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Issues in Science and Technology Librarianship Fall 1996
DOI:10.5062/F4N58JC9

URLs in this document have been updated. Links enclosed in {curly brackets} have been changed. If a replacement link was located, the new URL was added and the link is active; if a new site could not be identified, the broken link was removed.

Electronic Publishing Programs in Science and Technology Part 1: The Journals

Elizabeth W. Brown
Library and Information Center
Georgia Institute of Technology

Andrea L. Duda
Davidson Library
University of California, Santa Barbara


Many science and technology journal publishers are starting web-based publishing programs. In some cases publishers are making all or most of their journals available; in others, one or two titles are being published on the web as pilot projects. This article summarizes information about programs from several science and technology publishers in a "snapshot" from November 1996. Since many of these publishing programs are currently in development, visit the publishers' web sites for the latest information.

Librarians dealing with these new product offers may find brochures and assorted information piling high on their desks (or scattered throughout the library on different subject specialists' desks!). Displaying the information about these "webbed" journal programs "side by side" should not only demonstrate the current amount of activity in web publishing but also help librarians make comparisons among some of the programs available. Certainly, additional organizations are planning or have already begun to bring their journals to the web, so the activity does not end here!

From reading through the tables below, one may be struck by some of the issues involved in implementing these new products. Factors to consider in subscribing to web-based versions of journals are summarized in the next article, Electronic Publishing Programs: Issues to Consider.

Publishers covered in this survey are:


Academic Press

Publisher: Academic Press
Electronic publishing program: IDEAL (International Digital Electronic Access Library). Includes the full text of 175 Academic Press journals.
Examples of journals online: Genomics, Neurobiology of Disease, Cellular Immunology, Journal of Molecular Biology
Full-text of the print version? Yes
Additional material online? No
Archives? How far back? Yes; some from 1995, most from 1996.
Cost: Free through 1996; JMB and Genomics will continue to be available to subscribers to the print version
Notes: Articles are in Adobe Acrobat format
URL: {http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/journals}


American Association for the Advancement of Science

Publisher: AAAS
Electronic publishing program:
Examples of journals online: Science
Full-text of the print version? Full text of research and news articles
Additional material online? No
Archives? How far back? Yes; October 1995 forward
Cost: Free through 1996, then requires AAAS membership plus $12 subscription fee; selected information will remain free after 1/1/97.
Notes: Beginning January 6, 1997, special arrangements can be made for the purpose of evaluating Science Online for future site licensing. AAAS anticipates that site licensing will be available in early Spring '97.
URL: http://www.sciencemag.org/


American Astronomical Society

Publisher: AAS/University of Chicago Press
Examples of journals online: The Astrophysical Journal (Electronic Edition), including Astrophysical Journal Supplement Series
Full-text of the print version? Yes
Additional material online? No
Archives? How far back? pt. 1, from v. 471 (Nov. 1, 1996); pt. 2 (Letters), from v.447 (July 1, 1995). Supplement will begin in 1997.
Cost: Paper (ApJ and Supplement Series) and electronic edition bundled for $1050 1997 rate. No options given for paper or electronic only on Web site.
Notes: Articles available in html and pdf; searchable.
URL: {http://iopscience.iop.org/journal/0004-637X}


American Chemical Society

Publisher: American Chemical Society
Electronic publishing program:
Examples of journals online: Biochemistry, Journal of Physical Chemistry, Environmental Science & Technology
Full-text of the print version? Yes
Additional material online?
Archives? How far back?
Cost: Free for 1996. Starting in 1997 individual subscribers have a choice of print or Internet access for the same cost, or print plus Internet for an additional charge. For institutional subscribers the Internet-only version will cost the same as print. If an institution subscribes to the print version they get one third-level domain free. Additional domains can be purchased for an additional fee.
Notes: Accessible in HTML or PDF format. Searchable by title, author, abstract, text, manuscript number or starting page number.
URL: {http://pubs.acs.org/about.html}


American Institute of Physics

Publisher: American Institute of Physics
Electronic publishing program: Online Journal Service
Examples of journals online: All AIP journals such as Applied Physics Letters, Review of Scientific Instruments, and JETP Letters.
Full-text of the print version? Yes
Additional material online? You will be able to enter the AIP Online Journal Service and directly access the full text of any individual journal to which you subscribe. You can also browse Tables of Contents for any journal in the Service or start with a literature search. Users will also be able to search Advance SPIN, a database of abstracts for articles pending publication.

