I'm doing a research project on electronic scholarly publishing. While it's nowhere near as fun as the project I did a couple of years ago about online publishing models for consumer magazines, it's certainly engrossing.

Enough scientific publications now are jumping on this bandwagon that there are finally some viable case studies. The only problem that hasn't been solved--and I don't know how to solve it, either--is the continuing debate amongst academics about the value of these publications when it comes to securing tenure. Oh, the irony--in order to get tenure at universities--precisely the setting where the early Web started to flower--you have to get published in a traditional paper journal to be "valid."

It's too bad, but I expect the tide will turn--if somewhat glacially. All the kids want things to be online, anyway. Having a top-notch peer review system is probably the key.

In the course of this project, I started off liking First Monday. But having plowed through a number of articles, I find that for actual scholarship, you can't beat the Journal of Electronic Publishing.

What I may actually need--but haven't read yet, because it is a 60-page PDF-- is this manual for planning the launch of a nonprofit electronic publishing venture. Found via this weblog on e-journals and, uh, Morris dancing.