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The article reflects on the significance of medical journals published through traditional printing. It emphasizes that the paper journal will never become obsolete. It enumerates the advantages of the paper journal over those published in electronic form. It notes the usefulness of the paper journal as a knowledge archive.

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]

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]

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]

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]

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]

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]

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]

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]

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]

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]

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]

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]

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]

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 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.

An editorial is presented, in which the author discusses various changes to be adopted by the periodical. It mentions African Journal of Ecology encourages authors to share the data and other artifacts supporting the results in the paper by archiving it in an appropriate public repository. it also mentions plan of changing print publication to digital publishing.

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]

The editorial comments on the evolution of the journal and the changes it has undergone as a result of electronic publishing and the popularity of field journals. The production of the journal will be handled online, enabling electronic submissions and faster access to papers. Blackwell Author Services helps authors keep track of the status of their submissions. The editorial changes ensure the uniqueness of the journal and high readership.

This article presents the authors' views on the contributions made by researchers for the December 1, 2004 issue of the journal "Fatigue & Fracture of Engineering Materials & Structures." Professor Mike Brown stepped down from the editorial team and Professor Eann Patterson moving from the University of Sheffield to Michigan State University. The authors thanked Brown for the substantial amount of time and effort that he contributed to the Journal during his period as an editor. Next issue will see the introduction of further improvements, including electronic submission and processing of manuscripts. Whilst the traditional paper submission and processing will remain available for some time, it is anticipated that electronic processing will provide a convenient service for the authors and reviewers.

In this article, the author offers information related to digital publishing of the periodical that make periodical's published papers of available on-line. Topics discussed include virtual special issues of the periodical, philosophical methods in bioethics and online availability of the periodical's regular and virtual special issues.

The authors discusses the changes for 2007 in the journal "Skin Research and Technology." They reveal that the journal have experienced a significant increase in submission of quality papers. The periodical will introduce Online Early publication of manuscripts, and online submission and review system in order to help further shortening the time period from submission to publication. They also decided to change the layout of cover.