Can electronic publications be operated at much lower costs than printjournals, and still provide all the services that scholars require?That is the key question that is still in dispute. Available evidenceshows that free or at least much less expensive journals are possibleon the Net. It is probable that such journals will dominate in thearea of basic scholarly publishing. However, the transition is likelyto be complicated, since the publishing business is full of inertiaand perverse economic incentives.