The paper describes a 3-year experimental programme organized jointly by the two universities as the Birmingham and Loughborough Electronic Network Development (BLEND). The aims are to assess the cost, efficiency and subjective impact of such a system, and to explore and evaluate alternative forms of user communication through an eletronic journal and information network. Using a host computer at Birmingham University, a community of initially about 50 scientists (Loughborough Information Network Community (LINC)) will be connnected through the public telephone network to explore various types of electronic journal. The concept of the electronic journal involves using a computer to aid the normal procedures whereby an article is written, refereed, accepted and ‘published’. The subject of this experimental programme will be ‘Computer Human Factors’. Each member will contribute at least one research article and one shorter note in each year of the project, and will also use other forms of communication such as newsletter, annotated abstracts, workshop conferences, co-operative authorship, etc. Throughout the project relevant data will be gathered to enable the assessment of system and user performance, cost, usefulness and acceptability † ∗ This paper has been referred, accepted and archived (in electronic form only) in the BL R&DD experimental electronic journal Computer Human Factors. View all notes .