No one knows for sure why some electronic journals are having a rough time getting papers and subscriptions from scholars, but several theories are being bandied about by editors, publishers, librarians, and scholars. Scholars are worried, according to the speculation, that electronic publication will not carry much credit toward tenure, or that the electronic journals might fail, carrying prized papers with them into oblivion. Many electronic-only journals publish papers individually, as they are accepted, rather than on a regular schedule. But a full explanation may be elusive, he says, because of the unpredictable character of scholarly publishing as a whole. Researchers have submitted 592 papers to that journal since it was started, in July 1997.
Some scholars worry that electronic journals are likely to be less permanent than printed journals.
There's a lot more sense of experimentation with the Internet. Consequently, scholars may believe that electronic journals are a riskier venue for their work. It's hard to demonstrate permanence overnight. Publishing a printed version of an electronic journal seems to be the easiest way to assuage scholars' fears. Ms. Fisher says M.I.T. Press commissioned a survey of computer scientists last year to find out why they were not submitting articles to the Chicago Journal of Theoretical Computer Science.