E-journals in the era of print cancellations

["Peter B. Boyce" <pboyce@aas.org>]

In response to Lesley Harris...

If the electronic version is exactly the same as the print version, it is
a pretty poor electronic journal. Everything that is in the paper should
appear in the electronic version.  This you should insist on.

But, don't limit it in the other direction.  The electronic version should
contain more than you can put on paper.

Examples, all of which appear now in the better electronic versions of
journals, are:
** Machine readable data tables
** Color plate in the electronic version vs. B&W on paper (to save costs)
** Video and multimedia clips
** Active math equations where the reader can enter her own values
** Forward links to corrigenda
** Forward Links to citations from future articles
** And, of course, active links to the abstracts and full texts of the
   references

In fact, maybe the license should insist upon electronic additions....

Peter B. Boyce

_____________________________________________________
Dr. Peter B. Boyce                                                
Senior Consultant for Electronic Publishing              
American Astronomical Society                              
http:www.aas.org/~pboyce	pboyce@aas.org