Image and figure quality: A study of Elsevier's Earth and Planetary Sciences electronic journal back file package

After purchasing Elsevier's Earth and Planetary Sciences electronic journal back file package, problems with image and figure quality in articles became evident. Personnel at Elsevier verbally committed to rescanning any issues having at least one image or figure of unacceptable quality, if staff at University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign would identify the problem issues. A study of 35 titles in the Earth and Planetary Sciences back file package revealed that, of the 6038 issues published before digital format was available, 73.6% had at least one image with unacceptable quality. The implications of poor image quality in electronic journals should be considered when libraries are deciding whether to discard print copies. Publishers and librarians should work together to ensure that print journals converted to digital format are of acceptable quality.