Transforming American Chemical Society s Online Journals

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1 Transforming American Chemical Society s Online Journals Case study Introduction In June 2007 the American Chemical Society (ACS) selected Atypon to develop a new software platform to support the delivery of their prestigious journal program. ACS previous e-publishing strategy centred on the in-house development of the technology and infrastructure needed to support the online business. However, their desire to provide a more efficient online experience and deliver increased value to end-users ultimately prompted them to outsource this development work to a trusted technology partner. An essential pre-condition of the outsourcing decision was that the ACS would retain complete control of their e-publishing business, including control of content loading; real-time control of all business models; and the ability to update the content on the web site pages when required, to list just a few. Atypon delivered on all of these requirements. The new site was successfully launched in November on budget and on schedule ( delivering a better search experience, improved browsing, a better journal home page, a cleaner article interface, better navigation and additional features for librarians. In short, a better online journal for ACS members and the global community of research scientists who rely on must have ACS content. The Implementation Process An enormous cooperative effort involving ACS IT staff and Atypon Product Development and Engineering teams resulted in the production of a most engaging and visually interesting scholarly website. Kevin Cohn, Atypon s Director of Product Management, commented: It s been a privilege to work with the great people at ACS Publications. Together we have achieved more than the successful launch of this excellent website; we have forged a lasting partnership that will continue to drive innovations in publishing technology for years to come, for the benefit of all ACS constituents and Atypon clients. Several individual project threads supported the overall technology initiative, including: IT infrastructure updates Definition and build of an entirely new user interface Integrating existing systems with the new platform Transition to a multi-data centre approach with data synchronised between sites in real time Preparation and migration of approximately 750,000 ACS articles Transition to a dynamic XML workflow for content processing of all 30,000+ ACS articles published each year

2 Dr. Brian Crawford, President of ACS Publications, said: This is a significant accomplishment, and one that is integral to our commitment to be the world s most trusted source of the comprehensive knowledge needed to cultivate the chemists of tomorrow. The innovative approach taken to this expansion of our web publishing capabilities has been achieved as a result of close collaboration with our development partner Atypon, the ingenuity of ACS own IT staff under the leadership of our CIO John Sullivan, expertise shared by our society colleagues at Chemical Abstracts Service, and the dedicated talents of the entire Journals Publishing Group, led by Senior Vice President Dr. Susan King. The New e-publishing Site The dynamic new website hosts the high-quality ACS Journals on a platform rich with new features and functionality. (Home Page: Some of the more significant benefits and features of the ACS Publications website include: Table of Contents Page The Figure Thumbnail Viewer Preview shows thumbnails of all figures. This allows end-users to flip through and browse all the figures in the full-text article from the table of contents (TOC) page, giving an insight into the article s content. This is particularly useful as researchers often make reading decisions based on what is shown in the figures. Responding after an external beta testing period that involved a group of ACS customers, Terry Bucknell, Electronic Resources Manager at the University of Liverpool, remarked: I would just like to emphasize what a fantastic, state-of-the-art site this is. It combines rich functionality with clarity and simplicity. Congratulations all round. I look forward to our users being able to get their hands on it! 2

3 Multiple Abstract downloads lets users find out more about a select group of articles within Search Results or from the TOC Citation Downloads lets users export multiple citations to a reference manager of choice SciFinder linking provides a one click path to this premier research discovery tool Dynamic Full Text HTML Figure browser lets users quickly scan all schematics and figures Forward Citation linking connects readers to all papers that have since cited the current article Related content recommendations deliver other ACS articles of possible interest to the user Ability to view references without leaving the spot on the page 3

4 Advanced Search Interface Tabbed Results for Research and News & Features Filters Column allows narrowing of results based on journal, author, or manuscript type Ability to search supplementary material: Microsoft Word documents, PowerPoint files, other text or PDF files, etc are indexed for searching. Save Your Search means readers can maintain a list of frequently performed searches A New Journal Home Page Content Highlight Area delivers As Soon As Publishable, Current Issue, Most Read and Most Cited articles for the journal Search by Citation feature takes you straight to a specific article when entering the Volume and Page Number or Digital Identifier Graphical Abstract Highlights provides a visual display of recently published content ACS Legacy Archive Options Improved Navigation Options provide full text links and more info about Legacy Archive content The article s First Page image is now rendered within the updated Abstract template for better usability The ACS Publications Home Page The Journal A-Z List is accessible directly from the Publications Home Page CAS Subject Categories provide for topical browsing C & E News Latest Headlines are dynamically delivered to the Publications Home Page Multiple Data Centres The American Chemical Society s new site takes advantage of Atypon s Multi Data Centre capability, providing support for an exceptionally high level of business continuity. Data is synchronized in real time between ACS hosted sites in Washington, D.C. and Virginia. 4

5 Looking Ahead Looking ahead, ACS technology focus will remain on their commitment to provide a better online journal. Atypon s Literatum platform will help facilitate this vision, giving the foundation for continued online competitive advantage from a state-of-the-art e-publishing platform. Reflecting on the endeavor required to build the new platform, John Sullivan, Chief Information Officer for ACS, said: Technology innovation and measured change are essential to the long term success of any organization. Culminating with this release of our new Web delivery platform, we have now realized our vision of an end-to-end digital publishing workflow. This transformative effect on our processes puts ACS in a very strong technology position moving forward, and promises to facilitate many more publishing innovations, such as richer linking and integration of ACS Web Editions journals content with the Society s diverse information resources, and with community-based Web 2.0 interactive online services of the sort made possible by the ACS Member Network. Conclusions Working closely with the American Chemical Society in-house teams Atypon have developed for ACS a superior more engaging e-publishing web presence. The new offering, powered by Atypon s proven and trusted Literatum technology, provides a fully integrated web platform rich with new features and functionality, customized to deliver a more robust electronic journal and to enhance the online reading experience for ACS customers. ACS chose to outsource the technology and infrastructure needed to support their online business. However, by selecting Atypon as their trusted technology partner, they remain in complete control of their online business. The Atypon suite of administration tools uniquely provides ACS with the ability to manage all aspects of their online publishing operation. Chris Beckett, VP of Sales and Marketing of Atypon, commented: The new American Chemical Society site is one of the most interesting and innovative sites we have developed. It has raised the bar as to how scholarly content can be engagingly presented. 5

6 About The American Chemical Society The American Chemical Society the world s largest scientific society is a nonprofit organization chartered by the U.S. Congress and a global leader in providing access to chemistry-related research through its multiple databases, peer-reviewed journals and scientific conferences. Its main offices are in Washington, D.C. and Columbus, Ohio. The ACS Publications Division currently publishes 35 leading peer-reviewed journals in the chemical and related sciences, including the flagship Journal of the American Chemical Society, as well as Chemical & Engineering News, the Society s weekly news magazine. About Atypon Atypon develops software essential to the business of online publishing. Literatum, our publishing platform, is home to more than one-third of the world s English-language scholarly and professional journals. Literatum puts publishers in control of the presentation, marketing, and sale of their online publications, with easy-to-use tools for creating new products, testing sales and subscription models, and regularly refreshing a website s look and feel. The platform s automation features free editorial and business staff to focus on content, not technology. Literatum is engineered for Active Publishing, Atypon s strategy for increasing readership, revenues, and impact by providing engaging reading experiences that convert visitors into subscribers. Atypon s commitment to scalable software design results in a platform that easily accommodates business growth without requiring additional staff. Our customers include Elsevier, The New England Journal of Medicine, the University of Chicago Press, and SAGE. Founded in 1996, we are headquartered in Silicon Valley, with offices globally. 6