The Evolving Electronic Journal
STM Intensive Journal Course
November 16, 2010
Ann Michael
Twitter: annmichael
In the beginning…
There was the print journal….
…and the print journal went online
At first print journals were
“poured” online
— Looked like print— Acted like print— Nothing all that new or revolutionary
…and the online journal evolved
Online journals started to differ from print
• Multimedia
• Search
• More web appropriate formats
• Interaction/community
• Data sets and visualization
Publishers also evolved
• They learned new languages
• They learned new tools
• To build relevant products they needed to understand the customer, the content, and the technology
But this wasn’t new, it was just different
What’s next for the journal?
There are many trends to watch.
Let’s focus on a few.
•Mobile: devices, apps, everything
•Semantic enrichment
•Social networking
…and the journal went mobile
Again, the first journal apps have been mostly mobile online journals
— Look like online (“optimized” for mobile*)— Act like online— Nothing all that new or revolutionary
*What does that mean?
From:GoogleTablet.net
Dell Inspiron Duo
http://www.gizmag.com/apples-ipad-catalysing-disruptive-change/16882/
Going mobile
• Apple sold 7.46M iPads in its first two quarters – THAT was considered disappointing by the analysts! (Reuters)
• “Gartner Says Mobility will be a Trillion Dollar Business by 2014” (Gartner.com)
• Consumer trends lead the way
Chris Anderson, Wired
Chris Anderson, Wired
• Anderson says Wired might move away from a website entirely
• Not as interactive as mobile apps
• Analytics aren’t as good – can track finger motions on iPad
• Is he right – we’ll see???
• But, it’s worth considering
http://www.wired.com/magazine/2010/08/ff_webrip/all/1
Impact of mobility
• Mobile is huge
• Mobile is here to stay
• But the real question is: What impact will mobility have on currently exhibited consumer behavior and needs?
Semantic enrichment
What does that even mean?
Semantic enrichment
Flexibility & Discoverability
• Context-based connections— “automatically connecting isolated
information silos”— Product development – repurpose content,
personalized collections— Other integration (workflow, marketing)
• Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
— Expose indexed metadata— Protect, yet make accessible
Why is semantic enrichment important?
• Everyone has content
• No one has time
Expeditious and automatic curation =
Discoverability AND Scale!
Social networking
Should journal publishers care about social networks?
Relevance:Consumer behavior
Mission
• What do journals and societies do?• What do social networks do?• Is there overlap?
Society mission statements
• Promote, advance, disseminate, and apply knowledge
• Educate• Collaborate/Cooperate• Community• Engage/unite (AMA, MMS)• Support (practitioners and researchers)
How do journals/publishers participate?
• Use existing platforms?
• Build your own?
• Both?
It depends…
Some existing platforms
ACS on Facebook
OUP “on” Wikipedia
• Students use Wikipedia; stop fighting it and get on board
• A new kind of discovery
• Editors have contractual obligation to maintain certain Wikipedia topics with links to OUP content
• Musicologist community program = 40% increase in traffic to OUP links
General rules
• Don’t just host your own party – go where the party is
• Participate
• Be genuine
• Offer value!
Food for thought
• Mobility and social networking are— Impacting/shaping behavior YET— Fulfilling a human need that was not
previously fulfillable at this scale— Clay Shirky – consume, produce, share
• Semantic enrichment is an enabler
More food for thought
• How do the topics we’ve discussed impact the meaning of discoverability?
— Mobile— Semantic enrichment— Social networks
• Is discoverability a technical issue, a behavioral issue, a cultural issue, or all of the above?
Impact on journal publishers
• Publishing mission – make high quality content usable and accessible
• It isn’t just about products anymore— It’s about content— It’s about customers— It’s about support – tools & services— It’s about relationships (authors, editors,
reviewers, competitors…)
Impact on content
• Liberate content from the container
• Broaden our definitions (and scope)— UGC - are comments content?— Is ours the only valuable content?— Can customers create their own
“products”?
• Enhance discoverability— More signal less noise— Behavioral & cultural discoverability
Who’s doing what?• Journal platforms
— HighWire Press – H2O— Atypon – Literatum— Platforms vrs aggregators, subscription agents, and
library services— Most major publishers have a journal platform or “white
label” one of the above (MMS, ACS, SAGE)
• Who’s innovating?— Elsevier – Article of the future, Collexis, SciVerse— Nature – New article formats, iPhone app, Connotea,
Nature Networks— SAGE, AIP, MMS (NEJM), ACS…
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