Lister Hill Letter
Newsletter of the Lister Hill Library of the Health Sciences at UAB

July/August 1998

Electronic Journals and the Internet: Navigating the Wave of the Future

Electronic journals seem to be the wave of the future as the Internet continues to grow. More and more publishers are building web pages for the various journals they produce. As with much else on the web however, there is no control over what information is included. When looking at electronic journals, keep in mind things such as inclusion, pricing and access.

A great variance exists in the amount of information that may be available on a journal. For some journals, you will find only minimal information, such as publication schedules and contact numbers. For others, tables of contents and abstracts are provided. Some journals provide the full text of some of the articles that have appeared in the journal, and some provide all of the full text of alljournal articles and maybe even some supplementary information not available in print.

Also inconsistent are the pricing models for various journals. Some are free to anyone who wishes to access them. Others are free to libraries or individuals who have a current print subscription. Still others must be paid for independently of the print subscription. Some publishers have not yet decided what they want to do about pricing of their electronic journal, so they have made them available for a free trial with more details to follow as they make their decisions.

If a journal is restricted to subscribers only, then there must be some mechanism of control over who can access it. For example, only people accessing the journal with a specific IP address can get in. Other publishers have decided that they would rather have subscribers login with an ID and password each time.

Obviously, the publishing of journals on the World Wide Web is a growing and changing field. How do you ever find anything, you might wonder. On the Lister Hill Library home page, you will find a list of links to full text journals we have identified as accessible to our patrons. Right now the list numbers about 225 journals, but it grows weekly. Any restrictions or special instructions are included. [Note: alltext.htm was deleted from site on June 29, 2007.]