Back in the day, when the internet required being connected to a phone line, “surfers” were referred to as “callers”, and no one knew what coding was, the impending digitization of publications was still acknowledged by the publishing industry.
In Daniel Eisenberg’s 1988 journal article, “The Electronic Journal”, he states that “with greatly reduced costs, why wait to publish research that is ready for its potential readers? It may be that the concept of the journal “issue” or assemblage of materials will also disappear, and that a journal, like a news wire today, will consist of a stream of irregularly released articles and reviews.”
This insightful prediction, made twenty-five years ago, has become a standard practice in the field of journal publishing. University of Toronto Press currently has many journals that work within an Advance Online workflow, where articles are made available to subscribers before being assigned an issue. The Canadian Modern Language Review, Canadian Journal of Criminology and Criminal Justice, The Canadian Journal of Human Sexuality, Canadian Review of American Studies, Modern Drama, The Journal of Veterinary Medical Education Physiotherapy Canada, The Toronto Journal of Theology and The University of Toronto Law Journal.
Take a look at Daniel Eisenberg’s entire journal article “The Electronic Journal” from The Journal of Scholarly Publishing and see the advancement technology has made in the last twenty-five years…and laugh a little at the terminology. #tbt
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