HEFCE Circular RAE96 1/94 para 25c states:
In the light of the recommendations of the Joint Funding
Councils' Libraries Review Group Report (published in
December 1993) refereed journal articles published through
electronic means will be treated on the same basis as those
appearing in printed journals.
This is the result of adopting the following recommendation in
Librev Chapter 7:
289. To help promote the status and acceptability of electronic
journals, the Review Group also recommends that the funding
councils should make it clear that refereed articles published
electronically will be accepted in the next Research Assessment
Exercise on the same basis as those appearing in printed
journals.