INASP Links & Resources
PUBLISHING & SCHOLARLY COMMUNICATION:
Electronic & Web publishing

see also

Copyright/Electronic rights

Book & journal publishing

 

All about eBooks
A useful site, providing a variety of information about ebook (electronic book) readers and software. It includes a basic introduction to ebooks and content creation and publication. There are also sections on ebook reader hardware, ebook trends, how to convert a document into ebook format, ebook standards, together with online ebook resources. http://aalbc.com/writers/ebooks/Allaboutebooks.htm 

The Battle to Define the Future of the Book in the Digital World (by Clifford Lynch)
Article from First Monday a peer-reviewed online journal. The paper examines competing visions for the future of the book in the digital environment, with particular attention to questions about the social implications of controls over intellectual property, such as "continuity of cultural memory", i.e. the uncertain future of digital books in libraries, and continuity of access and the preservation of our intellectual heritage. http://www.firstmonday.dk/issues/issue6_6/lynch/index.html 

Bioline Publications
An electronic publishing service for bioscientists. Distributes peer-reviewed journals from around the world, plus reports,sletters and books. Abstracts and summaries of documents are free-of-charge. Accessible by WWW or by Email. http://www.bioline.org.br 

Blogger
"Blog", or "Web log", is a new buzzword and phenomenon in the rapidly growing area of Web publishing. It stands for a free Web-based tool that helps you publish your ideas on the Web instantly-also described as "push-button publishing for the people." It currently boasts about 400,000 users. A blog is a Web page made up of usually short, frequently updated, and diary-like postings and messages, arranged chronologically, and so new entries come at the top while old ones drift to the bottom. Content and purposes of blogs can vary considerably: from commentary and links to other Web sites or Internet documents, to news about a person, a group, a company, or an individual; or more personal musings, poetry, essays, fiction, photos, project updates, to the slightly more weird and obscure. Blogs are also useful for small groups to communicate in a way that is simpler and easier to follow than in email or discussion forums. Because Blogger runs on a central Web server you do not need special software on your computer to use it, and there is nothing to install. The basic Blogger service is still free, although 'Blogger Pro' has been added recently as a more sophisticated service (with advanced features, new tools, higher performance) and which is available at a modest charge ($30). http://www.blogger.com/ 

Note:
Two helpful articles by Neil McIntosh on how to set up your own Weblog recently appeared in the Guardian Online, and they can be freely accessed (without the graphics) in the Guardian Unlimited archives
"Public convenience" (7 February 2002)
http://www.guardian.co.uk/Archive/Article/0,4273,4351018,00.html 
"New kit on the blog" (14 February 2002)
http://www.guardian.co.uk/Archive/Article/0,4273,4355378,00.html 
And another useful article "So what is blogging? Why is it important to Internet librarians and how can they use if in their work", by Peter Scott, appears in the Internet Librarian, March 18 & 19, 2002, and can be accessed at http://library.usask.ca/~scottp/ili2002b4b/ 

The Book and the Computer
A quarterly online magazine from Japan that provides a forum for the debate on the question of the future of the book, and the relationship between the book and the computer. There are articles, for example about online bookselling, print-on-demand technology, and electronic books and the future of reading. http://www.honco.net/

Can e-books Improve Libraries?
From the Central Kansas Library System, this document discusses three roles for e-books in libraries, each with a unique mission, and each mission determining how librarians should select, purchase, organize, and circulate e-books. Role 1 introduces current e-book technology; Role 2 looks at library patrons wanting e-books in a way similar how libraries currently provide audio books and videos; and Role 3 examines how e-books can improve library services, and the changes that will be required in e-book technology and library organization to make this possible. http://skyways.lib.ks.us/central/ebooks/
 

Copyright, Intellectual Property, and Publishing on the WWW Guide to a set of links which provide information on issues of copyright and fair use on the Internet, and when making use and citing copyright material on the Web. http://english.ttu.edu/kairos/3.1/coverweb/links/copyright.htm  

eBookNet.com
A useful site for the latest information on e-books and e-readers, hardware and software. The site also provides access to a number of articles, reports and discussions on the impact of the Internet on book publishing; and there are links to technology sites, Web sites devoted to the e-book business, writing e-books, and more. http://www.ebooknet.com/

EbookMap.net
Offers access to a set of eBook industry maps that reflect the evolving business models among publishers, conversion houses, digital distribution companies, eBook vendors, online retailers, libraries and library vendors, authors, and others.
http://www.ebookmap.net/maps.htm 

eJournals Delivery Service (eJDS)
Jointly hosted by the Trieste-based Abdus Salam International Centre for Theoretical Physics (ICTP) and the Third World Academy of Sciences (TWAS), this new service is designed to facilitate access to current scientific literature by scientists in institutions in developing countries that have low bandwidth Internet facilities, which makes it difficult for them to download material in a timely fashion. eJDS will deliver free copies of requested articles by email, thus enabling researchers to follow all hyperlinks in any document. Eligible users may request up to three articles per day or 12 a week, but document delivery depends on whether the ICTP has a has a current subscription to the relevant journal, and distribution is subject to any limitations or conditions for distribution imposed by participating publishers who are supporting the project. http://www.ejds.org/  

