1)Instead of a library maintaining one copy of a work that can be read by one person at one time, the work can now be read by an entire campus simultaneously; 2) Instead of having to search for a location and hope that a work is not checked out or misshelved, a user can find the full text at the instant it is identified; 3) the work can be read in the context of a large and extensible compilation of books and journals, including back issues, each as easily accessible as the first; ...6)there is no worry about misplacing the work or returning it by a due date; and 7) the electronic library can be open all night every day of the year. (Technology and Scholarly Communication 161)

Full-text electronic databases also cut down the need for students to make interlibrary loans (ILL) which can cost $30 per article. The ILL system is often abused by students who never pick up the article they requested, causing a waste of library money (Hemphill 304).
Walt Crawford writes in his articles "Future Libraries: Dreams, Madness and Reality" that "we spend a lot of money purchasing, storing, and making accessible print publications that would be cheaper, more current, and easier to use if they were available electronically" (54).  In fact, print journals "consume as much as three feet a year of shelf space, so that a library of 1,000 science journals must have something like a quarter to half a mile of available shelf space each year...With electronic journals, there are no back issues to physically bind. There is virtually no chance of theft or mutilation..." (Stankus 30).
 

My research has shown that publishers have been able to have electronic journals receive more access, thus creating a higher rate of readership, making up for the falling readership of print journals (Arms 50)2. Whisler points out, however, that oftentimes with electronic books "online access, even to full-text, often boosts sales of the print product" (125). This success of electronic journals of course arises through the higher educational system, primarily through college library access. Thanks to efficient search engines, a student can look for articles relevant to their topic of inquiry in every electronic magazine, mark the most relevant and read those articles as they sit at the computer. Several studies have been done concerning subscription to electronic journals, allowing one author to write:
                "In talking with the individual subscribers--and those who did not subscribe--it was clear that price was not a significant factor in their decisions. The functionality of the electronic version was the selling point. It has features that are not in the paper version and is, of course, fully searchable. That means the value was, in part, in efficiency--the ease with which you find that article you recalled reading six months ago but don’t remember the author or precise month..." (Technology and Scholarly Communication 153)
Unfortunately a disadvantage to the online text reading with journals is that many people print out those articles instead of reading them from their computer screen.  Printing is often done, at least in a scholarly setting, so that the person reading the article may make notes to him/herself.  This means that much more paper is being used--an ecologically unfriendly position:
                "Someone taking the next of a 6-by-9-inch book, printed on both sides, and printing it on one side of 8.5-by-11-inch paper, will use about three times as much paper for that copy. As a national average, each book in a public library goes out 2.5 times a year. Thus, printing on demand , whether done in the library or at home, would consume 7.5 times as much paper each year as is held in all our public libraries." (Crawford 95)
 
2There are several pitfalls to the increased readership of electronic journals, however, which will be discussed later.
3Furthermore, without higher resolution computer screens, many will suffer from eyestrain and poorer eyesight.

 
Publishing companies, in a sense, have been set up to rake in nothing but profit when it comes to electronic journals. When done correctly, electronic journals cost far less than print journals (see table).
 
Production Costs by Article of Electronic and Print Journals
CJTCS = electronic journal
NC = Print journal

reference 26.5 p99
 

In essence much of the research articles that are posted in journals are funded by government research grants (from the taxpayers). A researcher seeks to have their article published, at no monetary benefit to themselves (Peek 125) and in the process loses their copyrights to the publisher. The university library where these students are researching then must pay access rights to view these articles so that other students may benefit from this research. In essence, taxpayers and libraries fund publishers when it comes to scholarly journals (Arms 107). "Ann Okerson (a coeditor of EJournal with Richard Lanham) postulates that the electronic medium may allow universities to significantly reduce their dependence on commercial publishing houses. In the process, intellectual property will return to its rightful owner, the university" (Peek 33).
 

  Why don’t libraries start taking up the publishing franchise you might ask? Libraries are in a bind to discontinue their use of these journals or demand that researchers publish with them (unless the university itself has its own publishing which is often the exception rather than the rule) because of the prestige system that has been built into publishing with specific journals owned by publishing companies. Researchers can gain higher positions (whether educational or pedagogical) based on their publication.

Things are far from smelling all roses for publishers, however. Publishers have been suffering due to the decline in readership in general, and also the falling budgets of university libraries (Whisler 122). Another problem hampering publishers is "How to maintain the current print business while diverting increasing staff time and equipment resources to electronic publishing, without new sources of capital" (Ibid 123). Not only this, but

There appears to be substantial difference in the readiness of the market to accept electronic-only journals at this point as well as a reluctance on the part of the author community to submit materials. It is, therefore, more difficult for the publisher to reach break even with only one-fifth of the market willing to purchase, unless subscription prices are increased substantially. Doing this would likely dampen the paid subscriptions even more...The disparity in the markets for electronic products is, at this point in time, a very big obstacle to their financial viability... (Technology and Scholarly Communication 101)

3"university presses were created in order to ensure that the best research and scholarship would be made available to the widest possible audience independent (in theory) of commercial considerations, a lofty but increasingly unattainable goal. No other type of publishing places such singular emphasis on editorial quality. As a result, university press profits are nonexistent...." (Peek 147)
 

 
A major problem facing publishers is that there is nothing as yet that disallows subscribers to copy and distribute copyrighted electronic data (Arms 110).  Publishers have also been having problems with finding pricing methods that are the easiest for the consumer and thus will gain the publisher more profits. Many argue that back issues of journals (over three years old) should be offered free to subscribers of current issues (Quinn 30). Some publishers have chosen to revoke all electronic data to online subscribers when they discontinue their subscriptions, making print journals a preferable mode (specifically to university libraries) since every issue received up until the termination of the subscription continues to be theirs to own (Arms 109).

4Digital libraries containing older information of course become fundamental as print materials become too old and fragile to handle.
 

 
Suggestions for the future
My research has shown that there is little evidence to suggest that extremists who rant that paper will soon be a thing of the passed are correct.   This quote from David Levy seems to sum most scholars' ideas concerning future paper use: "While no one can actually predict future paper use, it seems unlikely that paper--so flexible, portable, inexpensive, and eaily annotated--will simply go away" (79).

If publishers turn to Michael Jenson's article: Digital Structure, Digital Design: Issues in Designing Electronic Publications they'll find some excellent ideas of how to structure efficient and profitable electronic publishing sites. 

1)"Digital designers must enrich the content appropriately, let the market guide the design, know when to stop, not recreate paper in digital form, and provide appropriate products and utilities for their audiences."(13)

2) "Recognize your readers' limitations and design with them in mind. Of the general market, 80 per cent are using modems, though 60 per cent of our audience have daytime Ethernet access sometimes. At this point, then, we probably should avoid multimedia elements like video and sound"(16)
 
 
 "As for publishing : what future can I suggest? The publishing industry is subject to these forces of discontinuous change as much as, if not more than, libraries and librarianship. Publishers, too, will continue to exist in all kinds of ways: I do not see popular magazines, for example, turning into World Wide Web pages (except for marketing purposes); I do not see the disappearance of fiction or its total transformation into multimedia games. However, scholarly publishing is going to be electronic--of that I have no doubt--it is merely a question of time." (Wilson 199)

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