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It is now widely accepted that there are two routes to open access (OA): OA repositories and OA journals. It is often assumed these are distinct alternative parallel tracks. However, it has recently become clear that there is potential for repositories and journals to interact with each other on an ongoing basis and between them to form a coherent OA scholarly communication system. This paper puts forward three possible models of interaction between repositories and journals; services such as arXiv and PubMed Central, and the work carried out by the RIOJA project, are working exemplars and pilot implementations of these models. The key issues associated with the widespread adoption of these models include repository infrastructure development; changing ideas of the 'journal', 'article', and 'publication'; version management; quality assurance; business and funding models; developing value-added features; content preservation; policy frameworks; and changing roles and cultures within the research community. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In May 2006, the Institution of Chemical Engineers (IChemE) launched its first exclusively online journal, Education for Chemical Engineers (http://www.icheme.org/ece). The author describes the editorial and marketing strategy behind the successful launch of the new title and the challenges facing a publisher when launching an 'online-only' title. The article discusses how IChemE's established presence in the chemical engineering community benefited the new journal's launch and concludes with a list of key points to remember when launching a new product – with particular relevance to online titles. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Are the e-prints (electronic preprints) from the arXiv repository being used instead of journal articles? We show that the e-prints have not undermined the usage of journal papers from the four core journals in astrophysics. As soon as the journal article is published, the astronomical community prefers to read it and the use of e-prints through the NASA Astrophysics Data System drops to zero. This suggests that most astronomers have access to institutional subscriptions and that they choose to read the journal article. In other words, the e-prints have not undermined journal use in this community and thus currently do not pose a financial threat to publishers. Furthermore, we show that the half-life (the point at which the use of an article drops to half the use of a newly published article) for an e-print is shorter than for a journal paper. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Mark Twain Project Online (MTPO) was launched in October 2007 and, in this first phase, digitally published several thousand of Twain's letters, almost 100 facsimiles of original documents, and over 28,000 records of other correspondence. The partners involved in the building of MTPO – the Mark Twain Papers, the California Digital Library, and University of California Press – created the site on the premise that Web-accessible versions of this content, enhanced by innovative design and site architecture and a suite of research tools, would greatly improve scholars' ability to discover and work with this unique material. Anecdotal feedback supports this premise. Early data analysis confirms the usefulness of facsimiles and browsing functionality. Users tend to prefer simple keyword over complex searches; however, those conducting advanced searches are using the tool flexibly, as we had hoped. Further analysis is expected to improve our understanding of how researchers use these tools in combination. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Key pointsInstructions to authors about submitting papers for publication vary hugely – from none at all to whole handbooks.Online submission systems have not reduced the complexity of submission and may have increased the work of authors.Electronic submission processes do not appear to have been adequately ‘road tested’ with authors.Some publishers are introducing more flexible submission rules that may help authors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Digital publishing enables new features beyond simple electronic availability and searching. One of these can be helping readers understand articles that are not in their native language by providing word extraction services using natural language processing on publishers' platforms. This would help in both electronic and paper formats. This paper analyzes the feasibility of vocabulary extraction and gives corresponding extraction strategies for 'normal' words as well as technical terms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The author offers insights on the decline of paper-based or physical scholarly publishing. He relates his own career which began in the print-on-paper publishing industry, the transformation into a digital publishing environment and the loss of societies' market share to commercial publishers before digitization.

