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Early studies of electronic journals (e-journals) viewed the web as a technological discontinuity that would deem traditional academic publishing null This article uses the industry life cycle framework as a lens to examine the formation of academic e-journals. The article proposes five factors affecting the academic publishing dominant design selection process, and examines these factors against six longitudinal case studies. The study concludes that from technical/functional, economic and market perspectives, e-journals are superior to paper journals (p journals) However academic social norms and the managerial processes needed to establish and maintain e-journals are more influential on their formation than the capabilities provided by the new technology. In addition, the long-term sustainability and survivability of e-journals depend on the administrative and managerial processes established by its management team. This study demonstrates that although the web enables a large number of new entrants and a variety of business and technical models, e-journals are a competency-enhancing innovation that relies on the existing expertise of professional publishers and the journal's ability to support the social and cultural needs of academia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The introduction of the World Wide Web presented changes in the world of academic publishing. Publishers are looking for alternatives to the traditional text-based, paper-based manuscript. Since the mid 1990's, the number of academic electronic journals increased from less than a 100 to several thousands. However, the extent of the penetration of academic electronic journals and the final form they will assume is unclear. This article introduces four scenarios. The scenarios describe four possible forms of academic journals and are based on the economic viability of electronic journals and their acceptance. The scenarios include status quo, replacement, co-existence, and ubiquitous outcomes for academic journals. It is shown that if the ubiquitous scenario occurs, a number of issues must be resolved which are independent of individual journals. These universal issues include the reliability of the infrastructure, long-term sustainability, and backwards integration. Unintended consequences are also examined. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]