Online Journal

An online journal is any kind of digital publication that is produced and distributed in a serial nature, often resembling a diary or blog.  Online journals are similar to their real world equivalents, although the nature of digital and Internet driven distribution does make them somewhat unique as well.  Online journals are also similar to blogs, however, they can be distinguished by a tighter degree of editorial control.  Online journals exist for a number of different topics, with some of the most popular subject matters including literary journals, news journals, and pop culture journals.  There are also business journals and dedicated scholarly journals that exist online, some of which are subscriber based or limited to members of a particular institution.  One growing sub group of online journals are the personal journals that relate to a particular individual, and are similar in many ways to blogs.

Journals can cover a wide variety of topics and discuss these topics in a number of different ways.  Online journals are especially useful as a way to provide a daily record of events and writings, as the nature of digital online information makes it easy to publish and edit writing in a continual and ongoing fashion.  Some online journals are published on a regular basis, while others are updated on a semi-regular or intermittent basis.  Specialised blog publishing applications such as Blogger, Joomla, and Wordpress can be use to publish online journals as well as blogs, and custom websites can also be created using traditional web design software.

Some online journals are related to specific online reports or news channels, and discuss events that come up through other digital or offline sources.  Others are review based in nature and discuss contemporary art and cultural events.  While the vast majority of online journals have a tight editorial policy, there are online equivalents to open access journals that allow submissions by a number of contributors and readers.  The Internet contains vast amounts of information on practically every subject matter under the sun, and online journals are the perfect way for people to get hold of specialised subject based information from a known source.   As more and more people begin to use the Internet as a way to receive information , online journals are only likely to become more popular and widespread in the future.