This paper provides the results of a two-year investigation into the use of e-journals by the UK research community. Log analysis, questionnaires, interviews, and observation were used to collect the information. The results are presented in a FAQ format to make the key findings accessible. The main findings are that journals have become central to most disciplines, and that the e-form has become the prime means of access. The results for history suggest that the old scholarly communication mantras (scientists primarily communicate through articles, historians through monographs) are rapidly breaking down. Indeed, all researchers seem addicted to journal content. Research without this resource now seems unthinkable; journals are a researcher's lifeblood. Gateway services, hugely popular in science, are re-intermediating the broken chain between publisher and reader; they are the new librarians. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As e-books start to move from experimentation to expansion in certain sectors and regions of the world, this paper looks to take a fresh approach to the conundrum of aggregator choice. Is the aggregator route the right decision for all types of publisher? What should publishers be looking for in an aggregation partner? What should be expected or requested both in terms of basic provision as well as value-added services. And what will the aggregators expect from their publishing partners? With an emphasis on practical suggestions and tips on how all parties can get the most out of the relationship, this paper explores how things are changing as digital moves to front of stage. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Even in today's intensively hyperlinked environment, full bibliographic citations continue to serve the important functions of attribution, accountability, and conversation that are at the heart of scholarly publishing. However, the long-running tradition of citation documentation is being increasingly eroded and challenged by new Web technologies and practices. This paper discusses the implications of scholarly publishing reference practices in the rapidly evolving medium of the Web. A model for greater separation of author-documented citations and user-centric linking is proposed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyses 231 Croatian journals available on the national online platform, the Hrčak portal. To qualify for analysis journals had to be peer reviewed and to have published at least one issue in 2012. Some differences from the results of previous studies were noted. More journals are internationally oriented and the number of times they are accessed apparently depends on their scientific field. Publishers are still mostly not-for-profit but are more likely now to apply article processing/publication charges. This is new for Croatia and raises questions about the potential influence of this trend on the availability and visibility of scientific results. The results are relevant not only to Croatia but may also be representative of other countries at the 'periphery'. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the characteristics of 462 open access (OA) journals being published in India under the green, gold and hybrid models. The sample of journals was selected from DOAJ, IndianJournal.com and Open J-Gate. Journal characteristics were measured in terms of growth, subjects, publishers, and citations under each model. While characteristics such as growth, subject, and publisher have been identified by exploring the journal's website only, the citation count of these journals has been calculated by using Google Scholar and the Indian Citation Index. The gold road is now the most popular form of OA publishing in the subcontinent. There is a great variation in the size of OA journals and in their publishers. One publisher has more than 77 journals, but 264 publishers publish a single journal only. Overall, the OA journal landscape is greatly influenced by a few key publishers and journals. While 43% of journals charge publication fees and the fees vary from as low as US$10 to as high as US$400, the highest impact factor of the gold OA journals has been noted as 0.58. The data presented here suggest that publication fees are not a major barrier to authorship within the fields of computer science, pharmacy, and medicine. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Research and scholarly publication are global endeavors, and English-language journals are receiving more and more manuscript submissions from international authors. A better understanding of the challenges faced by researchers who are not native English speakers will enable journal publishers to improve the process of submission for all authors, ensuring that the best papers are published in an efficient manner. We surveyed a sample of international researchers to determine what they perceived as challenges inherent to submission to English-language journals and found that they desire assistance with manuscript formatting and responding to reviewers, as well as clear policies about pre-submission inquiries and conflicts of interest. Taking into account these survey results and the experience our company has with international authors, we suggest several small changes to a journal's website, including clearer English and prominent links to select policies and guidelines, that may greatly simplify the submission process for second language authors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper reports on a study - overseen by representatives of the publishing, library, and research funder communities in the UK - investigating the drivers, costs, and benefits of potential ways to increase access to scholarly journals. It identifies five different but realistic scenarios for moving towards that end over the next five years, including gold and green open access, moves towards national licensing, publisher-led delayed open access, and transactional models. It then compares and evaluates the benefits as well as the costs and risks for the UK. The scenarios, and the modelling on which they are based, amount to a benefit-cost analysis to help in appraising policy options. Our conclusion is that policymakers