The Australian Journal of Management
- The AJM was first published in 1976.
- Australia's leading management journal:
- for academic researchers
- for preeminent practitioners
- here and overseas
- with double-blind reviewing
- and standard publication protocols
- widely cited
- traditional format
The Electronic Australian Journal of Management
- Two years ago we received an AVCC grant:
- to study reader acceptance of an electronic version of the AJM, that is, an on-line version.
- The AGSM assembled an interdisciplinary team:
- to study the state of the art of management journal publication
- to develop and refine an on-line prototype
- to test consumer adoption and usage patterns of an on-line journal
The EAJM project's goals and objectives:
- to promulgate the research output of the Australian management community to a wider audience both within Australian academic institutions and internationally
- to research, develop, and pilot-test on-line delivery systems
- to report on best practice in on-line publishing practice in the area of management research
- to study and understand the dynamics of adoption of on-line available research, including the development of a model of adoption behaviour
- to use the vehicle of on-line publication to investigate ways in which research can be delivered more flexibly than possible with hard-copy publishing
- to promulgate the research findings from the project
By mounting the AJM in an on-line format, we have the potential to provide a platform from which to develop other on-line products, which will expand the reach of Australian management research performed in all Australian universities.
Benefits include:
- wider dissemination of the AJM and associated research materials
- earlier dissemination of significant research results
- opening up on-line debate to parallel provocative articles in the AJM
- developing substantive knowledge in the understanding of adoption patterns of on-line media
- experimenting with product design to allow more flexible forms of publication.
Three stages of the project:
- Analysis of technology and review of current sites.
- Construction of a prototype of the EAJM
- Consumer response and analysis.
Technological issues: Analysis of technology and review of current sites.
- Standards:
HTML, PDF, SGML, other
- Presentation:
- wholly on-line v. on-line version of paper journal
- formulas, tables, non-ASCII characters
- conversion of back issues
- production of future issues
- Design:
structure, graphics, growth, options
- Options:
- interactivity with readers/subscribers
- search engines/indices
- hyperlinks to data, discussions, footnotes, graphics, editors, etc
- legibility and readability of on-line version
- usage counters/guestbook
- recording origins of on-line browsings
- provision of advice:
to readers, subscribers, authors
- different delivery options:
email notification, emailing abstracts to subscribers, provision of on-line reading software
Issues: Construction of a prototype of the EAJM
.
- Copyright
- Costs and pricing:
- free
- subscription
- site licence
- pay per article
(direct, or through an intermediary)- hourly search time
- other: cost to produce, maintenance of existing files
- Archiving:
- cost
- location
- technological obsolescence
- physical stability of storage media
- maintenance
- Peer review:
- standard articles
- commentaries
- on-line discussion
- On-going development
Our first effort mirrored the appearance of the hard-copy version.
The final version (so far) has benefitted from a Web-page designer.
Consumer response and analysis.
We keep a watch over "hits" on the EAJM pages here, with specific details here.
Issues:
- User preferences and perceptions of electronic media:
- read on-line v. print off to read
- speed
- quality
- ease of use
- format
- User behaviour and access:
- existing hardware ownership
- existing software familiarity
- emergence of standards
- networking experience
- Field trials and other publishers' experience.
Robert Marks, bobm@agsm.edu.au
9 July, 1997