Electronic Journal Access
From the Colorado Alliance of Research Libraries, this is a valuable guide to electronic journal publishing, electronic journals (alphabetically by title and by LC subject headings), other directories of electronic journals, and a directory of major publishers of electronic journals. http://ejournal.coalliance.org/ 

Electronic Journals: A Selected Resource Guide
A useful guide from Harrassowitz that provides an overview of, and links to, Web sites and resources relating to electronic journals, including topics such as e-journal lists and directories, technical standards, legal and business issues, scholarly publishing issues, and preservation and archiving of electronic material. http://www.harrassowitz.de/ms/ejresguide.html

Electronic Journal Publishers: A Reference Librarian's Guide
Electronic journal publishing, even in the year 2002, is still a fairly young field, and little standardization, even among electronic journals with print equivalents, has occurred. This complicates the task of the reference or bibliographic instruction librarian, who has to guide users in the best ways to exploit this new medium. To assist in this task, this article from Issues in Science and Technology Librarianship, by Charles F. Huber, Davidson Library, University of California at Santa Barbara, surveys and evaluates science-technology-medicine (STM) journal publishers' Web sites (with links to all of them), focusing on those features most relevant to the end-user student or researcher.
http://www.library.ucsb.edu/istl/00-summer/article2.html 

Electronic Journal Publishing: A Reader Version 2.0
A new edition of INASP's reader, primarily for novices in electronic journal publishing, but also of interest to those more experienced in the field. It brings together a wide variety of articles, overviews, and perspectives, published in both print and electronic form, together with a number of new and especially commissioned papers for this new version. This includes contributions on the economics of electronic publishing, copyright and archiving issues, and descriptions of different models of electronic journal publishing used in developing countries. http://www.inasp.info/psi/ejp/index.html

Electronic Journals Resource Directory
Almost 300 links to directories, library indexes, journals, publishers, vendors, etc. http://library.usask.ca/~scottp/links/

Electronic Journals Tutorial
From the University of Leicester Library, this tutorial is designed to assist distance learners about the use of electronic journals and to help them navigate through the scholarly electronic journal maze. http://www.le.ac.uk/li/distance/training/ejournals/index.html

Electronic Publishing and Scholarly Communication on the Internet
Maintained by Leslie Chan, this useful site provides many links to discussion groups, articles, projects, upcoming and recent conferences on E-publishing, and E-Journals concerned with network based scholarly publishing, including a few links to electronic publishing in developing countries. http://citd.scar.utoronto.ca/capa/e-publishing.html

Electronic Publishing and Developing Countries: Trends, Potential and Problems
A paper, by Vanderlei P. Canhos, Dora A.L.Canhos, Sidnei de Souza, and Barbara Kirsop from an ICSU Press-UNESCO co-sponsored conference on electronic publishing in science held in 1996. http://associnst.ox.ac.uk/~icsuinfo/canhos.htm

Electronic Publishing Trust for Development
Assists scientific communities in developing countries to take advantage of new communications technology to disseminate the results of their work internationally. Provides access to a number of documents on electronic publishing in developing countries. www.epublishingtrust.org

EPRESS: Electronic Publishing Resource Service
Epress aims to establish a service to provide tools, knowledge and information to help people publish electronic journals. The ultimate aim of the project is to increase efficiency in ejournal production, thereby reducing publication times for scholarly journals and, at the same time, reducing the greatest overhead, staffing costs. http://www.epress.ac.uk

Epub Standards Report
Standards for publishing in electronic science journals, developed at an AAAS/UNESCO/ICSU workshop on developing practices and standards. http://www.aaas.org/spp/dspp/sfrl/projects/epub/standard.htm

e-Stacks
This is not a free service, but a commercial company offering learned societies a "quick and affordable way to publish journals online and to manage online subscribers." e-stacks displays journal content over the Internet as pdf files, which users download for online reading or printing. e-Stacks components include a search facility, table of contents, abstracts, full-text, a subscription monitor system, society information and links, as well as allowing the society to post abstract and full-text pdf files for their journal(s) as each manuscript is accepted and before the printed issues are created or delivered. For more information about this service, and the charges involved, get in touch with the company. http://www.scholarone.com/products_estacks.html

