Electronic Documents and Publishing

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Electronic Documentsand Publishing

• Hilde Van Kiel
• Raf Dekeyser
• Wouter SchallierUniversity Library, K.U.Leuven
  (Belgium)

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Overview

• Electronic documents access and administration
  (Hilde Van Kiel)How do we organize access to
  the existing scientific publications on the
  Internet?
• Scientific writing, desk-top and self-publishing
  (Raf Dekeyser)How do we make the scientific
  publications of our Universitys researchers
  available on the Internet?
• Digitization (Wouter Schallier)How do we
  transform paper publications into digital format?

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II. Scientific writing, desk-top and
self-publishing

• Overview
• Why do we ( librarians) care about scientific
  writing?
• Remarks about scientific communication
• The process of scientific writing
• Editing of the text useful software for desktop
  publishing
• The serials crisis
• Self-publishing and e-print repositories
• Self-archiving and development countries

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Why do we care about scientific writing?

• The library is not passive container of
  information but has a strong relation with
  research centres
• budget is often tailored to research profile
• library beginning and end of research, so both
  sides should interest us!
• librarian must be aware of mechanisms of
  scientific information.
• (Differences between research fields
• more international communication in exact
  sciences
• monographs versus journals)

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Remarks about scientific communication

• Many roles played by information
• Data collection (e.g. historical sources)
• Communication about ongoing research
• Registration of results
• certificate of quality control
• establishment of intellectual rights of the
  author
• professional educational use

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Different types of publications

• Books
• Monographs
• Collection of papers (e.g. Proceedings)
• Series (e.g. Springer Tracts in...)
• Journals
• Databases
• Bibliographic
• Data (e.g. astronomical observations, genetic
  codes,)
• And now everything also possible in electronic
  format!

From weak monitoring to strict peer review
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• Researchers want - maximal and rapid
  dissemination -
  but also publication in prestigious
  journal(somehow contradictory, due to high
  prices!!)
• In some subject fields Preprint-archives turn
  into main channel of information, with paper
  publication for recognition, not for
  communication
• Validation by refereeing is an important tool for
  quality control.This remains important in
  electronic media!
• Reviews and monographs ?
• Writing of review articles considered as
  important task
• Monographs are undervalued, both by authors and
  libraries
• Better value-for-money in books than in journals

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Steps in the process of scientific writing

• Research concept, analysis, research, results,
  conclusions
• Writing down of text.
• Author sends article to journal/editor.
• Editor sends article to referee.
• If not rejected some corrections may be
  required, but finally paper is accepted and
  printed in journal (many months after writing of
  the paper!).
• Title and abstract are included in databases,
  readers start referring to it, which is
  registered in citation database.
• Problems Role of journal prestige (from impact
  parameter) leads to higher status of author,
  giving rise to uncontrollable subscription
  prices.
• New mechanisms become available, such as
  self-publishing ine-archives.

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The creation of a scientific paper

• Needs clear concept of the message to be
  delivered
• What was the problem?
• How was it tackled?
• What were the results?
• What conclusions can be drawn? What new
  scientific knowledge did we obtain?
• Preparation of logical structure of the text
• Status of knowledge and open problems at start of
  research (with references to key literature)
• Detailed description of methods and performed
  research
• Results and conclusions
• Actual writing of the text (e.g. by
  handwriting)
• Editing
• Proofreading (both for clarity of argument and
  for correctness of language and spelling).

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Text editing

• Old days handwritten ms., or by typewriter
• Text editing software for PC from simple
  DOS-based typewriter emulators to sofisticated
  programs
• Types of helpful software
• Word processors (WordPerfect, MS Word,
  TeX)(some incorporate other functions!)? type,
  edit, check spelling, format,
• Page layout (Adobe Pagemaker, MS Publisher) ?
  integrate text and images on page, artistic
  layout, ? also Web publishing tools
• Illustration (CorelDRAW) vector-based
• Image editing (Adobe Photoshop, Corel
  Photopaint)bitmap-based
• Database-assisted publishing (e.g. catalogues)
• Font and image management

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What kind of functionality do we need?

• You should know what are the requirements!
• Publisher may reformat your text to fit his
  standards (?dont care too much about editing!)
• Publisher may suggest to use specific software
  and template
• Your format may be what readers will see (e.g.
  web-publications, publication through
  photographic reproduction, library flyers) (? do
  care!)
• Next to quality of content, style of presentation
  may be important for acceptance of the
  publication
• Simple font
• Clarity and uniformity of style
• A graph or table explains often more than words
• Learn to use the hidden capabilities of your
  software!(e.g. MS Word tables , WordArt
  , use of tabs, lines, frames, etc ? read HELP
  and MANUALS !!!)

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TeX and LaTeX

• Open software developed by AMS.
• Input through simple ASCII files, not WYSIWYG!
  Three step process writing, processing, viewing
  or printing.
• Text structure based on declarations, similar to
  XML
• Examples
• you are \bd very special
  you are very special
• \frac\sqrt\omegab
  
• Used, e.g., by AMS and APS for submission of
  papers special templates made available.

