Best Practices for Presentation of E-Journals

Kathy KlempererProject ManagerHarrassowitz

Andrea Twiss-BrooksCo-Director, Science Libraries

University of Chicago

Background and problem definition

Other initiatives, standards and proposals

Developing a set of best practice guidelines

Discussion and feedback

Information Standards Quarterly (ISQ) Spring 2009, Volume 21, Issue 2 , Pages 18-24http://www.niso.org/publications/isq/2009/v21n2

Retention of the original title and citation information is essential for users trying to access the original

full text of journal articles.

Defining the problem - librariesSince 1971, most U.S. libraries have followed cataloging rules that require each significantly changed title of a journal to be cataloged as a separate record; the result is that libraries effectively consider a changed title to have become a new journal for identification, control, and inventory purposes.

Often the new title has a different ISSN from the old title

Defining the problem - publishersSometimes editors feel the content is more marketable if it is presented under the current title

Placing all content for journal backfiles or archives under the current title may seem to product managers and website designers to be a simpler and more elegant arrangement than breaking the content into the various pieces that place it under (multiple) changed titles

Not all content providers employ librarians, and not all those who make decisions about how to present their content think to consult librarians.

Defining the problem - technologyMany academic institutions rely on link servers/link resolvers to connect users with journal articles by using the metadata in Open URLs (ANSI/NISO Z39.88). If the source citation (as represented by OpenURL metadata) and the knowledgebase identify the same content with different journal titles and ISSN, then the corresponding target links will not be offered to the user. Content that a library has paid for will not be served to a researcher, even though that content has been licensed and should be available to its users.

Researchers can also be confused by seeing one title in a reference and landing on a page that looks like an entirely different title

Finding a solution

Create a set of best practice guidelines for online presentation of journal titles, title

histories and other information. Any set of guidelines needs to take into account not

only librarians’ and users’ needs, but also the reasonableness of the guidelines to

publishers to insure adequate buy in by all stakeholders.

NISO PIE-J representation Taylor & Francis Harrassowitz Serials Solutions IEEE JSTOR/Ithaka Sage EBSCO Hein Publishing Technology

APALibrary of Congress

(CONSER, ISSN)National Library of MedicineCranfield U. Press (UK)University of WashingtonUniversity of Chicago UCLA

Best Practices for Ejournals (Ann Ercelawn)www.library.vanderbilt.edu/ercelawn/bestpractices.htm

Journal Title Display and Citation Practices (Hawkins, et al)www.informaworld.com/smpp/content~content=a909530893~db=all~order=page

KBART Working Groupwww.niso.org/workrooms/kbart

ISSN International Centrewww.issn.org

NISO /NFAIS workshop Best Practices for Electronic Journals (report)www.niso.org/news/events/niso/past/ejournalswkshp6/

OpenURL standard (ANSI /NISO Z39.88)www.niso.org/standards/z39-88-2004/

SERIALST (Serials in Libraries Discussion Forum)www.uvm.edu/~bmaclenn/serialst.html

Reynolds, R. R. and Hepfer, C. “In Search of Best Practices in the Presentation of E-Journals,” Information Standards Quarterly (ISQ), Spring 2009, v. 21, no. 2 , pp. 18-24http://www.niso.org/publications/isq/2009/v21n2