Electronic journals in the fields of Social Sciences and Humanities

Abstract

This article reviews the electronic journals published through Inter net on the fields of Social Sciences and Humanities. With the aim of making a comparative analysis, two samples, one of global character (250 titles) and another national (50 titles) have been selected. The United States leads the electronic editing in these disciplines, reaching 71 % of the analysed titles, whereas English is the most used language (97.5 % of the sample). There is no predominance of thematic areas, except for the case of Arts and Literature (32 % in Spanish sample and 27 % in the rest of the world). The main publishing agent is the University (75 % of the published titles). The formal quality is high due to the existence of publishing committees and evaluation process by peers in 62 % of the Spanish cases and 78 % of those of the rest of the world. The percentage of journals with both types of edition (paper and electronic) is lower in the Spanish case (44 %) as opposed to the world wide situation (63 %). Economic reasons could explain this difference.