The joint server acts in a manner similar to a bibliography, a library catalogue and a document delivery service. The most effective forms of these services are based on the World Wide Web protocol. A Journal model is particularly suited to the situation when on ongoing steam of new material, in part independent of the previous material, need to be published. A paper based model forces the aggregation of sufficient material to form an issue prior to publication. Some electronic equivalents work in the reverse mode.
Material is published as it comes to hand.
Older material may be archived from the back of the current issue in a form more akin to traditional issues. Some electronic journals do away with the whole concept of issue and publish each item as it comes to hand. Others publish their table of contents directly with instructions how to pick up the issues from a server. The most radical change is to hypertext forms of publication using World Wide Web that print cannot emulate. The linear form of a paper publication can be dispensed with.