Authors and electronic publishing: what authors want from the new technology

Responses from almost 1,250 academic authors around the world were analysed to obtain their views on electronic publishing of learned journals. Currently, having a print version of journals is still more important to them than an electronic version. The issue of greatest importance to authors and readers is the continuing availability of back volumes, and there are strong concerns about pricing of electronic journals. The potential gains in publication speed through publishing electronically appear not to be a priority. Electronic preprint and reprint archives are used very little at present, with the exception of the physics and mathematics communities. Of all publisher-mediated tasks, the peer-review process is the most valued, followed by provision of citation-linking. Respondents' views of future developments in electronic publishing are also explored.