The introduction of electronic delivery systems and online management tools has dramatically changed the publishing process. The impact of these tools has been felt in almost all the steps of the publishing process, from easier submission and article tracking to faster publication and wider dissemination. The history of electronic delivery via the Internet only goes back about 15 years, however, which means in many respects it is still in its infancy. Ian Russell, CEO of the Association of Learned and Professional Society Publishers (ALPSP) explains why further investment is needed if scholarship is to get the maximum benefit from these tools.

Russell believes that a key role of publishers is helping academics get to the information they need as quickly as possible. In the digital age, content is increasingly found, delivered and consumed online. “Publishers have invested considerable time and money in developing electronic tools because they see the benefits for both themselves and the academics they serve,” he says. “However, the technology and its widespread use are relatively new and evolving, so publishers are still in a development phase. Online platforms used to contain a lot of personalization features, for example, but the rise of Google has meant that academics find their way to articles via a search rather than bookmarking publishers’ websites. As a result there is now less focus on personalization features and more focus on search engine optimization, ease of navigation and user experience.”

Ease of navigation has also been carried through to online workflow tools such as the Elsevier Editorial System (EES), which is designed to simplify and accelerate the article submission, tracking and refereeing process. “Investment in these kinds of tools has led to reduced turnaround times for manuscripts, even just from the point of view of postal delays,” says Russell. “In the past, sending a manuscript from India to the UK, for example, could take weeks; now it takes seconds. These tools also facilitate more efficient workflow management and greater convenience for reviewers.”

More papers are being published globally, with a particularly rapid growth in output from countries such as India and China – the latter’s output growing by 18 percent per annum over the last ten years, according to figures published by   Scopus. The number of reviewers has not increased at the same rate, however, which is putting pressure on existing reviewers. In addition, there are still things like cultural and English-language issues that need to be overcome. “Several publishers are setting up regional offices in countries like China to help local authors prepare their papers to an acceptable standard for international journals, but the technical and language polishing services that some publishers have built into their online submission process to filter papers before they reach reviewers, are also going to help greatly.”

Interactive research
While workflow tools continue to be improved for authors, reviewers and editors, other online tools and services are being developed with researchers in mind. All research builds on earlier achievements and discoveries. This is one of the primary reasons why dissemination of and access to research is so crucial to scientific progress. In the coming years, the ability to access millions of full-text journal articles through online databases such as   Science Direct – which has already succeeded in significantly cutting researcher search times – will be enhanced by the ability to access the underlying data as well.

“I anticipate changes in the way information online is visualized and the way the primary literature links to underlying data,” says Russell. “One example is allowing the reader to change the parameters of a graph and to see how the outcome is affected in real time, or to select which data sets are displayed and compared. It is already possible to assign Digital Object Identifiers to tables and charts, which can then link through to the underlying data. In the arts, literature could be linked to a piece of music, a dance performance or a 3-D image of an artifact. We are only just beginning to scratch the surface of this kind of functionality; the real benefits of these kinds of innovations are still to come.”

The Open Access question
The Web’s collaborative nature has also given rise to interesting joint projects, such as Publishing and the Ecology of European Research (PEER). Supported by publishers, repositories and researchers, PEER aims to investigate the effects of the large-scale deposit of peer-reviewed research articles in openly accessible online repositories (so-called Green Open Access) on user access, author visibility, journal viability and the broader European research environment. The project will run until 2011, during which time over 50,000 manuscripts, published in the approximately 300 participating journals, will become available for archiving.

“Funders are paying more attention to how the research they are associated with is being used,” says Russell. “At the moment, we don’t know if open access improves research efficiency and productivity but we do know that currently journal brands pay a vital role in helping academics quickly assess the likely standard of a paper they encounter. It will be interesting to see the results this project produces.”

Evolution not revolution
Scholarly publishing has changed considerably over the last ten to 15 years, and will continue to change. Russell believes those who don’t invest will get left behind. “Our industry has been an exemplar of adopting new technology – regardless of comments made to the contrary. Having said this, there are ongoing, and important, discussions on issues such as copyright, business models and access, and how best to approach these in a digital age. But I think we’ll see evolution not revolution.”

To cite this article, please use: Cecily Layzell, “Mapping STM publishing investments in the digital age”, Elsevier Editors’ Update, Issue 26, May 2009

Useful links:

  Association of Learned and Professional Society Publishers

  CrossRef

  Publishing and the Ecology of European Research