The STM Report: An overview of scientific and scholarly journal publishing

"STM publishing takes place within the broader system of scholarly communication...(which) plays different roles at different stages of the research cycle.and...is undergoing technology driven change...Journals form a core part of the process of scholarly communication and are an integral part of scholarly research...(they) provide a mechanism for the registration of the author's precedence; maintain quality through peer review; and provide a fixed archival version for future reference..."