- What is an electronic journal (or e-journal)?
Any journal available over the Internet can be called an "electronic journal"
or "e-journal." In many cases e-journals are counterparts to familiar
print publications, although an increasing number of titles exist only in
electronic format. Frequently e-journals appear on the screen exactly as
they do in print with similar page design and typeface. These are PDF (Portable
Document Format) images of the print pages. Many users prefer to print from
PDF images. To view these page images, your computer must have Adobe Acrobat
Reader software installed. You may download the software at no cost by clicking
here
and following the instructions on the site.
Many publishers of e-journals utilize the capabilities of the electronic
environment to go beyond images of print pages and provide value-added features
such as sounds, video clips, or links to other electronic information sources
by also offering coded versions of articles in html format. Articles in
html offer links and other features to those reading the journal on their
computer screen.Viewing video clips or listening to sound will probably
require additional software.
In addition to enriched content, e-journals offer convenience to users because
they may be read in your office or laboratory or from many off-campus locations.
Some journals offer you an option to register personally if you wish to
take advantage of special features offered by the publisher, such as e-mail
updates on subjects of personal interest.
Often e-journal issues may be available before the print counterpart is
on the library shelf. Some e-journals even provide advance copy of articles
accepted for publication but not yet scheduled for a print issue. In most
cases, the electronic equivalent of a print journal only exists for the
most recent volumes; older issues still need to be read in print.
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-
What
is the difference between a full-text e-journal and a full-text article
database?
Full-text e-journals may be viewed as individual issues
that correspond to their print counterparts. Typically, you will use these
on the publishers' site where you may browse the table of contents of an
issue, scan the abstracts of articles, and view the full-text of articles.
Full-text article databases are collections of articles, not complete issues
of journals. Often these collections bring together articles on a particular
subject, such as business or ethnic studies; they are usually searched by
subject.
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- Does UIC subscribe to electronic
journals? How do I know which e-journals UIC offers?
UIC subscribes to several thousand electronic journals. Many of these
titles are in science, technology, and medicine because publishers in these
disciplines took the lead in electronic publishing. We actively seek to
broaden the subject base of our e-journal collection and are evaluating
new titles on a continuous basis. We welcome suggestions for additions to
the collection. If you would like to recommend an e-journal for acquisition,
send e-mail to Collections Development bibliographers at LIB-BOOK@uic.edu.
To determine whether UIC subscribes to a particular electronic journal,
consult the Library's online catalog UICCAT.
As titles are acquired for our collection, catalog librarians add that information
to the catalog.The catalog record includes URLS with links to the electronic
title. You may also browse an alphabetic
list of all the Library's e-journals on the Library web pages. Click
on the title of interest to connect to the journal. In some cases you may
find yourself at a publisher site that lists all their electronic journals
and you will again have to select the title you seek.
The Library announces acquisition of major collections of e-journals on
Library News, a distribution
list for those interested in receiving e-mail notification about new library
acquisitions and services. Click here
to read about how to subscribe to Library News.
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- How can I access e-journals?
The UIC Library web page provides
a gateway to our electronic journal collection through UICCAT
or an alphabetic
list of titles. Very typically access is restricted to users affiliated
with UIC or using a public workstation in a UIC library site. If you are
affiliated with UIC, you may also read e-journals from off-campus by connecting
to the e-journal from the Library's web page list and supplying your netid
and password to validate your UIC affiliation.These are the same netid and
password that you use in your UIC e-mail account. Click here
to learn more about off-campus access to UIC-licensed resources.
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- Can I download and print articles?
Yes, provided you are using a suitable computer. Many UIC Library workstations
are not connected to printers. Most library computers are also configured
to prevent downloading to the computer's hard drive. Downloading or printing
is best done from your own computer or from a Computer Center machine with
print capability. You will need appropriate software on your computer to
download or print e-journal articles. Adobe Acrobat is a reader that many
journal publishers use; you may download the software at no cost by clicking
here
and following the instructions on the site. Users of e-journals should note
that these are copyright-protected resources subject to fair-use provisions.
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- Why can't I connect to the electronic journal?