should encourage the use of existing subject and institutional repositories, but avoid pushing for reductions in embargo periods, which might put at risk the sustainability of the underlying scholarly publishing system. They should also promote and facilitate a transition to gold open access, while seeking to ensure that the average level of publication fees does not exceed c.?2.000; that the rate in the UK of open access publication is broadly in step with the rest of the world; and that total payments to publishers from UK universities do not rise as a consequence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Data are becoming an essential product of scholarship, complementing the roles of journal articles, papers, and books. Research data can be reused to ask new questions, to replicate studies, and to verify research findings. Data become even more valuable when linked to publications and other related resources to form a value chain. Types and uses of data vary widely between disciplines, as do the online availability of publications and the incentives of scholars to publish their data. Publishers, scholars, and librarians each have roles to play in constructing a new scholarly information infrastructure for e-research. Technical, policy, and institutional components are maturing; the next steps are to integrate them into a coherent whole. Achieving a critical mass of datasets in public repositories, with links to and from publisher databases, is the most promising solution to maintaining and sustaining the scholarly record in digital form. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Internet and the rise of e-Science alter the conditions for scholarly communication. In signing declarations against open access mandates, society publishers indicate that they feel most threatened by the emergence of institutional repositories and the self-archiving mandates that these make possible. More attention should be paid to the impact of e-Science, the rise of Internet-based guild publishers, and the entrance of players from the new economy. Society journals should stop aspiring to such functions as registration and archiving and should shed electronic dissemination, while enhancing certification and investing in (new) navigation services. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

University presses were founded in the late 19th century to help alleviate a problem of market failure, namely insufficient demand in the commercial marketplace to sustain a publishing operation on the basis of sales alone. Now, in the face of claims about another type of market failure - insufficient funds to sustain library subscriptions to STM journals - calls have come forth to change the economic model of publishing from sales-based to grants-based, offering the fruits of knowledge free to all users with an Internet connection. This paper examines both the challenges and the opportunities that the variants of 'open access' present to university presses, as they seek to fulfill their traditional mission of disseminating knowledge 'far and wide' while remaining sustainable as businesses. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents the results of a major investigation by questionnaire of author attitudes towards scholarly publishing, which was funded by the Publisher's Association. Altogether, the views of nearly 4,000 authors were obtained and this paper concerns just those thousand or so authors who accepted the invitation to write freely about their own personal feelings and experiences. Using QSR N6 textual analysis software, their comments were processed and themes extracted. While the rest of the questionnaire, which was formed of closed-question, tick-box type questions, clearly must have had some impact on their thinking, the authors had considerable latitude in regard to what they could say. The paper provides a unique opportunity to hear their views directly. The pressing topics turned out to be (in rough order of concern): the peer-review system, copyright, journal prices, alternative business models for journal publishing, big deals, Elsevier, electronic publishing and digital journals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The long-established peer-review practices in scholarly journals have remained largely unchanged by the introduction of the Internet. Nevertheless, critique of the shortcomings of current practices (bias, slowness, etc.) have led to many publishers and journals experimenting with novel ways of performing and organizing peer review, enabled by e-publishing and new revenue models. This article proposes a taxonomy of such innovations and discusses a number of cases where, for instance, the assignment of reviewers is handled differently from current best practice. New models, which seem particularly attractive to manuscript authors, are acceptance of any scientifically valid articles as practiced in 'megajournals'. and increased transparency about how the peer-review process in a particular journal works. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The landscape of scholarly communication is complicated by multiple versions of the same documents, available from different sources. What happens if changes need to be made to published documents when scholars tap so many sources? How can important changes be communicated to readers so that they do not rely on outdated or, worse, repudiated research? This article explores the issues and describes the CrossMark service as a possible solution. