Publishing An e-Journal

Author Requirements

UKOLN is funded by Resource: The Council for Museums, Archives and Libraries, the Joint Information Systems Committee (JISC) of the Higher and Further Education Funding Councils, as well as by project funding from the JISC and the European Union. UKOLN also receives support from the University of Bath where it is based.

Pres 5

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Session Aims

In this session we will:• Discuss what authors might expect from our Web

publication(s)• Highlight any issues which will need to be resolved

in order to satisfy these requirements• Look at some examples

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Exercise

Work through the exercise on “Author Requirements”

What author requirement have you identified?

What issues need to be addressed?

E

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Author Requirements

HTML Guidelines

Graphics Guidelines

Access to statistics

Feedback from readers

Editorial processes which enhance article

Writing guidelines

Who’s looked at my page?

Who’s linked to my page

Why write?

Article easily found by browsing

Article easily found by local & remote search engines

Quality

Motivation

Support and Guidance

Technical Issues

Feedback

Feedback from authors

Peer review, proofreading, etc.

Access

Author Requirements

Article functionality works

No broken links

Permanent location for article

Kudos (and hits) through proximity to others

An attractive, usable design

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Contents

• Identifying Author Requirements• Guidelines• Motivation• Submission Procedures• Citation• Statistics• Feedback• Syndication

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Author Guidelines

Author guidelines are essential, especially for a new publication

What do you think should be included in the guidelines?

http://www.cultivate-int.org/author-guidelines/http://www.cultivate-int.org/author-guidelines/

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Author Guidelines

Author Guidelines

Target audience

Type of publication

Writing style File formats

Publication process

Format conversion

Reader’s interests

Type of articleUse of graphics

Use of unusual technologiesCommissioning and

Publication Processes

Author and Editor responsibilities

Rejecting articlesQuality of writing

Inappropriate content

Additional information

Citation style

Copyright

Aims of publication,

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Graphics Guidelines

Don’t forget to include guidelines for use of graphics

Images can easily deteriorate in quality

Think about:• File formats• Tools to capture

screen images

http://www.cultivate-int.org/graphics/http://www.cultivate-int.org/graphics/

Encourage authors to make use of photographic digitisation services such as <http://www.fotango.com/> (e.g. photos of conferences).Are clip art collections of use?

Encourage authors to make use of photographic digitisation services such as <http://www.fotango.com/> (e.g. photos of conferences).Are clip art collections of use?

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Why Should I Write?

How can you motivate potential writers to write for your publication?

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The Exploit Interactive flyer was aimed at potential readers and writers

The Exploit Interactive flyer was aimed at potential readers and writers

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Submission Processes

Submitting articles:• Often done by

emailing file to author• Better to use mailing list

(messages can be dealt with if editor away)

• Useful to provide a Web-based archives ofmessages

This approach:• Simple• Limited in functionality (difficult to apply any

automated processes)

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Upload ProcessesIt is desirable to enhance the processes for submission and processing of articles submitted by authorsCurrently:

• Files emailed to editor alias (which has a Web archive)We’d like:

• Web-based upload area, with author supplying metadata in standard format

• Automated MS Word -> HTML fragment conversion• Publish in pre-publication

area with automated link creation

Can we do this with limited technical resources and budget? We need to exploreMS SiteServer features

Author Upload Area

File Browse

AbstractArticle Type: Feature News

Expiry date (news items):

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Authoring IssuesAuthor

Wordformat

MS Word

HTML tool HTML

format

Email

FTP

HTML importfilter

HTMLformat

HTMLformat

Word / RTF HTMLconverter

QA

(fo

rmat

, p

roo

fin

g,

etc)

QA

(fo

rmat

, p

roo

fin

g,

etc)

Editor

HTML form

HTTP / WebDav

Need to avoid bottleneck in Word HTML processing and misuse of HTML templates

Need to avoid bottleneck in Word HTML processing and misuse of HTML templates

QA – ManualAutomated

QAdistributed ed. board

peer-reviewing

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CitationReaders and authors will want accurate citation information:

• Memorable URLs• Consistent terminology, style, content, etc.

Cultivate Interactive stores names, article title, issue number, publication date, etc in neutral format.

A server-side script (ASP) transforms this into the published version.

For citation purposes:Kelly, B. "What's Happened To My Slides: Giving Presentations at Conferences", Cultivate Interactive, issue 3, 29 January 2001URL: <http://www.cultivate-int.org/issue3/presentations/>

Brian KellyUK Web FocusUKOLNUniversity of BathBathEmail: b.kelly@ukoln.ac.uk      Phone : +44 1225 323943

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Contact Details

The approach to providing citations helps us to be consistent

But what should be done when:• An author changes her name (e.g. marriage) or

status (becomes a Professor)?• An author’s email or postal addresses changes?