There are several possible reasons:
- UIC may not have an active subscription to the title. Even subscriptions
that may be available to print subscribers "at no additional cost" require
activation. Typically publishers also require the University to sign a
licensing agreement, and appropriate campus officers must review these
before signing. Without a subscription you may be permitted to browse
tables of contents or read abstracts.
- The publisher's computer ("server") may be down. If UICCAT indicates
we have access, try to connect later. Report ongoing problems by sending
e-mail to LIB-SUGG@uic.edu.
- If you are trying to connect from off-campus through a non-uic.edu address,
you are not recognized as an authorized user. Try connecting through the
Library Web pages using your netid and password. Click
here to learn more about off-campus access to UIC-licensed resources.
- The license may prohibit off-campus use; the only way to access such
a journal is through a campus computer.
- Some e-journal publishers provide a list of all their electronic titles
on their site. UIC may have chosen to subscribe to some of their titles
rather than the entire collection. Often you may browse tables of contents
and/or read abstracts for all the publisher's titles, including those
for which UIC has no subscription.
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- I read in a print issue in the Library that the electronic
edition of the journal is "free" to all print subscribers. Why doesn't UIC
offer access to this e-journal? Why doesn't the Library have all electronic
journals?
There are several explanations:
- Publishers do not always inform us of the availability of an e-journal.
- The license or connectivity requirements for a particular journal may
be under review. To inquire about the status of a particular title send
e-mail to LIB-BOOK@uic.edu.
- The Library may have decided not to acquire the e-journal, possibly
because the license restrictions may be contrary to our policies or impossible
to enforce.
- For e-journals that cost, the subscription may be too expensive for
us to consider or the connectivity requirements impossible for us.
- Although we may subscribe to a particular e-journal, we may not have
chosen to obtain all years or volumes available online. The article you
seek may be one not covered by our subscription.
In fact, "free" electronic journals do have cost to the Library. Staff
time is involved examining licensing agreements that publishers require.
These may be much more restrictive than for paper versions, and some are
extremely difficult to enforce or otherwise unacceptable to us. In general,
we prefer access to be controlled by IP address recognition rather than
through passwords. Administering distribution of passwords for what now
amounts to thousands of titles is time-consuming. Consequently, we must
review potential additions to our digital collection by examining carefully
these and other attributes of each candidate title.
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- Only the most recent issues of my favorite journals seem
to be available on the Web. Can I expect to see the older volumes of journals
available electronically soon?
It depends on the titles and the disciplines. In some disciplines professional
associations have agreed to do retrospective conversion of older print volumes
into electronic format. In other cases there are organizations creating
electronic archives of the most important journals. JSTOR,
to which UIC subscribes, is one example of an electronic archive. In any
case, it is unlikely, because of the costs involved, that all of the older
issues of all journals will be digitized. Scholars for whom the older literature
is important will likely need to consult print materials for some time,
and libraries will continue to offer a mix of print and electronic resources.
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- E-journals seem superior to print to me. What are their
downsides?
E-journals do offer rapid access and enriched content with powerful searching
capabilities and links to other resources. They also save space on our overcrowded
library shelves and can be used remotely at any time of day. Nonetheless,
in most cases, the Library is maintaining a print subscription to each title
because we are concerned about long term access to the information. If the
archival issues are resolved in the future that policy will be reconsidered.
The publishers' pricing policies are currently in flux with new
subscription models under development. One practice we see frequently involves
providing free access for the first year to build a user base but with subscription
fees imposed after the free trial period. If we are to budget responsibly
we must review each of these electronic subscriptions carefully; we may
find ourselves canceling lesser-used print subscriptions to add an electronic
version of a more heavily-used title. For many of our e-journals a print
subscription is required to obtain access to the e-journal.
At present we acquire many of our e-journals as "collections" from a publisher
or other provider. These "aggregators" of e-journals offer us cost
savings in processing our subscriptions and may provide access to titles
we have canceled in print. At the same time they may require us to take
a package that includes titles that are of little interest to most of our
users. This is an area where we expect to see changes as the economics of
publishing e-journals stabilize.
Electronic publishing is an area currently undergoing rapid change; new developments
may surprise us all. If you have other questions or comments about this subject,
feel welcome to contact us.
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