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent years academic journal publishers have explored a variety of new business models. The Berkeley Electronic Press (bepress), founded by professors in 1999, now publishes 39 electronic-only journals. bepress's own model rests on three principles: improve, but do not break, the traditional journal; allow non-subscribers to read articles as guests; and offer reasonable and sustainable prices to libraries. This model has resulted in steady growth. Even in the shifting landscape of open access, there remains a place for professional journal publishers who offer innovative improvements, traditionally qualified content, and reasonable prices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Based on the 1,608 journals covered by the Chinese Science & Technology Journal Citation Reports (2005 edition), we analyzed the open access (OA) publishing situation of Chinese scientific journals. From this database we identified 91 journals offering full OA; a further 139 journals offered delayed OA. Data collected at three different time points (January 2006, July 2006, and January 2007) showed that the OA status of these journals is not stable; some OA journals subsequently became non-OA. Most of the Chinese OA journals are not part of a larger aggregation, but are published independently. Relatively more OA journals are published in the fields of medicine and biology. Citation indicators of OA journals were found to be higher than those of non-OA journals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The role of the Digital Object Identifier in allowing users to access required information with the minimum of effort and then to link to other relevant information is discussed. Its application to a commercial service at a high level of granularity, www.BlackwellSynergy.com, the online journal website of Blackwell Publishing Ltd, is described. The paper covers services for the user such as deep linking and discovery, services for the publisher such as viral marketing tools as well as a definition of an information object, and a possible future for the DOI. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Five factors are shaping the STM publishing industry: the shift from a supply-driven to a user-driven industry; conversion of paper-based products to an all electronic environment; commoditization of online publishing technology; consolidation; and saturation of the traditional buyer market. Opportunities exist for publishers who can leverage their traditional content assets into new products that help specifically defined user-groups accelerate and enhance the value creation process in vertical industry sectors. Research conducted with one group of researchers within one group of functions in one given industry describes the results of such an approach. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines changing research practices in the digital environment. A review of the literature and our own field research in Australia suggest that there is a new mode of knowledge production emerging, changing research practices and bringing new information access and dissemination needs. Adjustments will be required to accommodate these changes, but new opportunities are emerging for more cost-effective and sustainable information access and dissemination. It will be necessary, however, to take an holistic approach and treat the creation, production and distribution of scholarly information, the management of information rights and access, systems of review and evaluation and the underlying infrastructure as parts of a single research information and scholarly communication system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the relevance of style guides and specifications in restructuring submitted manuscripts for publication. The author believes that the difficulty at finding any ergonic justification for selecting among recommended style has affirmed the necessity of reorienting copy-editing on making the text simple, lucid and euphonious. Problems in styling also occur in electronic books, web pages and audiobooks.

Key points Current publishing restrictions cause duplicated – and wasted – effort to delivery of accessible information to students. Universities have a legal obligation to provide access, but this is not required from publishers. Initiatives to support access are helpful, but do not completely resolve the accessibility problems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Key points Policy, top–down support, educational working groups, customer data, and a central accessibility team have helped mature web accessibility at Elsevier ScienceDirect. Collaboration groups are essential for gathering feedback from users with disabilities and experts in the field. Many of the lessons learned from the first accessibility user study in 2001 are still relevant today. Alt text for figures is a challenge for publishers, and using authors or machine learning to provide text descriptions may be a solution. Accessibility is not an achievement to be won and done but a culture paradigm that integrates inclusive design into the very early phases of a product. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Metrics on open access ( OA) availability of content published in scholarly journals (i.e. content licences, copyright ownership, and publisher-stipulated self-archiving permissions) are still scarce. This study implements the four core variables of the recently published Open Access Spectrum ( OAS) (reader rights, reuse rights, copyright, and author posting rights) to measure the level of openness in all 1,728 Spanish scholarly journals listed in the Spanish national DULCINEA database at the end of 2015. Data exported from the database and used as variables for the analysis were: journal research area, type of publisher, type of access, self-archiving and reuse policy, and type of Creative Commons ( CC) licence used. Out of the total number of journals (1,728), 1,285 (74.5%) published their articles OA immediately after initial publication and thus received the maximum OAS score for reader rights; 37.5% of all journals used CC licences, and 79.5% allowed self-archiving in some form. In 72% of journals, authors retained or publishers granted broad rights, which included author reuse and authorization rights (for others to reuse), whilst 13.5% did not specify any terms for copyright transfer. Similar studies could be carried out on other countries as this would enable comparisons of the general adoption and form of openness in different parts of the world. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The author addresses the use of copy-editing in electronic publishing. He considers the ongoing debate over open access (OA). He recounts his first entry into the scholarly publishing industry. He claims that electronic prepress and electronic publishing have removed the need for many spell and grammar checks.

