Sieglinde Schreiner-Linford Low cost e-journal Production As-low-cost-as-possible-for-a- chosen-level-of-quality e-journal production

ELAG 2005 WorkshopLow cost e-journal production Participants (Francine Dreier) Anne Gentil-Beccot (Frauke Gisela Ralf) Sieglinde Schreiner-Linford Frank Spellerberg

ELAG 2005 WorkshopLow cost e-journal production  Publishing online is a specialized and professional activity as much as publishing in print  Danger: ‘low-cost’ can become ‘cheap’, but costly Strategies and solutions to ensure quality and overcome organizational and technical problems

ELAG 2005 WorkshopLow cost e-journal production Starting point:  What elements are required to put a scientific journal online?  Infrastructure  Staff  Competence  Time  Budget (money)

Complementary questions: How to finance dissemination and access - How to keep the cost of publishing low

ELAG 2005 WorkshopLow cost e-journal production Organizational Basics  Identify and use resources at hand  Keep the project structure simple  Set achievable goals – better to do less and do that well …  Clearly agree on goals and convert into functional requirements  Convert into technical requirements

ELAG 2005 WorkshopLow cost e-journal production Budgets  Time  Money  People Resources can be (at least partially) traded against each other Costs and resources

ELAG 2005 WorkshopLow cost e-journal production Profit  Academic publishing is not (primarily) for profit in money  Institutional and individual visibility and standing Investment in online publishing is legitimate

ELAG 2005 WorkshopLow cost e-journal production Technical Basics – Use of Existing Infrastructure  Hosting of web server, middle ware, bandwidth, sys admin, server security  Content Management System (cms) or database driven solution for journal production process  Site licenses and training for html editing and graphics software Single biggest possibility to keep direct production cost low

ELAG 2005 WorkshopLow cost e-journal production What Constitutes Quality? Elements of Site Architecture  Taking quality of content for granted …  Standards compliant coding (w3.org) and separation of structure and layout (XHTML/CSS)  Usability: clean navigation scheme, PDF is not a screen format  Accessibility

ELAG 2005 WorkshopLow cost e-journal production Elements of Site Architecture 2  Modular construction of pages (maintenance)  Simple, but pleasant layout  Meta data  Alternative access pages  Search facility

ELAG 2005 WorkshopLow cost e-journal production Preparing Content  Preparation of online publication to the same editorial and scientific standards as print publication  Preparation of actual online version comparable to preparation of print copy  Producing online version with conversion program or export / cleaning

ELAG 2005 WorkshopLow cost e-journal production Conversion Programs: Pros  Powerful and customizable  Clean, standards compliant, high quality output  Once the conversion is set up the process is very fast  Cheap solutions available

ELAG 2005 WorkshopLow cost e-journal production Conversion Programs: Cons  Learning curve  Initial setup takes time

ELAG 2005 WorkshopLow cost e-journal production Word Processor Export: Pros  Simple  Using already available tools  Quality has improved compared to early versions

ELAG 2005 WorkshopLow cost e-journal production Word Processor Export: Cons  (Nevertheless still) low quality code output  File size  Reaching even reasonable quality code requires further cleaning

ELAG 2005 WorkshopLow cost e-journal production Not to be forgotten:  Documentation  Long term archiving  Publicizing  Usage figures / impact

ELAG 2005 WorkshopLow cost e-journal production Convergence between quality elements  Simple and lean code  Reduced storage and transfer cost  Easily changeable and maintainable sites  Well coded site has basic elements of usability and accessibility in place  Slightly higher initial costs, but big long- term savings, while guarantee of quality

ELAG 2005 WorkshopLow cost e-journal production Economy of scale  Existing infrastructure  Experience and competence

ELAG 2005 WorkshopLow cost e-journal production Publishing a journal online is not a trivial undertaking, but with good planning and intelligent use of resources it can be done at reasonable cost and good quality