The scientific journal of the future has arrived! Perhaps.
Elsevier, the world’s largest publisher of medical and scientific literature, announced this week that its Cell Press division had begun an “Article of the Future” project in which its online presentations will take fuller advantage of Web-based technologies.
That means the articles will include a greater use of graphical illustrations and a hierarchical presentation of text and figures, letting readers click through to increasingly detailed presentations. The format also allows for the possibility of audio and video presentations to accompany peer-reviewed articles from scientists.
It’s part of an effort to develop “new and improved ways to help scientists present and navigate the literature,” said Emilie Marcus, editor in chief at Cell Press.
It’s not immediately clear, however, how much convincing it might take to get scientists to adapt to the new technologies. “That’s a good question,” said Daniel Pollock, vice president and lead analyst at Outsell, a research and advisory company focused on the information, publishing, and education industries.
Some smaller publishers already have made similar attempts, Mr. Pollock said, including the Scitation publishing platform by the American Institute of Physics and the myLWW platform by Wolters Kluwer Health.
And some hurdles are already emerging, Mr. Pollock said. One is that the newer Web-based formats can mean more work for scientists, who may resist. And for publishers, he said, it could bring even more pressure to connect readers with content from a rival company. That’s a change, Mr. Pollock said, that may be especially tough for a larger publishing company to accept.
3 Responses to Elsevier Says It Will Bring Web-Based Tools to Research Articles
phikaw - July 25, 2009 at 12:19 pm
The more proprietary technical interface held by a commercial publisher, due to DMCA and the fact that most researchers sign over copyright and exclusive licensing rights to the publisher, the more control over access to the research that publisher will have. The education and research community really needs to collectively engage this issue.
emmadw - July 27, 2009 at 4:53 am
Wonder how similar it’s going to be to http://www.scivee.tv/?
I know that one of the publishing companies (& think it was Elsevier) has been using Elgg (http://www.elgg.org) in house (in the UK at any rate) to share work; wonder if they’ll use that platform to support it; or something else.
aarkae - July 27, 2009 at 4:15 pm
On paper this sounds like a great idea and that soon enough we will see articles and responses in web-based technologies. The technology however will be the biggest hurdle. Having the researchers focus and work on articles is time consuming enough. Having to learn the technology and use it will require additional time and resources that is not built into the system.
I work with graduate students and most of them have very little time besides writing papers and work, and rightfully refuse to have technology get in their way. Learning it will actually take away precious time and the expectation to use such technology might even dilute the work. The technology needs to me seamless in order for researchers to use it successfully.
Sujan Manandhar
http://edutechman.blogspot.com/