The digital academic journal has marked a before and after in the history of scientific communication. In this article we review its origins main innovations, quantitative evolution, as well as aspects related to quality. Innovations are analyzed and divided in four scopes of action: readers, authors, publishers and libraries. The document compares the evolution in numbers of digital journals, worldwide and Ibero-American, and lists the main quality criteria used by databases, based on standards and good editorial practices applicable to current digital journals. An outline of perspectives on the future of the digital academic journal is presented, focused especially on the transformation of the current business model and the role that academic institutions should play. In the case of Latin America, we make a reference to the contradiction between the full adoption of open access and the position of regional scientific incentive systems by continuing to reward publication in high impact journals, most of which are closed access. Finally, the tendency to promote open science is mentioned as a strategy to encourage scientific communication based on collaborative work and data sharing
