A study of graduate student end‐users’ use and perception of electronic journals

The growth and diversity of electronic journals (e‐journals) in the past five years has led many to predict the extinction of print journals and that a new paradigm is sweeping scholarship. Some others, however, believe that future electronic scholarly journals will be different from their print antecedents and fill a different niche, and will be necessary for the growth of knowledge. This paper considers the future of e‐journals in the light of the use and perception of graduate student end‐users, and their expectations of future e‐journals. Some results from a recent user study presenting significant implications for the design of future e‐journals are reported. The results show a significantly high acceptance of e‐journals by this category of users. Generally, e‐journals are expected to be different from print journals, with novel forms of functionality not possible in their print counterparts.