0.4 Benefits of online dissemination  (Page 3/4)

Reader benefits

Online journals also deliver benefits to researchers as readers. These advantages include the ability to search within and across large collections of content; locating specific articles or data; the convenience of locating relevant content via hyperlinks; access outside the library; deeper searching and linking through taxonomic structures and semantic tagging; the ability to copy and save articles; 24/7 availability; the ability to use task-oriented online tools; For example, Zotero, Xanedu for course packs, learning management systems, etc. and access to online articles ahead of print. See Inger and Gardner (2008), 21-25; Schottlaender et al . (2004), 34-36; and Diane Harley et al . (2006), 6. The advent of the Web has also made it easier for researchers and teachers to identify, locate, and license digital images, although this is not a benefit of online journals per se .

Researcher behavior studies and preference surveys indicate an accelerating comfort with—and demand for—online access to peer-reviewed journal content. See Inger and Gardner (2008); Rowlands (2007); and Tenopir (2003). Another study suggests that, if a desired journal is not available online, users tend to resort to sources of lower quality and less relevance that are available online. See Prabha (2007), 4 and 12, n4. One indicator of this comfort is the extent to which researchers, at least in North America, have grown willing to accept their library cancelling the print edition of a journal in favor of electronic access. See Schonfeld and Guthrie (2007), 8-9, and Schottlaender et al . (2004). This is true not only of STM (science, technical, and medical) journals, many of which moved online early, but also for journals in the humanities and social sciences. Increasing online access to journals in these fields—bolstered by the reach of the JSTOR online archival collections in academic research institutions—has changed research behavior across all disciplines. JSTOR provides complete runs of over 1,000 journals online to over 4,300 library subscribers. On the effect of JSTOR on researcher behavior, see Guthrie (2002) and Seeds (2002), 120-122.

Although researchers in the sciences and social sciences use electronic resources more frequently than most researchers in the humanities, usage patterns differ considerably between disciplines. Indeed, usage studies indicate that, on average, art historians use electronic resources more heavily than others in the humanities. See Harley et al . (2006), 4-35ff. and Heterick and Schonfeld (2004), 229. This frequent use of electronic resources relates to the discipline’s particular research methods, the online resources available, Housewright and Schonfeld (2008), 17. and the widespread use of digital technology for classroom teaching. Ballon and Westermann (2006), 56.

As Ballon and Westermann note, “[a]rt history is characterized by a computer-literate professoriate, an established commitment to digital presentation, and an appreciation of the analytic potential of electronic tools.” Ballon and Westermann (2006), 58. This familiarity with digital resources suggests an openness on the part of art historians to innovations in online journal publishing models, such as those being implemented in the online edition of the JSAH . Starting with the 2010 volume year, the JSAH will include articles that apply multimedia capabilities, including audio, video, animation, zoomable images, fly-throughs, and three-dimensional modeling. For a press release describing the online journal, see (External Link) . Another Mellon-funded project, caa.reviews , established an early online presence for art history.