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The journal crisis

• SCI brought quality hierarchy of journals,
  allowing for uncontrolled price increases
  mergers and package deals endanger smaller
  publishers and may distort the impact
  parameter system
• Academic community realizes that they write and
  review the articles for free
• Academic community has good mastering of digital
  technology, does not need intermediaries
• BUT Bringing change is difficult, due to the
  obsession with impact parameters

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ARL chart
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Reactions to the problems

• 1995 Subversive proposal by Stevan Harnad.
  Authors should claim the right to publish their
  articles on the Internet. Self-archiving is
  possible now!
• 1998 To publish and perish (ARL AAU)
  analysis of journal crisis recommendations
• Invest in electronic forms of scientific
  publication ( role of societies for evaluation?)
• Make libraries more price conscious
• Recent follow-up same conclusions for the
  humanities!
• 2001 Public Library of Science appeal to all
  biomedical journals to make content freely
  available online 6 months after publication.
  (30.000 signatories from 170 countries.)
• 2002 Budapest Open Access Initiative Encourages
  search for replacement of present unsustainable
  model.
• BioMed Central 90 peer reviewed journals, freely
  accessible (author pays 500 per paper).

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Self-publishing and e-print repositories

• 1991 (Los Alamos) arXiv in physics ( 15 mirror
  sites)
• Unrefereed author self-archiving contributions
  reappear in standard journal
• Free access means fast dissemination!
• 150.000 articles in 2000 13 million downloads
• Also mathematical papers
• http//arxiv.org/
• CERN Document Server (DCS) (physics)
• Different types of documents 430.000 bibliogr.
  Records, 170.000 full texts
• http//cds.cern.ch/
• Chemistry preprint server (CPS) at ChemWeb
• Cogprints (Cognitive sciences psychology,
  neuroscience, linguistics,)
• http//cogprints.soton.ac.uk/

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Collectors and portals

• MPRESS and MathNet index of mathematical
  preprints from 110 sources. (http//www.math-net.
  de/)
• Electronic Library of Mathematics (ElibM) free
  portal to journals (50), proceedings and
  monographs (http//www.emis.de/ELibM.html)
• PhysDoc (part of PhysNet) similar to MPRESS, but
  for physics. (http//www.eps.org/PhysNet/journal
  s.html)
• RePEc similar, for economics. (http//www.repec.o
  rg/)
• PubMedCentral (NIH) free access to biomedical
  journals (with delay). (http//www.pubmedcentral
  .nih.gov/)
• Education-online Educational research, policy
  and practice (http//www.leeds.ac.uk/educol/index.
  html)

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Het Open Archives Initiative (OAI)
(http//www.openarchives.org/index.html)

• Development of a standard for the exchange of
  metadata about the content of electronic
  archives.
• Allows to collect data from a large system of
  e-print servers by a harvester, which can offer
  search facilities over the whole set of servers.
• Possibility for construction of a global network
  of scientific information through institutional
  servers at each university (instead of subject
  archives).
• Free software developed, e.g.
• Eprints from Univ. Southampton, UK
  (http//www.eprints.org/)
• CDSWare from CERN (see before)
• Dspace from MIT (http//www.dspace.org/)
• Experimental harvester ARC (Cross Archive
  Searching System) (http//arc.cs.odu.edu/)

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Practical organisation of new model

• Universities and research institutes set up
  e-print servers (institutional repositories),
  with OAI-compliant software.(http//www.arl.org/s
  parc/IR/ir.html)
• Searching those repositories can be done through
  the harvestors, like ARC.
• Virtual journals can be constructed as a
  collection of papers in these repositories that
  receive a quality stamp from a reviewing board.
  (Role for learned societies!)
• Special initiatives for developing countries
• (See special slides from Barbara Kirsop)

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Self-archiving and Development countries

• The scientific community in developing countries
  has three major problems
• The N to S knowledge gap (access to scientific
  journals for reading)
• problematic due to high prices and low budgets
• The S to N knowledge gap (publishing of research
  from S)
• regional journals have low distribution levels
  because of high printing and distribution costs
• have difficulty publishing in mainstream
  established journals
• The S to S knowledge gap (access to each others
  research)
• Consequences
• research largely unknown and unacknowledged
• research progress slow through lack of
  information in the field
• feeling of professional isolation no possibility
  to form international collaborative programmes or
  partnerships for grants

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• Can open access help?
• If documents free to readers, N to S gap can be
  closed
• If institutional archiving free to authors (or
  costs paid by other institutions), S to N gap can
  be closed
• If access and archiving free to readers and
  authors, S to S gap can be closed
• The technology is cheap and it is easy to learn
• Global visibility leads to partnerships
• Scientists become enthusiastic to publish in
  local journals
• Overall strengthening of the science base
• What needs to be done?
• Raise awareness of open access movement via
  writing, talking, visiting .
• Training courses/capacity building on
  establishing institutional archives
• On-going infrastructure development

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• Organisations that try to help
• INASP, OSI, eSAP, eIFL see next talk!
• EPT Bioline International
• EPT Electronic Publishing Trust for Development
• The aim of the EPT is to facilitate the spread of
  scientific knowledge generated in the developing
  world by
• the electronic distribution of regional journals
• training and capacity building in e-publishing
• supporting access to scientific knowledge
  available electronically and in particular
• raising awareness about open access developments.
• http//www.epublishingtrust.org
• ept_at_biostrat.demon.co.uk

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• BIOLINE INTERNATIONAL is a non-profit
  organisation, working with bioscience publishers
  in developing countries to convert their
  published journals into digital format for web
  distribution.
• Free technical support and an effective
  distribution mechanism for full-text documents.
• Additional eprints archive at the University of
  Toronto (eprints.utsc.utoronto.ca), where
  documents from journals who agree to offer their
  material on an open-access basis may be archived.
• www.bioline.org.br
• Bioline has supported publishing in developing
  countries since 1993, with over 20 current
  journals actively participating, and numbers
  steadily increasing.

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VLIR-workshop in Leuven
VLIR-workshop in Leuven
VLIR-workshop in Leuven
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