There are a number of distinct advantages to Research Webs.  

• The exceptionally low cost of publication of materials on the WWW. 
• The increasingly high access to Web-based publication. 
• The speed of publication. 
• The speed of revision. 
• The speed of the entire research cycle. 
• The ability to greatly reduce redundancy. (The ability to build directly upon prior research rather than "re-invent the wheel" each time a new article is written.)
• The ability to have the literature directly bridge across artificial disciplinary boundaries. 
• The Research Webs sponsored by PSWEB-L and Poly-Cy are blind, peer-review publications. 
• The Web is not constrained by the typical journal article size, and thus ideas may be fully expounded and documented. 

There are also some objections to Web based publications which will need to be addressed.  

• Quality control through organizational sponsorship has not yet been established. 
• Proper credit for publication will be difficult to incorporate into the Promotion and Tenure process, and will only occur gradually. 
• While copyrighted, Web based publications are somewhat more open to infringement than print media. 
• The Web is not constrained by the typical journal article size, and thus ideas may be fully expounded without being adequately edited. 

bduval@wvu.edu   

ã Copyright 1997, Robert D. Duval