The Free Online Scholarship Newsletter (Version 1.1)
A newsletter edited by Peter Suber, Professor of Philosophy at Earlham College in the USA, whose purpose is to share news and discussion on the migration of print scholarship to the Internet, and the efforts to make it available to readers free of charge. The editorial position of the newsletter is set out in the first issue: the editor believes that "scholarly literature ought to be free and online", in every field of the sciences and the humanities; "free" meaning both (1) free of charge for the reader and (2) uncensored; and online meaning "available on the Internet in a form in which its full text can be read, copied, linked, printed and searched." An interesting ongoing discussion-though journal publishers may be something less than enthusiastic!
http://www.earlham.edu/~peters/fos/index.htm 

Getting Started in Electronic Publishing
Part of INASP's Electronic Journal Publishing: A Reader, this is an excellent introductory essay by Sally Morris (Secretary-General of the Association of Learned and Professional Society Publishers) to the field of electronic publishing, especially electronic journals publishing-it sets out the major benefits and attractions of electronic publishing, what decisions you have to make to publish in electronic formats, what changes you have to make to your procedures, how much will it cost, and what are the business models for recouping some or all of your costs.
http://www.inasp.info/psi/ejp/morris.html

Handbook for Digital Projects: A Management Tool for Preservation and Access
Produced by the Northeast Document Conservation Center in Andover, Mass. and edited by Maxine Sitts, this handbook – which also serves as a technical primer – provides a cumulation of tips, guidance and practical advice from institutions that have engaged in digital projects. It brings together information on best practices and summarizes lesson learned from many experiences. It should prove useful for a variety of institutions: archives, museums, historical societies, and libraries of all types. Each section includes a variety of sources, with links to articles and other documents available on the Web. http://www.nedcc.org/digital/dighome.htm

Hyper Journal
A discussion list concerned with all aspects of the production and publication of electronic journals, particularly those managed by academics themselves. With many useful links. http://www.ukoln.ac.uk/isg/hyperjournal/contents.htm

The Impact of Electronic Publishing on the Academic Community
The papers from a April 1997 workshop co-organized by the Wenner-Gren Foundation and the Academia Europaea to examine the impact of electronic publishing on the academic community. Papers focus on the subject from three viewpoints: preservation of academic material, past, current and future; access to such material in digital form; and quality issues including peer refereeing, authentication, etc. http://www.portlandpress.com/pp/books/online/tiepac/contents.htm  

International Consortium for the Advancement of Academic Publication (ICAAP)
The ICAAP is a research and development laboratory and standards organization devoted to the advancement of electronic scholarly communication, specializing in developing technology for the delivery of scholarly content, including, for example, the development of SGML markup systems and conversion utilities. The site offers a number of helpful FAQ sections, and there are pages devoted to "Best Practices", covering software and hardware choices in electronic journal publishing, and on site organization, article submission, article markup, and visual design. 
http://www.icaap.org/ 

KnowBetter.com
A useful resource for anyone interested in electronic books, electronic publishing, and the fast-growing world of the ebook industry. Offers ebook news and announcements culled from sites across the Internet, together with columns, commentary, and reviews, and sections on ebook publishers and reading devices. 
http://www.knowbetter.com/ 

Liblicense-Licensing Digital Information
Resource and guide for librarians about all aspects of on-line licensing; includes samples of on-line license agreements/subscriber agreements for electronic journals from a large number of publishers) http://www.library.yale.edu/~llicense/index.shtml

Licensing Models Web Site
Developed by John Cox Associates, this site provides access to model standard licenses for the acquisition of electronic journals and other electronic resources, and for use by publishers, librarians and subscription agents. Offers four different types of licences, each with commentary: (i) for single academic institutions, (ii) academic consortia, (iii) public libraries, and (iv) corporate and other special libraries. They may be freely used/downloaded, without requiring prior permission. http://www.licensingmodels.com/

A Manual for Publishers in Developing Countries
This useful online manual (still under construction) aims to provide scientists and publishers in developing countries with the context, tools and the technical management skills needed to move from the printed to the electronic environment. Developed by the Electronic Publishing Trust for Development in the UK; Basa de Dados Tropical in Brazil, and the Centre for Instructional Technology at the University of Toronto. http://citd.scar.utoronto.ca/Epub_manual/index.html

New Horizons in Scholarly Communication
A publication of the Librarians Association of the University of California, this site focuses on trends and new technologies in scholarly communication, for teaching, research, and publishing. http://libweb-01.ucsc.edu/scomm/

NetLibrary
Online library company offering a service to publishers to distribute their books in digital formats. The publisher supplies hardcopy books or text to NetLibrary who convert them into digital files for sale as e-books, and sold as part of large collections to academic, public and business libraries. Revenue accrued from sales is split between the publisher and NetLibrary, who use special digital rights management technology to prevent more than one user from reading an e-book at once, as well as special technology that prevents printing and copying content. The company also provide inventory management. http://www.netlibrary.com/