In addition to SPIN and Advance SPIN, the Online Journal Service incorporates other elements of PINET Plus. These include:

  • Early Alert Tables of Contents, delivered by e-mail prior to journal publication
  • News and information from national labs, science policy agencies, and physics resources from the Internet at large
  • Integrated, searchable directories from such leading science organizations as The American Physical Society, the American Geophysical Union, and others -- contact information for some 125,000 scientists
Archives? How far back? Service starts in 1997.
Cost: Subscribers will have access to the online version of each AIP print journal to which they subscribe at no extra charge.
Notes: Uses Adobe Acrobat software.
URL: {http://scitation.aip.org/content/aip}


American Mathematical Society

Publisher: AMS
Examples of journals online: Electronic only: Electronic Research Announcements of the American Mathematical Society (free); Conformal Geometry and Dynamics, and Representation Theory
Full-text of the print version? Electronic only.
Additional material online? Not applicable
Archives? How far back? Jan. 1996-
Cost: Conformal Geometry and Dynamics: $125 for 1997; Representation Theory: $125 for 1997 (both have early subscription waiver offer for limited time).
Notes: Searchable.
URL: {http://www.ams.org/journals/}
Examples of journals online: Has electronic versions of print journals, available starting 1996, eg. Journal of the American Mathematical Society
Full-text of the print version? yes
Additional material online? Links to figures and tables, etc.; early availability.
Cost: AMS offers options to subscribe to either or both print and electronic editions ($212/170 both; $166/133 electronic; $184/147 print)
Notes: Searchable full-text.
URL: {http://www.ams.org/journals/}


Biochemical Society (Great Britain)

Publisher: Biochemical Society (Great Britain)
Electronic publishing program:
Examples of journals online: Biochemical Journal
Full-text of the print version? Guest users will have access to:
  • Tables of contents
  • Abstracts
  • Full-text searching

Institutional Subscribers will have access to:

  • Tables of contents
  • Abstracts
  • Full-text searching
  • E-mail contents awareness service
  • Full-text and graphics display
  • Adobe Acrobat PDF files for any article
  • Medline links
Additional material online? See above
Archives? How far back? As of Nov. 1996, back to v. 311, pt.1 (Oct. 1995).
Cost: Access to Biochemical Journal online will be unrestricted during 1996. Once this trial period is over on 1 January 1997, access will be free, but restricted to institutions which have a subscription to the print version. Subscription information for 1998 will be announced in June 1997.
Notes: Other journals have TOC online: Clinical Science for 1996.
URL: {http://www.biochemj.org/} - Journal
{http://www.portlandpress.com/pcs/default.htm} - Publishing page


Elsevier

Publisher: Elsevier
Electronic publishing program: Elsevier Electronic Subscriptions; offers electronic versions of the full range of Elsevier print journals.
Examples of journals online: Journal of Pure and Applied Algebra, International Journal of Developmental Neuroscience, Nuclear Engineering and Design
Full-text of the print version? Yes
Additional material online? Libraries can add functionality such as searching facilities, a TOC browser, on-screen article display, etc.
Archives? How far back? From 1992 for titles included in the TULIP program; others from 1994 or 1995.
Cost: Depends on licensing agreement
Notes: Licensees are not authorized to distribute electronic copies or printouts from the electronic files to anyone outside the categories of users defined in their licenses.

A limited number of institutions are participating in the current pilot project. EES is delivered either on tape or CD-ROM and files are provided using the library's own software or third-party software.

URL: {http://www.elsevier.com/wps/find/journal_browse.cws_home}


Institution of Electrical Engineers

Publisher: IEE
Electronic publishing program: IEE's rapid-publication letters journal, Electronics Letters, and all 12 titles of IEE Proceedings will be available online from 1997 at the IEE's Web site.
Examples of journals online: See above
Full-text of the print version? Features
  • Cross-journal searching of bibliographic records (inc. authors, titles, abstracts)
  • Browsable table of contents pages for each journal issue
  • Full articles as threaded and thumbnailed PDFs
  • Typeset quality display of articles from mid-1996
Additional material online? Updated in advance of print publication
Archives? How far back? Backfile from 1994 to mid-1996 based on scanned images
Cost: Pricing - For 1997, subscriptions to IEE Online Journals priced the same as the equivalent print versions. This covers unlimited online searching, display and local printing by users at a single site.

Print Subscriber Discounts - The price for a combined print and online subscription to one or more IEE Proceedings titles or Electronics Letters is 1.5 times the print price.

