1 The Chemistry Preprint Server: An Experiment in Scientific Communication James Weeks, ChemWeb Inc. 84 Theobalds Road, Holborn, London WC1X 8RR WORKSHOP ON OAi AND PEER REVIEW JOURNALS IN EUROPE Geneva, 22 nd March 2001

2 Outline of Presentation u Introduction to ChemWeb.com u Chemistry Preprint Server u Overview u Submission procedure u Browsing and searching u Where we are now u Future Directions u Conclusions u Questions & Discussion

3 ChemWeb.com u Online resource for the chemical community u Free registration and membership u Access to essential services and information u Journals, Databases, The Alchemist Magazine, Shopping Mall, Conference Centre, Careers Centre, Forums

4 ChemWeb.com u Offer free services - temporary & permanent u Access to journals u AutoNom and Beilstein Abstracts u Encourage member interaction - e.g. forums u Exploit web technology and functionality - e.g. structure searching u Over 250,000 members, 2.5 million page impressions per month Ideal host for the Chemistry Preprint Server!

5 Chemistry Preprint Server u Freely available and permanent web archive and distribution medium for research articles u Scientific articles freely available for public access prior to formal review u Preprint NOT prepublication u The first Chemistry Preprint Server! u Modelled on very successful arXiv preprint server, run by LANL, for mathematics and physics

6 Launch of the CPS u Launched 21 August 2000 at the ACS National Meeting u 20 Preprints submitted prior to launch u Positive response at the meeting u Primary concerns were issues of prior publication and quality control

7 CPS Procedure (1) u Author uploads preprint: u Article, meta-data (abstract, author details etc) & supplementary files submitted u File types supported include PDF, MS Word, Postscript, RTF and HTML u Author selects classification u Automatic conversion to PDF u Article screened by ‘editor’ u Author revisions possible (version control) u Option to redirect to online version at publisher’s site following publication

8 CPS Procedure (2) u 10 Classifications: u Analytical Chemistry u Biochemistry u Chemical Engineering u Environmental Chemistry u Inorganic Chemistry u Macromolecular Chemistry u Medicinal Chemistry u Organic Chemistry u Physical Chemistry u Miscellaneous u New Conference Proceedings section u Submit pre-conference abstracts or post-conference reports

9 CPS Procedure (3) u Every article is given a unique identifier u “Friendly URL” & Citation Reference category/YYMMNNN CPS: category/YYMMNNN

10 CPS Procedure (4) u Users can discuss & rank articles u Quick and advanced searching and browsing u Comprehensive searching across all fields u Users can access most recent, most viewed, most discussed & highest ranked articles

11 CPS Procedure (5) u Individual user profile - alerts: u Searches for key words and phrases u New articles added to a particular classification u New threads added into a discussion group u Recommend preprint to a friend

12 CPS - Where We Are Now (1) u Over 160 articles submitted in all ten categories Total number of preprints = 163

13 CPS - Where We Are Now (2) u World-wide appeal to the chemistry community Total number of countries = 39

14 CPS - Where We Are Now (3) u Each of the top 20 “most viewed” preprints has been viewed by more than 500 individuals u Top article has over 2000 viewings u Over 100,000 page impressions per month u Limited postings to the online discussions

15 Future Directions u Implement meta-data protocols in the immediate future u Harvest data from Los Alamos (arXiv) preprint server u US Department of Energy initiative to develop search engine for preprints ( Compliance with Santa Fe Convention for Open Archives Initiative u Automatic submission of preprints to journals u Author selects journal (publisher-neutral) for article submission when satisfied the article is complete u Access the CPS on WAP and Palm devices

16 Conclusions u At present, the CPS is still an experiment in scientific communication u Early signs indicate a very positive response from the chemistry community u Further enhancement: compliance with the Open Archives Initiative u Exciting possibilities for future development, further enhancing chemistry communication

17 Thank you for your attention!