An operating system on a source computer system includes a filtered remote journal mechanism that generates a target map of a remote journal to specify where in the remote journal entries will be stored, then generates a vector array that represents the data of interest in the database journal based on specified selection criteria and the target map. The vector array and location information from the target map is then sent to a communication manager, which sends the data indicated in the vector array to the target computer system. On the target computer system, the communication manager reads the data sent from the source computer system and writes the data to the remote journal. The filtered remote journal mechanism may operate on an existing database journal, or may operate iteratively as journal entries are written on the source computer system.