Notes:
URL: {http://www.ietdl.org/}


Institute of Physics

Publisher: Institute of Physics
Electronic publishing program: IOP Electronic Journals: Offers full-text access to institutional subscribers to the print journals.
Examples of journals online: All IOP journals subscribed to by the institution
Full-text of the print version? Yes
Additional material online? For those who register individually, personalized journal display, e-mail alerting service, personal default searches, "filing cabinet" allows bookmarking and annotating specific papers online.
Archives? How far back? Some are 1996 only; others start with 1995 or 1994.
Cost: 1996 and 1997 are "guaranteed free"; no information available for 1998.
Notes: This is a new set-up. Formerly, access was given by registering IP address, then an institutional ID and password. Users were required to fill out a detailed form and set up an individual password in order to gain access to the full-text. Now, access is by IP address only for access to the full-text. The other two options provide customization and e-mail alerting (requiring individual registration), and using the service away from the institution's registered site.
URL: http://www.iop.org/


Materials Research Society

Publisher: Materials Research Society
Electronic publishing program:
Examples of journals online: Materials Research Society Internet Journal of Nitride Semiconductor Research
Full-text of the print version? Electronic-only
Additional material online? Pre-Print Server. Registered users have access to an e-mail newsletter and ability to contribute to discussions and databases.
Cost: Free access. Additional areas available to people who register (free to MRS members). To register for extras without being a member, $25.
Notes: MRS also provides JMR Abstracts on the Web (from Journal of Materials Research). Abstracts printed in print journal MRS Bulletin
URL: {http://www.mrs.org/home/}


Royal Society of Chemistry

Publisher: Royal Society of Chemistry
Electronic publishing program: CLIC Consortium Electronic Journal Project - collaborative project involving Cambridge University, Leeds University, Imperial College and the Royal Society of Chemistry at Cambridge. Initial objective is to launch a parallel electronic version of Chemical Communications, then to add enhancements not available in the printed version.
Examples of journals online: Chemical Communications
Full-text of the print version? Yes.
Additional material online? Multimedia Enhanced Feature Articles. Special non-print enhancements added in the future.
Archives? How far back?
Cost: First issues free in test phase. Subscription info. given on Web page does not mention cost of electronic version versus print.
Notes: Will be available Jan. 1997.
URL: {http://www.worldserver.pipex.com/rsc/clic.htm}
========================================
Electronic publishing program: Main primary journals of The Royal Society of Chemistry are searchable online as part of the Chemical Journals Online (CJO) family of files available via STN International. Database is called CJRSC.
URL: {http://www.worldserver.pipex.com/rsc/cjo.htm}


Springer

Publisher: Springer
Electronic publishing program: New program: Electronic "LINK" to Print journals: more than 180 journals in preparation.
Examples of journals online:
Full-text of the print version? See "LINK" above
Additional material online? Links to related external sites and databases, supplemental material and "other multimedia elements"
Archives? How far back?
Cost: "LINK": fee waived for institutional subscribers for 1997 (introductory offer). Send e-mail and receive an online license agreement for up to 25 concurrent users.
Notes: "LINK" journals to be offered in variety of formats depending upon the discipline.
URL: {http://springerlink.metapress.com/app/home/main.asp?wasp=e3d054fewm7kwke1dr02}
========================================
Examples of journals online: Nonlinear Science Today (companion publication to Journal of Nonlinear Science) = online continuation of dead print journal
Full-text of the print version? Yes
Cost: Free
Archives? How far back? Has 2 volumes out of 4 print volumes; the other two in progress.
URL: {http://www.springer-ny.com/nst/}
========================================
Examples of journal online Journal of Universal Computer Science
Full-text of the print version? Electronic only
Cost: WWW version of J.UCS is free of charge in 95/96 and will have a US $100.- subscription charge as of 97.
Notes: After the end of each year J.UCS is also available on CD-ROM and in printed form for archival purposes. Pilot issue in 1994, had 12 successful issues in 1995. 1st volume now also available on CD-ROM, free of charge as long as supplies last
URL: {http://www.jucs.org/jucs/}


Wiley

Publisher: Wiley
Electronic publishing program:
Examples of journals online: Journal of Image Guided Surgery
Full-text of the print version? Yes
Additional material online? TOCs and abstracts
Archives? How far back? Journal just started with vol. 1
Cost: Paid subscribers have access to the full features of the Journal - will receive a subscriber registration packet by fax or mail which will explain how to access the full features. Guests can complete a short registration process.
Notes:
URL: {http://www.interscience.wiley.com/jpages/1092-9088/}
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Examples of journals online: Electronic Journal of Theoretical Chemistry
Full-text of the print version? Electronic only
Additional material online?
Archives? How far back?
Cost: Institutional Rate: $300. Notified of user name and password after subscribing
Notes:
URL: {http://ejtc.wiley.co.uk/}

Part two of this article, "Electronic Publishing Programs in Science and Technology: Abstracting and Indexing Services" will appear in the next issue of ISTL.

FEEDBACK

Are you subscribing to electronic journals? What do you think about them? Do they replace the traditional print journal or supplement it? Please send e-mail to the editor for possible inclusion in a future issue.


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