Appel comments extensively, with examples, on the different ways that publishers and librarians can assess the usage of a journal once it goes electronic. But she also notes other ways that e-journals change the scholarly publishing process. Some excerpts:
Of course, knowing that one's journal article is going to be online adds a different dimension to its construction. As publishers, we recommend that the title should contain words that are easily found by keyword searches and that the whole phrase should be as descriptive as possible. Abstracts have become more important than ever as readers can also search for their required content by this means alone.....
Online availability should also make authors think about 'adding value' to the electronic versions of their articles for maximum impact. Bearing in mind the usual technical provisos such as copyright and bandwidth, authors can now consider whether film clips, sound or colour plates that could not be reproduced in the print version could be added to the online edition. Authors can also choose to refer to URLs in their text or references to make the electronic version of the article come alive, and with availability in both HTML as well as PDF, authors can decide whether or not to add extra subtitles to assist navigation through the online text.
