Editorial

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This issue signals the end of volume six of Information Research and I imagine the fact that we have survived and prospered over this period is a matter for disbelief in some quarters! However, Information Research has shown itself to be truly international in readership and in the origins of the contributing authors. In this issue we have three papers from three different countries - France, Israel, and the U.K. - is it chance, I wonder, that means that all three are by women?

The issue also illustrates the hazards of journal publication. In the last issue I reported that the planned special issue on copyright in the digital age was postponed from April to July, now I have to report that all of the authors but one who promised copy have failed to deliver, which is a message to the editor(s) of any future special issue that the pressure must be kept up on those who commit themselves to submitting papers. The one author to deliver was Debbie Rabina of Bar Ilan University, Israel - thank you Debbie

However, we intend to continue the 'special issue' series, with issues on environmental scanning, the nature of electronic communities, and a critical perspective on 'knowledge management' in future issues.

The three papers we have deal with diverse topics: Emmanuelle Vaast of the Ecole Polytechnique in Paris, presents a report on case study research into the implementation of intranets in French companies. She observes that there is little in the way of serious academic research in this area and, consequently, her contribution is valuable in showing how intranets develop over time and how they respond to organizational change.

Debbie Rabina explores the problems associated with copyright law in Israel in the particular circumstance of a legal system operating, for historical reasons, on the basis of English common law, and only slowly responding to the fact of electronic publication. She concludes that the Israeli government has been slow to act against piracy, partly as a consequence of an outdated legal system, but partly because Israel felt secure against any international criticism of its position.

Finally, in a study that combines desk research and a small survey, Leah Halliday of Loughborough University explores 'Scholarly communication, scholarly publication and the status of emerging formats.' Leah presents a useful analysis and a set of criteria for determining how far a given mode of publication satisfies the requirements of the scholarly communication process. These criteria fall into three sets, based on trustworthiness, publicity, and accessibility. I hope the Information Research satisfies all of these!

This issue's contents list carries the subheading 'Historical' Documents (well, as my colleague David Streatfield said, when I told him about this, 'If the Harvard Business Review can do it, why not you?). This feature was prompted by being asked for one of my old papers, which I have already begun to put on my personal site. Having been asked for others from time to time, and no longer having offprints, I thought it would be useful to the community at large, to publicise these papers in this way. Suggestions for additions are welcome.

We also have a significant number of reviews in this issue. Most of them relate to books about various aspects of Web site creation, including a couple on the key issue of Web usability. I'm hoping to implement some changes to the design of Information Research in the next volume and have begun with the essay reviews. Let me know if you think usability is affected either positively or negatively.

I also thought it might be interesting to look at the papers in the past few issues that have had most 'hits'. Here they are:

• Vol. 5 No. 1 - Gender and learning attitudes in using Web-based science lessons, by Siew Chee Leong and Suliman Al-Hawamdeh, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore - 2447 hits
• Vol. 5 No. 2 - Textual and chemical information processing: different domains but similar algorithms, by Peter Willett, Department of Information Studies, University of Sheffield, UK. - 2704 hits
• Vol. 5 No. 3 - Recent trends in user studies: action research and qualitative methods, T.D. Wilson, Department of Information Studies, University of Sheffield, Sheffield, UK - 5349 hits
• Vol. 5 No. 4 - Information exchange in virtual communities: a typology, by Gary Burnett, Florida State University, Tallahassee, Florida, USA - 2333 hits
• Vol. 6 No. 1 - Designing internet research assignments: building a framework for instructor collaboration., by David Ward and Sarah Reisinger, University of Illinois, USA - 5298 hits
• Vol. 6 No. 2 - Where is meaning when form is gone? Knowledge representation on the Web, by Terrence A. Brooks, University of Washington, Seattle, Washington, USA - 1229 hits
• Vol. 6 No. 3 - Determining organizational information needs: the Critical Success Factors approach, by Maija-Leena Huotari, University of Tampere, Finland and T.D. Wilson, University of Sheffield, U.K. - 761 hits

No doubt if the 'Matthew effect' is real, these will continue to attract hits.

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Information Research is designed, maintained and published by Professor Tom Wilson. Papers © the authors, 1995-2001; design and editorial content © T.D. Wilson, 1995-2001