The Korean Federation of Science and Technology Societies has provided funds to support scientific journals published in Korea. In 2012, it adopted an evaluation tool to assist journals in improving their style and format to meet international standards. This study analysed reliability and fitness of this tool. The 34 evaluation items were tested for goodness of fit, and item analysis was performed for 540 journals based on classical test theory, the Rasch model, and a two-parameter logistic model. The tool was found to be reliable, with a Cronbach's alpha value of 0.94. Based on the goodness of fit test, the outfit mean square was over 2.0 (i.e. outlier) for the following four items: participation in editor training courses, turnover in editors in the most recent 10 years, publishing at least 40 articles annually, and online accessibility. Three items were found to be the most difficult to be fulfilled: participation in editor training courses, description of the length of time the journal has been publishing, and full-text XML. Above results indicated that this tool was acceptable for measuring the parameters assessed by the items. We concluded that this accreditation system was valid for evaluating a journal's adherence to international publishing standards. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examines the predicting power of content and non-content article attributes and of total online usage on short-term citations of subscription-based journal articles. It examines articles published in Journalism and Mass Communication Quarterly ( JMCQ) between 2012 and 2014. The results indicate that the total online usage (full article and abstract page views and article downloads) can be a very strong predictor for citations and can even wipe out the effects of hot topics. Mobile and social media are the media of study most cited in the articles studied. There is no identifiable gender citation gap as authors of both genders equally enjoy their share in the top 10 most cited list. The only gender-related finding is that female authors dominate gender-related topics. We conclude that journal publishers wishing to obtain a quick proxy measure of citation potential for journal articles should consult their total online usage. Furthermore, due to the prevalent bias on topics regarding citation frequency, administrators and librarians are highly advised to take topics into consideration when determining scholars' citation performance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Key points: Traditionally, open access (OA) has been growing via two routes: full OA journals (gold) and open self‐archiving of manuscripts (green).Gold OA is dominated by new OA publishers (charging APCs) and society/university journals that do not.Major commercial and society publishers are increasingly moving into the APC‐funded OA market.The proliferation of big national or consortium‐level e‐licences bundling subscription and APCs for hybrid OA may lead to large‐scale flipping of journals to OA.Authors appear to be choosing social networks over repositories for ‘green’ OA sharing of articles. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In 2014 we undertook a survey on the shifts in scholarly publishing in connection with the introduction of open access journals. The editors of more than half of the journals published in the Czech Republic participated in the first part of the study. An extensive questionnaire survey that addressed about 600 editorial boards of specialized journals was performed. We found the majority of journals to be published by smaller and non-traditional publishers. One of the most remarkable results was the finding that if we focus on economic models and peer-review models, open access journals do not differ considerably from other journals. Rather than according to the mode of access, much more significant differences may be observed between different types of publishers and between individual fields. It seems that on a local level the expectations associated with open access have not been fulfilled and the difference between subscription-based journals and open access journals is not so sharp. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the launching of the "British Medical Journal" (BMJ) website in 195 to help foster a culture of digital innovation at BMJ that continues across its flagship title, 55 specialty journals and decision support tools. Topics discussed include the lessons that have been learned in 20 years of its existence such as the need to be flexible in the delivery formats and the need of an online strategy for human resources to be successful.

The author criticizes the lack of standards in publishing electronic book (e-book) formats. He notes that Amazon, considered as the largest e-book reseller, has failed to adopt either version 2.1 or version 3.0 of the existing standard called EPUB. Other factors he cites in this lack of a unified guidelines in e-book publishing are the chaos caused by the introduction of version 3.0, the use of the KF8 file format in Amazon's Kindle Fire 8 e-book reader, the complexity of the EPUB 3 standard, and the changes to this standard by oter vendors. There is also a problem with digital file conversion.

