Impacts of the information technology on electronic scholarly publishing

Abstract

This paper is a result of an academic research. A study that identifies and tracks the impacts caused by Information Technology (IT) to routines and abilities of production and use of scientific publication, on a community of Science and Technology (C&T). It is also related to technical literature productivity, as well as, institutional visibility. This research has been developed through a case study. An self-administrated electronic questionnaire and semi-structured interviews had been used for data field collection. The e-mail was elected as the main medium of communication with the participants. Therefore, the “electronic reply behaviour” was also object of investigation. The conclusions indicate that the community assumed and legitimised the electronic communication mediated by computers. They perceive IT as a differential of autonomy, optimisation of processes, time saving and a mean of institutional visibility. Significant alterations had been identified in internal and external communication flows. They were also observed on relationships among invisible colleges and peers, on the increase of the real work produced and on productivity. The scientific community recognises the benefits of remote access to bibliographical databases and to digital full texts.