The document discusses the evolution of electronic journals from their origins as online versions of print journals to incorporating new technologies and formats. Key points include: 1) Online journals have adopted multimedia, search capabilities, mobile-friendly formats, social networking, and data visualization, differentiating them from print. 2) Journal publishers have learned new skills and tools to create relevant digital products by understanding customer needs, content, and technology. 3) Emerging trends include mobile access, semantic enrichment of content, and social networking, which are changing discoverability and consumer behaviors. 4) Publishers are participating on social media and working to make content more accessible and usable across multiple platforms and devices.

1. The Evolving Electronic Journal
STM Intensive Journal Course
November 16, 2010
Ann Michael
ann.michael@deltathink.com
Twitter: annmichael

2. In the beginning…
There was the print journal….

3. …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

4. …and the online journal evolved
Online journals started to differ from print
• Multimedia
• Search
• More web appropriate formats
• Interaction/community
• Data sets and visualization

5. 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

6. 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

7. …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?

9. From:
GoogleTablet.net
Dell Inspiron Duo

10. http://www.gizmag.com/apples-ipad-catalysing-disruptive-change/16882/

11. 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

12. Chris Anderson, Wired

13. 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

14. 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?

15. Semantic enrichment
What does that even mean?

16. Semantic enrichment

17. 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

18. Why is semantic enrichment
important?
• Everyone has content
• No one has time
Expeditious and automatic curation =
Discoverability AND Scale!

19. Social networking
Should journal publishers care about
social networks?

20. Relevance:
Consumer behavior

21. Mission
• What do journals and societies do?
• What do social networks do?
• Is there overlap?

22. Society mission statements
• Promote, advance, disseminate, and
apply knowledge
• Educate
• Collaborate/Cooperate
• Community
• Engage/unite (AMA, MMS)
• Support (practitioners and researchers)

23. How do journals/publishers
participate?
• Use existing platforms?
• Build your own?
• Both?
It depends…

24. Some existing platforms

27. ACS on Facebook

28. 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

29. General rules
• Don’t just host your own party – go
where the party is
• Participate
• Be genuine
• Offer value!

30. 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

31. 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?

32. 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…)

33. 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

34. 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…

35. …and the journal…
Questions?
Ann Michael
ann.michael@deltathink.com
Twitter: annmichael