The Virtual Journal

Abstract Computer networks can be used to disseminate scientific articles quickly and at low cost. Scientific journals serve as official archives, public directories of productive researchers, and bestowers of prestige. In order to serve these purposes, network based scientific journals must resemble printed journals as much as they resemble information retrieval systems. This paper discusses the establishment, organization and funding of computer network based scientific journals. A “virtual” journal has infinite page space, but must also have an editor and an editorial board, to provide a theoretical focus and to monitor the quality of articles. Virtual journal articles differ from other forms of machine readable information in that they have passed an editorial review and can be selectively retrieved on the basis of a reviewer score.