Online Originals
A publishing company that operates exclusively on the Internet, publishing and selling works of literature in electronic formats. Customers can view samples of each book before deciding on a purchase, and each month one title is offered at no charge, as an enticement to the uninitiated. Once paid for with a credit card, the book is zapped to its owner, who can download it on to a PC in pdf format, or download to a portable device/e-book reader or a pocket PC. If you are an author you can join an interactive writing community, and Online Originals welcomes submissions both from established and aspiring authors (submission guidelines can be requested on the site).
http://www.onlineoriginals.com/ 

Open eBook Forum
The Open eBook Forum is an association of hardware and software companies, publishers, authors, users of electronic books, and related organizations. Its purpose is to create and maintain standards, promote the successful adoption of electronic books, and provide a forum for the discussion of issues and technologies related to electronic books. http://www.openebook.org/

Project Gutenberg
First conceived in 1971 and the brainchild of Michael Hart, Project Gutenberg's mission and philosophy is to make freely available electronic texts (e-texts) of classic books after they have entered the public domain. (This is currently 50 years after the death of the author, and which at this time roughly means books published before 1925, although public domain copyright conventions can vary from country to county, and some Project Gutenberg e-texts have some restrictions about distribution.) It now offers access to some 10,000 books in the Project Gutenberg Electronic Public Library, covering both fiction and non-fiction, and which can be downloaded as compressed files at no charge. An average of one new e-text is published every day. The e-text files are not actually kept at the Gutenberg Web site, but at many FTP sites throughout the world who hold the whole Project Gutenberg archive of texts, and more details about these can be found on the Web site. You can browse or search by author, title, subject, language, Library of Congress class, with the support of some advance search facilities. http://promo.net/pg/

The Publishing of Electronic Scholarly Monographs and Textbooks (by C.J. Armstrong & Ray Lonsdale)
A study (made in 1998) conceived to investigate the incidence and nature of the publishing of electronic scholarly monographs and textbooks in the United Kingdom and beyond. The project focused on publications used in tertiary education or for research, and 'electronic publishing' was taken to mean texts made available in any computer-mediated format: diskette, CD-ROM, or via the Internet. The 113-page study can be downloaded in its entirety. 
http://www.ukoln.ac.uk/dlis/models/studies/elec-pub/elec-pub.htm 

Scholarly Electronic Publishing Bibliography
The latest version (version 34, 1 December 2000) of this valuable bibliography started by Paul Even Peters and now compiled by Charles W. Bailey, Jr. It presents selected articles, books, electronic documents, and other sources that are useful in understanding scholarly electronic publishing efforts on the Internet and other networks. Can be searched and downloaded, and also includes a resources directory to find other Web sites related to scholarly electronic publishing. http://info.lib.uh.edu/sepb/sepb.html

Scholarly Publishing and Communication in the Electronic Environment
The proceedings of a symposium held in September 1997 at the Centre for Instructional Technology Development, Bladen Library, University of Toronto at Scarborough; with links to some Web resources on electronic publishing. http://citd.scar.utoronto.ca/Epub/1997.html

Scientific Communication and Publishing in the Information Age
The summary report of a workshop jointly organized by the British Council and the International Network for the Availability of Scientific Publications (INASP), held in Oxford 10-12 May, 1999. The sites also provides access to the abstracts and full text of the papers that were presented, and which includes papers on electronic journal publishing in Latin America and the Caribbean, Africa, as well as a paper on the INASP-sponsored African Journals Online project. http://www.inasp.info/psi/scpw/report.html

Subject Index to Literature on Electronic Sources of Information
Compiled by Marian Dworaczek, this is an extensively indexed and searchable bibliography on all aspects of electronic publishing, including print and non-print materials, periodical articles, monographs, and chapters in collected works. 1329 titles are identified. http://library.usask.ca/~dworacze/SUBJIN_A.HTM

Uncle Netword's WebStyle Guide
Despite the rather silly title, this 24-page Web style guide by Scott Wallace provides a helpful set of guidelines for rules and conventions that are applicable to documents prepared for publication on the Web, including aspects of capitalization, punctuation, text references, citing Internet documents and addresses, common style queries etc. The author makes it clear that the guide is intended to augment, not replace, standard style and usage manuals. http://www.UNCLE-NETWORD.COM/webstyle/ 

UNESCO Guide for ETD Authors
This is an extensive interactive guide for creating electronic theses and dissertations (ETDs), designed not only to aid graduate students producing electronic documents and using digital libraries, but to help all those who are involved in ETDs--for example theses supervisors, graduate deans who want to develop ETD programmes, and IT administrators at universities. In addition to the guide, the site also provides access to a wide range of ETD models and resources, including reference materials, tools, and tutorials. The guide is available in English, French, Spanish, and Russian, and you can download a printable version of the entire site. http://etdguide.org/

This page was last updated on: 07 July 2003 © International Network for the Availability of Scientific Publications (INASP) 1998-2003.