Publishing An e-Journal Publishers 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 6

2 Session Aims In this session we will: Discuss what publishers 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

3 Exercise Complete exercise on Publisher Requirements What publisher requirements have you identified? What issues need to be addressed? E

4 Publisher Requirements Ensure the service works Support the user requirements which have been identified Ability to deploy new functionality Solutions match staff expertise & financial resources Quality Functionality Support Users Technical Issues Support Authors Support the author requirements which have been identified Resources Publisher Requirement s Scalable architecture Databases / CMS Statistics on use of publication Statistics Techniques to promote the publication Promotion

5 Contents Identifying Publisher Requirements Promoting the Publication Statistics Syndicating Content Maintaining Content Standards Architecture Applications

6 Find Article From AltaVista Search engines can drive much traffic to a Webzine, esp. if articles contain unusual names: Be proactive in ensuring e-journals are indexed by major search engine vendors Ensure that e-journals are indexed in a timely manner (just before new issue released) Provide a search engine friendly site map (e.g. issue or volume table of contents) containing lists to all (all new) articles and submit it to search engines

7 Tools Many tools are available for submitting Web sites to search engines, including desktop applications and Web services NOTE: Submit the URL of a page with links to all pages (e.g. table of contents, site map, Whats New page) Beware of spam

8 Has It Worked? After indexing: Use (e.g.) AltaVista search facility to count nos. of pages it has indexed Use tools to check position for typical query (e.g. Tracerlock) Tracerlock sends regular s with info on position of query in AltaVista Why is my Webzine not in top 10 for query? Should I resubmit? Is the service incorrect? Should I use another service? Tracerlock sends regular s with info on position of query in AltaVista Why is my Webzine not in top 10 for query? Should I resubmit? Is the service incorrect? Should I use another service?

9 Avoid Junk Being Indexed A search for your Webzine gives you: The pre-release information, contained in the editors personal home page The pre-publication Web site To avoid this happening make use of a robots.txt file and the Robot Exclusion Protocol (REP): robots.txt User-agent: * Disallow: / Pre-release Web site NOTE: Think about this from the start Once a page is indexed, its difficult to get it removed You can also control robots by using the tag in HTML pages (e.g. dont index news pages)

10 Approaches to Statistics Cultivate Interactive uses two externally hosted statistical services: Nedstats (stats for individual articles) SiteMeter (stats for entire Webzine) and analysis by WebTrends =stats&site=sm2-exploit-home&report=33 Externally-Hosted: Minimal resource requirements Extra info (PC analysis) notification Loss of info Reuse may be difficult Externally-Hosted: Minimal resource requirements Extra info (PC analysis) notification Loss of info Reuse may be difficult See and

11 Other Indicators Web stats are of uncertain quality due to effects of caching, robots, single visitors, etc. Other useful performance indicators: Nos. of links to your online publication Proportion of publication which has been indexed

12 News Feeds For Others To Use You can provide news feeds from your Webzine: Additional dissemination Remote site drives traffic to you UKOLN has developed CGI and Javascript parsers for RSS news feeds: CGI version works for any browser, but use requires CGI privileges JavaScript version requires JS-support, but can be used by HTML author UKOLN has developed CGI and Javascript parsers for RSS news feeds: CGI version works for any browser, but use requires CGI privileges JavaScript version requires JS-support, but can be used by HTML author

13 Auditing And Monitoring You can make use of Web-based services to audit and monitor your electronic publication: Web Site Health Check Check HTML and CSS compliance, performance, download times, etc using DrHTML, NetMechanic, etc. Accessibility Browser emulators and accessibility checkers such as Bobby Dissemination Check link popularity, pages indexed, etc using LinkPopularity Monitoring Server Availability Notification if server is unavailable, such as WatchMyServer.com See workshop materials at

14 Article Maintenance Web sites deteriorate: Information becomes out-of-date Hot news becomes stale news Links start to break Metadata changes ( and postal address of author, etc.) New formats are introduced (HTML -> XHTML) New functionality is introduced (automated translation) What should be done if: The links from an article become broken The authors and postal address changes An article now contains incorrect information You wish to change the font used initially Should: They be fixed They be left – dont tamper with published information, as this sets a dangerous precedent …

15 What Is The Article? A published article may be treated as an aggregation of resource fragments: HTML / CSS stuff (DTD, elements, CSS attributes, …) Navigational fragments (header, footer, …) Branding (name of publisher, funder, etc.) Core content (the bit which would be printed in a conventional publication) Additional end user functionality (translate this article, find similar articles, annotate article, …) Publisher / author functionality (validate this article,..) …

16 Permanent Record or Updated Resource? How do you regard an article published in a Webzine: A fixed record which should not be changed (unless, possibly, a formal update / reprint process is gone through)? A resource which can be updated according to pragmatic criteria (e.g. fixing errors, annotating when out-of-date, but not changing the original meaning)?

