y publisher. This, and the reduction in the cost of publishing material, makes free scholarly communication and publication for extremely small and specialized audiences a distinct possibility. (50)As we noted earlier, most (if not all) of the value added work provided to journals is performed by the editor, board, and peer reviewers. Because these functions are traditionally provided free of charge to journals it is reasonable to expect that journals also be provided free of charge. Ginsparg (1994) provides us with the strongest statement.So the essential point is now self-evident: if we the researchers are not writing with the expectation of making money directly from our efforts, then there is no earthly reason why anyone else should make money in the process (except for a fair return on any non-trivial "value-added" they may provide; or except if, as was formerly the case in the paper-only era, the true costs of making our documents publicly available are sufficiently high to require that they be sold for a fee).Up until quite recently the only innovators have been private scholars conducting personal experiments into the potential of electronic publication. However as should be now apparent, there is a definite threat here to the hegemonic control exerted by traditional paper publishers over scholarly communication. And it has some of them worried. R.A. Shoaf, President of the Council of Elders of Learned Journals (CELJ) made the following comments at the CEJL panel at the MLA in Toronto in 1993. (Shoaf, 1994). If we consider the rather remarkable fact that the era of the PC (the personal computer) is barely fifteen years old today and look, in that light, at the revolution it has effected, then I think it is easy for us to predict that within the first few decades of the 21st century, even more revolutionary changes will occur at every level of our profession. There is, then, a sense in which all of us are already very far behind....
