NetNews Usenet Archive 1993 #3/NN_1993_3.iso/spool/bit/listserv/pacsl/3109

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Date:         Thu, 21 Jan 1993 12:11:11 CDT
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From:         John Franks <[e-mail]>
Subject:      What is an electronic journal? (part 2 of 4)
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----------------------------Original message----------------------------
               What is and Electronic Journal (Part 2 of 4)

WHAT SHOULD A SUBSCRIBER TO AN ELECTRONIC
JOURNAL ACTUALLY GET?

Surprisingly many people who are strong proponents of creating an
electronic journal haven't thought a great deal about the answer to
this question.  Those who have seem to offer a wide array of very
divergent answers.  More than anything else it is the answer to this
question which distinguishes the different models of electronic
publishing.  As we characterize some of the different visions of what
should constitute an electronic journal, it is useful to keep the
varying answers to this question in mind.

The Data Base Model

The second model of electronic publishing (and the first which involves
what we could really call a journal) is  the ``data base model.'' In
this model all articles reside on a centralized data base maintained by
the publisher and what the subscriber gets is the right to access that
data base and probably use search software on the central computer to
locate and download articles of interest to him or her.  This is
roughly the way the commercial data services like Lexis/Nexis or Dialog
work.

In practice this might work as follows for the scholar wishing to make
use of the journal.  The subscription to the journal would be purchased
by the library of the scholar's institution.  The library  would
acquire a password allowing access to the journal data base, and would
be responsible for protecting it.  To use the journal the scholar would
typically schedule a time slot with the library and go the library at
the appointed time where a librarian who has access to the password
would login to the central data base.  When the scholar finds an
article of interest, it is probable (though not certain) that he would
be permitted to make a single hard copy of it for personal use.
Because of concern about unauthorized redistribution it is unlikely
that the publisher would allow an article to be downloaded in
electronic format.

The publisher might only charge the library a fixed annual fee for
subscription, but current practice suggests that some publishers are
likely to impose additional charges.  For example, cost may be a
function of the maximum number of simultaneous users.  Some publishers
will also likely want to charge extra for the use of their search
software and perhaps also for connect time.  This may not be entirely
negative.  If the price of a journal depends on the frequency of its
use then libraries would have to pay less for access to infrequently
used journals.  Moreover, publishers of several journals might well
offer package deals enabling libraries greater access to journal
material at less cost.

How well does this model meet our three author support needs of
certification, archiving and marketing?  Certification and marketing
would likely be quite comparable to a traditional paper journal, but
archiving would be dramatically different.  Since the library does not
maintain a copy of the text, it has no archival function in this
model.  There are significant trade offs here, which are difficult to
evaluate.  On the plus side, if a library starts subscribing to such a
journal they presumably have immediate access to all past issues
(though publishers may want to charge extra for this).  On the other
hand, if a library cancels its subscription to such a journal it loses
its access to all issues including those which appeared during the time
it was a subscriber.

More importantly, however, if a publisher should go out of business it
is not clear who, if anyone, would assume the archival responsibility.
This appears to be a major weakness in the archiving function for this
model.

This model is also quite weak in the scholar support criteria: ease of
use and quality of user interface.  It's functionality is roughly
comparable to that of a traditional paper journal and almost identical
to a journal which is traditionally marketed but published only on
CD-Rom.  This model realizes very few of the potential electronic
journal advantages, which have sparked the interest of scholars.  Most
noticeably the scholar must still physically go to the library and with
the aid of a librarian produce a copy for personal use (assuming this
is possible).  In some ways the functionality of this model is less
than that of a traditional paper journal.

The Software Model

One of the most miraculous technological achievements of this century
is the development of economically important goods which are
essentially infinitely reproducible at negligible cost.  The miracle of
the loaves and fishes pales by comparison to the ease with which anyone
with a personal computer can duplicate either software or electronic
documents, or someone with a digital tape recorder can duplicate an
artistic performance.  It must be one of the greatest ironies of our
age that this capability is less often viewed as a boon to mankind than
as an enormous liability to the publication of music, or software, or
even scholarly research.  By now we are all familiar with the downside
of this technological miracle: unauthorized reproduction of
intellectual property deprives its creator of the fruits of his labor.
If the creator has no incentive to create he will not do so.  (For a
fascinating contrarian view of this subject see [2]).

