Date: Tue, 3 Oct 95 18:59:13 BST X-Sender: sh94r@diana.ecs.soton.ac.uk Subject: Open Journal project news News release Linking hypermedia journals on the World Wide Web: the Open Journal project http://journals.ecs.soton.ac.uk/ The main features of the project's link service are: * Links do not need to be placed when journal papers are authored, thus realizing the concept of the 'open' journal * Links can be made _from_ archival journals available electronically, not only from new publications or new issues * Links can be made from documents in popular electronic formats, such as pdf, as well as html * Links can be created by simple point-and-click mouse operations rather than embedded, inflexible and costly html code Powerful and flexible hypermedia linking facilities are being added to quality scientific journals that are available over the World Wide Web under a new project supported by the Electronic Libraries (eLib) programme, funded by the Higher Education Funding Bodies in the United Kingdom. The Open Journal project based at the University of Southampton will add these features to electronically distributed versions of the the journal _Development_ from the Company of Biologists and the British Computer Society’s _The Computer Journal_, published by Oxford University Press. Collaboration on the development of page-based electronic journals between the University of Nottingham and the publisher John Wiley and Sons - the CAJUN project - will be extended, and new features will be added to one of the first wholly electronic refereed journals to be made available over the Internet, Stevan Harnad's _Psycoloquy_. The need to place original work in the context of established knowledge is a vital part of academic research. Adding hypermedia links to journals extends the ways in which connections can can be made between papers. Potentially, any feature within a paper can be the starting point for a new thread of enquiry. An essential element of the project will be to enable links to be followed _from_ any networked information resources, other journals and on-line databases for example. Links can also be made from other media such as sound and video resources that are accessible through the WWW. Being able to make and follow links from, rather than simply to, other resources enables more useful link paths to be authored, adding value to the original link source and avoiding 'dead end' links, a common problem on the WWW. The innovative feature of the Open Journal project is that the links between information sources do not need to be explicitly embedded in the journal papers when they are authored, thus realizing the concept of the 'open' journal. Links can be initiated by readers, or a set of pre-authored link databases held separately from the information being read can be created to guide users through specific resources. In addition, through the development of subject-expert software 'agents’ users will be offered a greater range of relevant resources than they could discover independently. To apply the information-linking process the project will use an open hypermedia system, Microcosm and its associated Distributed Link Service, developed at the University of Southampton. Adobe Acrobat will be one of the formats supported for page presentation. The project's collaborators at the University of Nottingham are developing `plug-ins' for Acrobat viewers so that the distributed links can be compiled down into the form required by Acrobat. There is scope for publishers committed to the development of electronic journals, and who have begun to develop an electronic archive of current and recent journal papers, to collaborate in this work or to obtain a copy of the Distributed Link Service link-generating software. Contact: Steve Hitchcock, Department of Electronics and Computer Science, University of Southampton, Southampton SO17 1BJ, UK. Tel. +44 (0)1703 594479 or +44 (0) 181 309 1001; Fax. +44 (0)1703 592865 email sh94r@ecs.soton.ac.uk A note on the eLib programme The eLib programme is a £15 million UK initiative to deal with the pressures on library resources caused by the rapid expansion of student numbers and the worldwide ‘explosion’ in academic knowledge. These problems were recognised in the 1993 report of the Joint Funding Councils' Libraries Review Group, chaired by Professor Sir Brian Follett. For further information on the eLib programme contact: Chris Rusbridge, Programme Director, The Library, University of Warwick, Coventry CV4 7AL. Tel. +44 (0)1203 524979; Fax. +44 (0)1203 524981 email C.A.Rusbridge@Warwick.ac.uk Useful URLs for Web browsers The Distributed Link Service http://wwwcosm.ecs.soton.ac.uk/dls/dls.html The Computer Journal http://www.oup.co.uk/computer_journal/ Nottingham University CAJUN project http://www.ep.cs.nott.ac.uk/cajun.html Psycoloquy electronic journal http://cogsci.soton.ac.uk/~harnad/psyc.html Electronic Libraries (eLib) programme http://ukoln.bath.ac.uk/elib/intro.html 'The human mind ... operates by association. With one item in its grasp, it snaps instantly to the next that is suggested by the association of thoughts, in accordance with some intricate web of trails ... the speed of action, the intricacy of trails, the detail of mental pictures, is awe-inspiring beyond all else in nature.' (Vannevar Bush, As we may think) Steve Hitchcock sh94r@ecs.soton.ac.uk Open Journal project Tel: +44 (01)703 594479 Department of Electronics and Computer Science Fax: +44 (01)703 592865 University of Southampton SO17 1BJ, UK http://journals.ecs.soton.ac.uk/