The article discusses the history of the organization Association of Learned and Professional Society Publishers (ALPSP). Topics include the associations within the ALPSP, the aims of the organization, and the history of scholarly publishing. Also addressed are the history of the periodical "Learned Publishing," newsletters and social media outlets associated with the ALPSP, and the changes brought by electronic publishing. The ALPSP is compared to its European counterparts Publishers Association (PA) and International Association of Scientific, Technical, and Medical Publishers (STM).

Open Access policy implementation is a tough job. Policy pioneers have faced considerable challenges in meeting their own aims and achieving recognized success. Professionals charged with implementing policy typically need several years to accomplish significant progress. This is a study of first results from a small but significant number of cases with an emphasis on variety and on defining a methodological standard. All cases have been reconstructed through documents and interviews. The most salient issues of policy implementation are investigated comparatively, namely (i) the matching infrastructure that a policy requires; (ii) the issue of capturing content and scholarly compliance; (iii) how to provide access to the content and foster usage; (iv) and the benefits offered to authors. As the author is pivotal to any open access solution, this provides a comparative perspective for delineating a policy research agenda. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Current approaches to publishing scholarly work are falling behind the growing demands of modern readers, who need easy access to the underlying data, as well as the ability to consume content on an ever-growing variety of electronic devices. The pros and cons of the various formats for representing the scholarly article are hotly contested, but as yet these debates have had little tangible impact on the publishing world where, in spite of its apparent limitations, the PDF remains the dominant form of distribution. We discuss fundamental philosophical differences between a scholarly work and its representation, and describe Utopia Documents, which realizes those differences in software, aiming to resolve many of the current issues in this area. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Until recently, Croatian scientific journals were accessible only in print form and only to a relatively small audience. A national online journals platform was therefore planned to offer publishers a simple tool for building online versions of their journals and to make them open access. The platform, named Hrčak, was launched in 2006, supported by governmental funds. It currently includes 170 open access (OA) journals. Most journals include backfiles from 2006 onwards; the average archived period is 6.3 years. 56.5% of the journals come from the fields of social sciences and humanities. Metadata from the Hrčak platform are regularly harvested by OA repositories. To increase the number of Croatian journals covered by relevant bibliographic and full-text databases, Hrčak has forged links with Elsevier, Thomson Reuters and EBSCO. So far, the main achievements include assisting publishers in the process of electronic publishing, and improving accessibility to Croatian scientific output. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There has been a clear upward trend over the past 50 years in traditional listed print subscription prices. The more recent trend towards electronic publishing has made possible new ways of charging for journals, such as differential pricing structures and bundling of journals which are purchased through license fees/charges (both of which enable libraries to buy significantly more journals, but at the same time make it more difficult to analyze prices). We are now also seeing a new emphasis on the 'author-side payment' model. This article analyzes pricing and charging policies and trends, illustrating how these are affected by the complexities of the evolving journal system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Has the challenge of unauthorized digital reproduction and distribution of copyright works been met by the use of so-called 'digital rights management' (DRM) technology - and what role will DRM play in publishing, including scholarly journal and learned publishing? This article explores the legal and commercial issues surrounding DRM from its analogue origins through to the latest market developments. It argues that the implementation of DRM in other media sectors provides valuable lessons to publishers. Acknowledging the practical challenges that DRM has faced, the article suggests that whilst DRM will offer an answer to 'the machine', it must form part of a flexible solution that adapts to the requirements of electronic publishing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The library of the Université libre de Bruxelles and Editions de l'Université de Bruxelles (EUB), the University's publishing imprint, have recently agreed to collaborate to provide free online access to recent out-of-print books published by EUB. The e-books are available on the Digithèque website, a collection of digital copies of printed books created by the library. This initiative is valuable for the scientific community and the general public who can freely access the books online, for the authors whose books have been digitized and widely disseminated, and for the publisher whose collections become more visible on the Internet, thereby generating more traffic on its website and potentially increasing sales of its other books. Around 20 books have been made available online so far. This article describes the context of the agreement, how the collaboration operates, the options of file conversion vs. book scanning, issues relating to copyright and users' rights, how access is provided to the digital copies, and future collaborative projects of the library and EUB. