Managing Information for Sparsely Distributed Articles and Readers: The
  Virtual Journals of the Joint Institute for Nuclear Astrophysics (JINA)
  The research area of nuclear astrophysics is characterized by a need for
information published in tens of journals in several fields and an extremely
dilute distribution of researchers. For these reasons it is difficult for
researchers, especially students, to be adequately informed of the relevant
published research. For example, the commonly employed journal club is
inefficient for a group consisting of a professor and his two students. In an
attempt to address this problem, we have developed a virtual journal (VJ), a
process for collecting and distributing a weekly compendium of articles of
interest to researchers in nuclear astrophysics. Subscribers are notified of
each VJ issue using an email-list server or an RSS feed. The VJ data base is
searchable by topics assigned by the editors, or by keywords. There are two
related VJs: the Virtual Journal of Nuclear Astrophysics (JINA VJ), and the
SEGUE Virtual Journal (SEGUE VJ). The JINA VJ also serves as a source of new
experimental and theoretical information for the JINA REACLIB reaction rate
database. References to review articles and popular level articles provide an
introduction to the literature for students. The VJs and support information
are available at http://groups.nscl.msu.edu/jina/journals