Ideally we should:• Store information in database and allow reader to

view original and latest detailsFor citation purposes:Kelly, B. "What's Happened To My Slides: Giving Presentations at Conferences", Cultivate Interactive, issue 3, 29 January 2001URL: <http://www.cultivate-int.org/issue3/presentations/>Author’s email address has changed: [View current information]

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How Popular Is My Article?Authors may be motivated by having access to usage statistics for their article

What are the pros and cons of this approach?

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Who Links To My Article?Authors may be motivated by finding out who links to their article

http://www.linkpopularity.com/http://www.linkpopularity.com/

Linkpopularity.com can provide this information

You can follow the links back to the page which links to the article

Linkpopularity.com can provide this information

You can follow the links back to the page which links to the article

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Does The Article “Work”?

An author may reasonably expect that:• Internal links will work• The article is indexed by the local search facility• Any additional features will work correctly (e.g.

page translation, feedback, etc.)

You should have developed procedures to ensure this, especially if you use manual editing processes

Are these linked to the correct article

Are these linked to the correct article

Is this correct?Is this correct?Do these work?Do these work?

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Finding The Article

Authors will be motivated if the Web magazine promotes their interests in ways which they may not be able to do for themselves

Google search for “Inside The Digital Library” puts an Exploit Interactive article at no. 1

Exploit Interactive is a search engine-friendly Web site

New issues are submitted to search engines

The number of links helps with citation-aware search engines, such as Google

Exploit Interactive is a search engine-friendly Web site

New issues are submitted to search engines

The number of links helps with citation-aware search engines, such as Google

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Feedback

Online publications can make it easy to provide feedback:

• Feedback from the readers (discussion of issues raised)

• Voting (“90% agree with the user that …”)• Author annotation (“last year I said x, now I think y”)

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AnnotationJakob’s Neilson Alertbox is a valuable resource for Web developers.

Jakob provides annotation which allows him to add text to previously published articles, without changing the content of his original article

http://www.useit.com/alertbox/981227.htmlhttp://www.useit.com/alertbox/981227.html

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PollsPolls can help to get feedback:

• On the Webzine itself• On the content of articles

Polling software includes:• Externally-hosted services• Locally-developed software

http://www.ariadne.ac.uk/issue23/web-focus/http://www.ariadne.ac.uk/issue23/web-focus/

For a review of online polls see “Providing User Feedback services through Polling Software” at <http://www.cultivate-int.org/issue3/polls/>

For a review of online polls see “Providing User Feedback services through Polling Software” at <http://www.cultivate-int.org/issue3/polls/>

http://ais.cern.ch/newsletter/issues/http://ais.cern.ch/newsletter/issues/

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Experiences

Little use of Hypernews to comment on Exploit Interactive articles Should we:

• Promote more • Have comments inline• Provide timed realtime chats (e.g HumanClick.com) • …

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Use By Authors?

Or annotations could be used to allow authors to update their articles

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Inline Comments

Comments could be made available alongside the article

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Invisible Authors

Dealing with authors can be time-consuming

Think about syndication and reuse of existing content:• Material has already have benefited from QA

processes• Possible useful to provide content in specific areas • Reuse of existing materials makes best use of

resources - environmentally friendly

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Add Variety To ContentA publication full of factual articles can be boring. Why not add a variety of content?

http://www.exploit-lib.org/issue7/xword/http://www.exploit-lib.org/issue7/xword/http://www.cultivate-int.org/issue3/game/http://www.cultivate-int.org/issue3/game/

As well as adding variety, games, crosswords, etc this can allow the publisher to evaluate new technologies such as DHTML (scramble game), Java (crossword), user-agent-driven links to technologies (both), etc.

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Or Use Cartoons & Jokes

http://www.ariadne.ac.uk/issue26/cartoon/http://www.ariadne.ac.uk/issue26/cartoon/

Add jokes for free from <http://onyoursite.com/jokes/> Add jokes for free from <http://onyoursite.com/jokes/>

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.. Or Caption Competitions

Issues:• Copyright• Rights• Payment for creator

(e.g. cartoonist)• Prizes for

competition winners (sponsorship?)

http://www.ariadne.ac.uk/issue26/caption/http://www.ariadne.ac.uk/issue26/caption/

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News Feeds

You can add news content to your Webzine by using a news feed.

Many news feeds can be obtained for free:

• The news provider benefits from you providing a link to their content

• You benefit by getting content for free

See <http://w.moreover.com/>, <http://www.isyndicate.com/>, etc.

See <http://w.moreover.com/>, <http://www.isyndicate.com/>, etc.