addition we are able to incorporate graphic images, sound, and "live" links to cited documents. As noted earlier, some have started to experiment with the potentials of this new media and the results are encouraging (Cuneo, 1995). PermanenceDespite these welcome advances, there are still a number of problems associated with academic publication on the Internet. These include the permanence, accessibility and credibility (Harrison et. al, 1991) of the publication. In terms of permanence, it is vital that both contributors and readers of electronic publications have the assurance of long term, uninterrupted access. In the past this assurance has been problematic for a number of reasons. In the first place, electronic publication is new and, especially two or more years ago, there was simply no assurance that a new publication would survive very long. In the second place, changes in hardware or server configuration, or institutional moves can change the electronic address of the publication. We at the EJS have experienced this latter difficulty as our computing services department struggles to keep up with an explosive growth in the demand for internet services. This increased demand has necessitated changes in computer operating systems (necessitating changes in the software used to serve HTML documents) and changes in server addresses (as new servers are added to the local area network). The result is temporary downtime and/or reader frustration as there old address no longer functions. As electronic publication matures, and as specific journals demonstrate their staying power, permanence becomes less of an issue. Even institutional changes are no longer significant obstacles to the perceived permanence of the journal. It is now a simple matter to locate publications by drawing on any one of a number of sophisticated global search engines. [14] In addition, libraries [15] may choose to acquire complete archives of the HTML files and ser...
