Ejournals in Education - Just Generating Excitement or Living up to the Promise?

Oct 15, 2026

The paper examines whether electronic journals in education are fulfilling their promise as scholarly, peer-reviewed, full-text venues or merely substituting poor digital imitations for print. It outlines how an online medium removes access barriers globally while questioning effective use of electronic capabilities. Using a survey of AERA SIG CR listings, it summarizes journal counts by country and language, describes access formats (HTML/PDF), and notes preservation and management concerns over time.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryResearch & Report

FormatPDF

Pages11

Reading Time28 min

AccessFree to download

Abstract

Introduction

Overview of AERA SIG CR electronic journal listings

Distribution by country and language

Article access formats (HTML/PDF) and availability

Additional features and submission/publishing practices

A R T I C L E S # Ejournals in Education:Just Generating Excitement orLiving up to the Promise? By Tirupalavanam G.GaneshCollege of Education,Arizona State University ## Abstract The Internet makes scholarly electronic journals an opportune global mode ofcommunication for scholarly exchange,where national and international borders areerased.The American Educational Research Association Special Interest Group,Communications among Researchers(AERA SIG CR)lists over one hundred electronicjournals in the field of education that are scholarly,peer-reviewed,fulltext and accessiblewithout cost on the world wide web (see http://aera-cr.ed.asu.edu/links.html).Are theseejournals merely poor electronic imitations of print journals?Granted,the use of theInternet to publish peer-reviewed scholarship has the potential of democratizing access.But are such scholarly exchanges making effective use of the electronic medium?Whatinnovative things can be done with new technology?How can electronic journals bepreserved,used,and managed over time? ## Introduction In December,1998,this author was offered theposition of Editor of Current Issues in Education(CIE)(http://cie.ed.asu.edu),a scholarly,onlinejournal at Arizona State University.The journal wasto begin its second year of publication in January,1999.After reading Glass(1998),["The visionthing”:Educational research and AERA in the 21stcentury—Part 4: The future of scholarlycommunications],the author decided to accept theoffer,against the advice of colleagues.Thefascination of editing a scholarly electronic journalto a beginner academic was tremendous.Thepotential to use the electronic medium innovativelyand the opportunity to facilitate its effective use inscholarly communication justified setting aside anyuncertainties.In spite of initial enthusiasm,the journal remains to a large extent,largely animitation of a print journal.Yet two articles,Duganand Behrens(1998),and Leshowitz,DiCerbo,andSymington(1999),represent a departure frompublishing articles that are just plain text.Duganand Behrens(1998)used hypertext to facilitateinstant and simultaneous access to multiplesources of information.The employment of framesallowed access to the raw data in their statistical study,andthe reader had access to a variety of alternativemodels of data analysis without interruption toreading.Leshowitz,DiCerbo,and Symington(1999)demonstrated the challenge of usingmultimedia appropriately,powerfully,and not for itsown sake.They used video clips to providereaders a glimpse into the practices of a college classroom.This fairly small number of articles inCIE that break ranks with the traditional scholarlycommunication is not trivial by any means—theyrepresent the hope that ejournals in education willbegin to push the envelope in scholarlycommunication in thoughtful yet innovative ways. Ejournals in Education A number of electronic journals in education haveappeared in the last few years,an assessment ofthese ejournals with regard to their use of theunique features of the electronic medium andissues related to their preservation are the subjectsof this paper. The AERA SpecialInterestGroup,Communications Among Researchers(AERASIG CR)lists over one hundred electronic journalsin the field of education that are scholarly,peer-reviewed,full text and accessible without cost onthe world wide web (see http://aera-cr.ed.asu.edu/links.html).Table 1 below lists the quantityof these journals and country of publication indescending order.It is no surprise that 64%of thejournals listed here are published in the UnitedStates of America.Researchers primarily locatedin the geographical area of North America helpedcompile this list.The predominance of the U.S.inthis area may be attributed to access to theInternet that American universities have enjoyedsince the early 1990s. Table 1 Ejournals in Education and the country ofpublication. | Country | Number of
Journals | | --- | --- | | USA | 70 |

FAQs

Why does the author question the value of education ejournals on the web?

The author questions whether ejournals are only poor electronic imitations of print journals or whether electronic scholarly exchanges use the medium effectively and innovatively.

What positive innovations do the paper highlight in some education ejournal articles?

The paper highlights hypertext for instant access to multiple sources, frames for accessing raw statistical data and alternative analysis models, and multimedia elements such as video clips for observing classroom practices.

What does the survey report about ejournals by country and access format?

The survey reports that most listed ejournals are published in the United States and that many provide full-text HTML, with a smaller share offering HTML and/or PDF and some offering PDF only.

Oct 15, 2026

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