17 A Pragmatic Approach There is a need for a policy (and related procedures). This will reflect the role of the Webzine. How about: The meaning of published information will not be changed once an article has been published References (hyperlinks) which become broken will be annotated if they are fixed or removed. Original link information will be available to the reader. The look-and-feel of the Webzine may be changed retrospectively for published articles. If feasible, it should be possible for a reader to return to the original look-and-feel Changes may be made to HTML, etc. elements. Changes made be made to the navigational and functional fragments for an article

18 Standards The publisher should be interested in standards: To maximise potential readership To provide long-term access to resources To avoid application / platform dependencies We use: HTML (moving to XHTML, but issues over tools) CSS (but issues over browser support) Dublin Core metadata in HTML We are thinking about: Transforming XHTML into WML using XSLT Providing DC metadata in RDF Using RSS for news feeds Other areas which inform our research activities

19 Architecture Key feature – use of neutral fragments which are transformed, easily managed and reused Title Author URL date Header Footer Article body Translate See also DTD CSS HEAD Various fragments are processed by server scripts and can be managed Add new functionality: Print all Translate See also Manage functionality: New translation Update Web stats Manage metadata Add new format, etc: PDF, WAP, eBook, ,... Full list of authors User-defined views variables content HTML Render article Render issue Create site map

20 Applications What applications can be used to implement this architecture? Cultivate Interactive MS SiteServer Mainly used for indexing function Also provides site management tools Author upload facility is of interest HTML Authoring Tools HotMetal / FrontPage / HTML Kit Web Stats Nedstats / Sitemeter (Web-based) Misc submission tools Software Development (ASP Scripts) Visual Interdev Notepad

21 Applications – Licensed or Free? Background: Limited budget available for Cultivate Interactive Limited resources for software development (bought-in Postgraduate help) Provided opportunity to evaluate / report on potential for (free) Web-based services - ASPs (Application Service Providers) Use of mainly free Web-based service: Web statisticsSubmission to search engines Polling servicesMonitoring service availability See article at but note potential problems due to decline in ad revenue Use of mainly free Web-based service: Web statisticsSubmission to search engines Polling servicesMonitoring service availability See article at but note potential problems due to decline in ad revenue

22 Applications – A CMS The model for Cultivate Interactive has worked well For a larger-scale project, a CMS (Content Management System) may be needed: Manage access by multiple editors Manage access rights (design can change appearance, editor can change content) Manage workflow processes Manage application development Issues: Open source (e.g. Zope) vs. Licensed Capital costs vs development costs Entry point (size of Webzine, budget, …) Support author editor pre-release site review publication

23 Identifiers Publisher should provide short memorable identifiers Its wise to avoid platform & application dependencies Its also useful to use directories to group issues and articles Short, memorable, language & format independent Longer, format specific, scope for confusion:.htm or.html Also application-specific, possible mirroring / indexing problems Very application specific, not indexable, caching and mirroring problems But use of a database helps with Web site maintenance NOTE: database generated resource can have static URL

24 Mirroring / Preservation If your Webzine is popular you be be asked if it can be mirrored (low bandwidth areas, Intranets,..) Also consider the long term preservation Issues: Absolute vs relative URLs The root of your Web site and its structure Mirroring the content or the application Sucking the Webzine vs pushing (replicating) it Navigation on a mirrored site (where is home?) Mirroring exactly vs rewriting bits Own domain for apps (eg. wwwsearch.cultivate-int.org ) If a site can be mirrored easily, its more likely to be easily preserved or transferred to other platforms. So even if mirroring doesnt appear to be of interest, there may be other benefits

25 D-Lib D-Lib is mirrored at UKOLN at NOTE: Search and the results are not at mirror Long URL of UK mirror

26 Developments With Identifiers Library professionals have an interest in persistent addressing URLs break when: An organisation is renamed A Web site is reorganised Possible solutions include: DOIs (but mirroring issues) OpenURLs (address mirroring and resolution) … See for background info

27 Questions Any questions?