ECS Journals Journal Publishing Service (OJPS) for the production and distribution of its tech- Take a nical serial publications. ECS journals can be accessed from both the ECS web site (http://www.electrochem.org/) and these additional online locations Quantum Leap Journal of The Electrochemical Society at http://ojps.aip.org/JES/ Electrochemical and Solid-State Letters at http://ojps.aip.org/ESL/ by Mary E. Yess “E-First” Publication nce upon a time, the ECS jour- nals followed a very traditional Since its inception, Letters has been committed to publishing each article as it O path. BOE (Before the Online becomes available (electronic-first or “e-first”), without waiting for an entire issue Era), the Journal of The Electrochemical to be finished. In the transition to the OJPS platform, Letters maintained its e-first Society was published in paper, one publication path. A very significant change coming soon is that the Journal will go issue at a time, and carried by truck, to an e-first publication process as well. Articles will be prepared for online publi- boat, or plane to its final destination. cation and then posted as soon as they have been proofed by the author(s) and Although the content of the Journal released by ECS. This provides authors and readers with the fastest possible deliv- was of the highest quality, the timeli- ery of accepted manuscripts. ness of the receipt of that content was not its equal. The beginning of the Dynamic Online Journals new era came about for ECS with the launch of Electrochemical and Solid-State Each ECS journal on the OJPS platform is not just a replication of the paper edi- Letters in 1998. It was planned, and tion. Each journal has dynamic features for both readers and authors, including debuted, as the first rapid-publication ◗ peer-reviewed journal in electrochemi- citation links to referenced articles and to abstracts indexed in INSPEC, SPIN, cal and solid-state science and technol- and other databases;2 ogy, with new articles published ◗ HTML abstract displays and tables of contents, with links to article delivery almost daily. All this was accomplished options; in-house with a minimum of resources ◗ a home page from which users may launch advanced searches of the ECS and with essential, but limited, func- journals content; tionality. The Journal soon joined ◗ full-text HTML articles with links to figures, tables, and reference citations; Letters with an online edition of its ◗ full-text in PDF and PostScript formats; and own, but with papers published only ◗ a “virtual filing cabinet” for storing selected articles in a custom list for future one issue at a time and the paper edi- reference. tion being published first. Change could have continued along a slow and For authors, there will be faster author proofing online and the ability to track sub- steady path, but dynamic online fea- mitted manuscripts. ECS journals already have exceptionally high ISI “impact fac- tures beckoned, and the ECS journals tors” (see article on page 10 of this issue). With improved electronic distribution, took a “quantum leap.” more readers will have access to this important content. Plans are under way to Beginning with the January 2001 establish an online peer review system, allowing for faster review of manuscripts, issues, authors and readers can take and faster time-to-publication for accepted papers. advantage of a number of exciting and powerful new features in the ECS jour- Planning for Higher Value Online nals. These features are the result of ECS’s selection of the American During its research and planning phase, ECS carefully observed the state of Institute of Physics (AIP)1 Online scholarly journals and researched the options for publishing its journals online.