Given the similarities in the nature of this problem for electronic
publishing and software publishing, it is not surprising that one
vision of an electronic journal seeks to leverage the techniques used
in software publishing.

What the subscriber gets in the ``software  model'' is a piece of
software.  It should run on a networked personal computer or
workstation and probably be available in the several standard flavors
of such devices.  Other than the addition of this software this model
is quite similar to the data base model.  Here's how it might work.

A library or individual subscribes and receives in exchange a floppy
disk in the desired flavor.  When the software is run on an internet
connected computer it connects to the data base on the journal's
central computer.  The user can then perform searches, download etc.,
but all downloaded materials will be sent in a proprietary encrypted
form which the software can decrypt and display to the user.  There is
no need for a password, since someone who is not in possession of a
currently valid copy of the software cannot decrypt the text.  The
software might, or might not, allow the user to print a copy of a text
document for personal use (it would be technically difficult to allow
this while disallowing the creation of an electronic copy of the
document).  The software would have an expiration date which at each
use would be compared with the current date on the central server.  The
problem of unauthorized access to the journal is reduced to the problem
of preventing the unauthorized reproduction of the software (a
previously addressed if not totally solved problem).

Since this is really a higher tech version of the data base model it is
comparable to that model in meeting the certification, archiving and
marketing needs of the author.  In particular, it shares the major
archiving weakness noted above.   On the other hand in terms of
functionality for the journal reader it is potentially an improvement.
For example, it is possible that the scholar's library could negotiate
a site license for the software or perhaps a floating license (see
glossary).  In this way the software could run on the scholar's
personal computer and display text there, even though the only
subscription is through the library.

The Subnet Model

The next model of electronic publishing may be the most commonly used
commercially as of today, but it is not as yet used for scholarly
journals.  Instead it is currently used primarily for electronic
journalism.  Here is an example of how it works.

My university subscribes to a daily news service called ClariNet which
provides all UPI syndicated articles. It consists of an enormous amount
of material, including not only world, national and regional news (from
all regions), but also sports, and columns.  There are several hundred
newspaper length articles daily.  The university is licensed to make
this material freely available only to members of the university
community.

It is distributed using software which also simultaneously distributes
USENET (see glossary) articles.  This software, like all client/server
software (see glossary), splits the distribution function into two
parts.  All the text resides on a central server, but a server central
to my university -- the archiving function now resides with us.  This
central server provides the articles via a standard protocol to
``client'' programs running on a variety of platforms.  These include
networked personal computers and workstations, microcomputers in
publicly available labs, and larger computers designed to provide dial
up access to electronic mail and other network services for faculty and
students.  The protocol used is called the Network News Transfer
Protocol, (NNTP),  and the software for both servers and clients is
readily available without cost.  Surprisingly, it seems that, on
average, this software is of higher quality and better supported than
most commercial software.

The restriction that the ClariNet information be distributed only
locally is enforced by the server checking the IP address of the
computer running the client software.  The IP address is that strangely
formatted number, like 129.105.123.456, which is associated with a
networked computer and provides the basis for routing network traffic.
(IP stands for Internet Protocol).  This number has a hierarchical
structure.  For example, all IP addresses at my institution begin with
the two triples of digits 129.105.  This means the the news server
software can simply deny access to any client whose IP address does not
begin with this sequence.  In other words, the service is offered to
anyone on our university ``IP subnet.'' There are a variety of
different software ``clients'' for this server.  These are software
packages designed to run on a particular platform (e.g. Mac or IBM
PC).  They allow the user to browse the available documents on the
server and present selected articles to the user for reading,
downloading or printing.  It is the responsibility of the client
software, not the server, to deal with any display idiosyncrasies of
the the user's computer and to take advantage of any of its features.

The license granted my university permits us to archive these
documents, but, we do not.  Individuals have the right to make copies,
electronic or printed, for their personal use.  Protection against
unauthorized use is afforded by copyright.

End of Part 2 of 4