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In early 2006, information industry association UKSG commissioned a research report 'to identify the new relationships and information exchange requirements... [necessary] to maximize the benefit of OpenURL linking'. Central to the efficient operation of the OpenURL is the knowledge base, which consists of data supplied by content providers including publishers. The report found that a lack of awareness on the part of many publishers of the OpenURL's capabilities and requirements is impacting the quality and timeliness of the data they provide to populate knowledge bases, and thus undermining the potential of this sophisticated technology. A programme of education and advocacy, particularly among smaller publishers, will be key to improving the efficacy with which OpenURL is currently implemented. The study's findings and suggestions will be taken forward by the KBART (Knowledge Bases And Related Tools) working group co-chaired by UKSG and NISO; this article reviews the initial report and summarizes the planned remit and expected outcomes of the working group. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Web technologies have given publishers and researchers alike opportunities to interact in new ways. These have had an impact on business models, the value of formal and informal communication, and the role of publishers in the networked community. This article looks at some recent examples which are likely to set precedents for the future of publishing technologies. In particular, it focuses on the evolution of Web searching, the growing importance of online communities, the potential of Web tools for self-publishing, and the way in which publishers can control their content even post-publication. It also suggests that the recent rash of e-book readers is unlikely to be of importance to scholarly publishing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

'Innovation' is one of those words, like 'challenge', which inspires different reactions in different people. Depending on one's background or job sector, it can either represent an exciting opportunity or a resource-draining waste of time. Yet innovate we must, to satisfy our markets' increasing expectations, especially in the online environment. Some brand leaders have separate 'laboratories' where new features and ideas are developed and floated for feedback. In the absence of such a dedicated space, there are several issues relating to innovation within a publishing organization. This article looks at how these are handled at Wiley–Blackwell in the Compass journals team, and tries to distil some working principles. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article presents an overview of open access publishing and open access archiving in France. In natural sciences, most articles are published in international journals; authors must therefore comply with the policies of their publishers, irrespective of their nationality. For humanities and social sciences, where publication tends to be distributed among many small journals, portals have been created to provide electronic publishing, with varied access policies. Open archives repositories have been in existence in France since 2001; from 2006, a proactive policy led the main research agencies and universities to coordinate their actions towards a common archiving platform, HAL (Hyper Articles on Line), operated by CNRS (Centre National pour la Recherche Scientifique), with individual portals, either thematic or institutional. HAL stores now the majority of open access records – presently some 10–15% of French output – and is growing almost exponentially. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Oxford University Press moved one of its most prestigious journals, Nucleic Acids Research (NAR), to a full open access (OA), author-pays publishing model in January 2005. A deep log analysis study was carried out in order to determine the impact of this move to OA on the use and users of the journal. Surprisingly the findings showed that although there was a 143% increase in use from early 2003 to January 2005, it was search engines and robots that accounted for a high proportion of the increased use. Robots were responsible for half of sessions in the second quarter of 2005, compared to 1% in the second quarter of 2003. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In a time when university presses are struggling to survive and most require financial support from their parent institutions, RMIT Publishing--an electronic publisher from its inception in 1989--has grown its annual sales from AU$2.8m in 2003 to an expected AU$6m in 2007. This 100% sales growth in five years has been achieved by RMIT Publishing's unique, context-driven approach to electronic publishing. This approach has made RMIT Publishing the publisher of choice for Australian databases, aggregated scholarly content for the global market and now 'born-digital' publications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Based upon the CIBER surveys of the behaviour of scholars using research journals online the authors propose a market structure for the publication of research in which payments would be made at the article level by individual users - using credits supplied by their institutions or research funders - broadly along the lines of the iTunes model. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]