INTRODUCTION

Abstract

In the autumn of 1987 Michael Ehringhaus and Bird Stasz of Syracuse University launched New horizons in adult education, probably the very first refereed scientific journal¹ to be published in electronic form (fig. 1.1). The first issue was sent over the Adult Education Network (AEDNET). The journal still exists today.² In March 1991 Ted Jennings of the University at Albany (State University of New York) launched EJournal,³ described as an ‘electronic journal concerned with the implications of electronic networks and texts’ (fig. 1.2), coining the now popular term e-journal. The Online journal of current clinical trials, published from September 1991, has been described as the first peer reviewed electronic journal in medicine.^{4 5}