic collections represent the migration from a physical library to a virtual one. This has deep implications that impact content selection, space planning, measuring usage and serving users remotely.

We are beginning to see the "outsourcing" of collections with the licensing of databases of journals (ie: Academic Press's Ideal) and books (ie: netLibrary). With the increased popularity of approval plans in the last decade, academic librarians have found it more efficient to allow book vendors to manage the selection process within given and detailed guidelines. In licensing journal databases, the library accepts a selection of titles in the same way that libraries have accepted the selection of indexing and abstracting services, only today it is influenced as much by which titles are in electronic format and can be licensed.

Hosting vs linking. It's useful to note that publishers, aggregators and most of the publishing services host content whereas subscription agents, some of the software vendors and secondary publishers will also link to content. This may have implications for archiving. There are also various means for indexing fulltext depending on level of access and file format.

Subject portals. Publishers and vendors are focusing discrete audiences and accumulating content in specific disciplines. EI Village was the first example of this and ingenta is developing portals in nutrition and veterinary medicine. Ovid, BioOne and Highwire are focused on life sciences. As publishers seek to increase the value of their offerings to selected market segments, they will incorporate additional services such as pertinent news, related Websites, conference schedules, moderated discussions.

Trends in Access

Article level. In addition to providing a filtering process (ie: selection), indexing and abstracting services have created access points to articles that would otherwise remain unknown to potential users. The ability to link from a citation in an article to the fulltext of the article online and back to an index creates a constellation of sites that are cross linked. Both indexes and links generate demand for articles by identifying and providing ready access to a retrospective body of knowledge.

Users want information which currently is packaged in a journal article. They can find an appropriate journal article in several ways 1) browsing, 2) searching in a structured subject index, 3) searching in a fulltext journal database, 4) searching aggregated bibliographic information or metadata in a TOC database, 5) linking from the citation in the back of an article, 6) learning about a reference from reading or from a colleague.

Backfiles online. Electronic files may not be fun to read online but they are very efficient at locating previously read articles as users can conveniently scan a large amount of data. As publishers convert back years of content, users are adapting to a subscription model that allows them to use the print as a current awareness service and refer to the backfile when they want to reread an article. Personalized and customized features such as filing cabinets support end users in referencing articles of use to them.

Database. The amount of database usage and ultimately user satisfaction is determined by the quality of the interface and level of access provided for the content. Neither of these problems existed in a print world. If the user becomes frustrated with the navigation or download speed, they are likely to leave before getting to the items needed. If searching is by keyword in fulltext with no thesaurus or classification scheme, the user is likely to miss information that he/she needs.

Like the Web, journal databases can offer "an" answer. However, both the provider and the user will be best served if the quality and level of access can deliver "the" answer. Primary publishers are new to the task of providing access to their publications and tools are developing that will benefit users and affect usage levels.

Trends with Users

Understanding usage. Information in digital form has functional properties that can save users time and provide value. We know that data can be indexed, searched, forwarded, filed, and processed. However, it is increasingly important for both librarians and publishers to understand the information "context" of users so that additional capabilities can be developed that will deliver new levels of efficiency.

Some publishers and vendors have begun to study workflow as they develop new systems. By understanding the application, we can deliver the highest level of support.

Segmenting users. In contrast to a print world with one subscription price, the electronic world can expand access to all potential users at all levels of use. Publishers are most familiar with the subscription model which represents their core users.

Document delivery has been handled by other vendors for those transactional users who discover an article that they want to acquire. However, there is a growing segment of users who may want an electronic alerting service and a selection of articles from a larger database of content. This approach means creatively offering different business and pricing models.

References

"Database Selection: One Size Does Not Fit All" by DeeAnn Allison, Beth McNeil, Signe Swanson from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. College & Research Libraries, January 2000, pg 56-63.

"Full Text Journal Subscriptions: An Evolutionary Process" by Judy Luther of Informed Strategies. Against the Grain, June 1997, pg 18-24.