12 The Electrochemical Society Interface • Spring 2001 Key from the beginning was the desire coverage of all our scientific and engi- New Page Numbering System to move the journals to higher-value neering-related fields is growing. The online formats, not just online editions extensive amount of new material in The e-first publication mode has of the printed versions. SGML (Standard electrochemistry also adds value to the required one change to the Journal and Generalized Markup Language) was OJPS platform, not only for ECS mem- Letters, and that is a new page number- identified early on as the composition bers, but for anyone that visits our site.” ing scheme. Electronic publication, and format of choice, enabling more versa- tile outputs, hyperlinked references, Benefits for ECS Members and easier electronic distribution. SGML ECS is keeping a keen eye has since become the clear leader in ver- Access to the full online archive of satile formats for electronic publishing. ECS journals content continues to be a on future developments, It also has been recognized that, in part of the ECS member benefits pack- order for non-profit, society-based jour- age. Currently, the ECS journals content poised to take the next nals to survive and continue to deliver is hosted on two different web sites. The the highest-quality products, they must 2001 content is hosted on the OJPS plat- steps in disseminating form synergistic relationships with peer form; it is currently is available free on a organizations. Thus, although there are trial basis, while ECS and AIP finalize all the content of its technical now a number of commercial and other the necessary access control mecha- nonprofit vendors for SGML services, nisms. The pre-2001 online content journals and offering AIP was selected for its proven track continues to be hosted on the ECS web site. This includes the 1998, 1999, and it in the best “containers” 2000 issues of Letters and the 1999 and Access to the full online 2000 issues of the Journal. In mid-2001, possible. all ECS online journals content will be archive of ECS journal available through OJPS, with the func- tionality of the 2001 content. all the concomitant abstracting and content continues to be a Once the access-control mechanisms indexing processes, make it necessary to on the OJPS site are complete, ECS mem- assign each page a permanent page part of the ECS member bers will be notified that they will need number at the time of first posting. to register with AIP in order to access the Further, because the papers appear in benefits package. content on the OJPS site. This will be a sections, the new page numbering simple (free) registration process and ECS scheme requires a section identifier as members will be guided through it step- well. Starting with the January 2001 record and its status as a peer society. AIP by-step. ECS members should be sure to issues, an alpha-numeric page number- has a high level of technical expertise, a renew their membership to ensure access ing scheme is being used for the Journal stable organization with innovative to the ECS journals online throughout staff, and is recognized as a leader in the the coming year. (continued on page 15) area of society-publishing initiatives. Teaming with AIP enables the ECS journals to take advantage of the latest in electronic publishing, while remain- 1. AIP is a not-for-profit membership corporation chartered in New York State ing independent, nonprofit publica- in 1931 for the purpose of promoting the advancement and diffusion of the tions of ECS, with the ECS Editorial knowledge of physics and its application to human welfare. AIP’s mission is Board retaining full editorial and style to serve the sciences of physics and astronomy by serving its member control. Societies, by serving individual scientists, and by serving students and the The ECS journals, on the OJPS plat- general public. From the outset AIP published journals on behalf of its form at AIP, join the journals of peer member societies, for example, the Physical Review for The American societies such as the American Physical Physical Society. AIP’s most widely read publication, Physics Today, was Society (APS), the American Vacuum inaugurated in 1948. In 1995, AIP began publication of the first electronic Society, the American Society of Civil online journal in physics, Applied Physics Letters Online. Engineers, ASME International, and the International Society for Optical 2. INSPEC is the leading English-language bibliographic information service Engineering (SPIE). providing access to the world’s scientific and technical literature in physics, “We’re extremely happy to be hosting electrical engineering, electronics, communications, control engineering, these two prestigious ECS journals on computers and computing, and information technology. The database con- our OJPS platform,” said Darlene tains approximately 6 million records dating back to 1969. Walters, AIP’s Vice President for SPIN (Searchable Physics Information Notices) is the bibliographic data- Publishing. “They’re a perfect fit with base created by AIP. SPIN provides the most current indexing and abstracting our existing content and, more impor- of major American and Russian physics and astronomy journals. SPIN is tant, they allow us to offer authoritative updated daily with approximately 45,000 new records added annually. research in a new area at a time when our

The Electrochemical Society Interface • Spring 2001 13 Quantum Leap numbers, and other paper-container- (continued from page 13) related mechanisms will be left behind in favor of electronic citations. and Letters. The first section uses the let- Downloading content to e-books and ter ‘A’, the second section ‘B’, and so other portable digital assistants (PDAs) on. The letter is followed by sequential is already upon us. These leaps are dou- numbering. A similar scheme was used bly exciting for ECS and its members in the past by the Journal for the Letters and authors, because so many are Section, which used the alpha-numeric directly involved in the technology scheme of L1, L2, etc. Although this required to make it all happen: display new page numbering system is different technology and batteries for portable from the traditional numeric-only sys- applications, to name just a few. Having tem, it is necessary so that the final ver- taken this “quantum leap” to the OJPS sion of each page can be produced, platform, many smaller steps—in wider once and only once, at the time of elec- distribution, lower cost, author conve- tronic publication. nience, and speed—are now possible. Leaping Ahead

ECS is keeping a keen eye on future Mary Yess is the ECS Director of developments, poised to take the next Publications and Managing Editor steps in disseminating the content of its for Interface. technical journals and offering it in the best “containers” possible. A true end- to-end electronic workflow (from sub- mission to peer-review to publication) is just a few paces away. Perhaps jour- nals ultimately will move away from paper editions. Issue numbers, page

The Electrochemical Society Interface • Spring 2001 15