AN EXPERIMENT WITH ELECTRONIC JOURNALS
 

Donald E. Riggs

University Library
University of Michigan
Ann Arbor, Michigan 48109-1205, USA

E-mail: Donald_E_Riggs@um.cc.umich.edu

Keywords: Coalition for Networked Information, Computer Assisted Engineering Network, Delivery, Document Delivery, DIReCT, Elsevier, Engineering Information, MASC, Materials Science Journals, Journals, Serials, Electronic Journals, MIRLYN, Michigan Research Library Network, MDAS, Multiple Database Access System, Desk-top Information Resources for Collaboration Technology, TULIP, The University Licensing Program, University of Michigan, University Library, Academic Library, Local Campus Network, Internet.

Abstract: The University of Michigan is working with Elsevier Science Publishers in a three-year experimental project to analyze the electronic distribution of 37 materials science journals. Three objectives are expected from this project (commonly referred to as TULIP -- The University Licensing Program): 1). To study the technical feasibility of distributing journal information over the local campus network and across the Internet, 2). To better understand, through implementation of prototypes, alter-native costing, pricing, subscription, and market models that may be viable in the electronic distribution scenarios, and 3). To study patron usage patterns under different distribution situations. Nine libraries in the United States are participating in this project.
 

1. INTRODUCTION

In 1991, a group of university systems and library leaders in the United States discussed possibilities for accelerating the distribution of traditional journal information in electronic form. During the same time, Elsevier/Pergamon was also exploring the same possibilities. A Coalition for Networked Information (CNI) workshop was held in March 1991; during this workshop it was confirmed that there was not any economic model to follow for the production of electronic journals, and that more than one university library should be involved if a publisher were to invest in an experiment on electronic journals.

After the CNI workshop, a cooperative research project was established; the project is com-monly referred to as TULIP (The University Licensing Project). Fifteen university libraries were identified as possible participants; of the 15 libraries, nine submitted proposals and began working with Elsevier. The University of Michigan Library is one of the nine libraries. The focus is on materials science journals. The rationale for choosing the discipline of materials science is based on the fact that Elsevier publishes a significant number of journal titles in this discipline. Materials science is the engineering discipline dealing with the formulation, testing, and selection of materials used in manufacturing, engineering, medical, and other applications. This project is designed as a three-year endeavor (extending into 1995).

2. TULIP'S OBJECTIVES

Karen Hunter (1992), the Vice President for the Elsevier Science Publishing Group, delineates TULIP's three objectives:

Technical. To determine the technical feasibility of networked distribution to and across institutions with varying levels of sophistication in their technical infrastructure. "Networked distri-bution" means sending the information both across the national Internet and over campus networks to the desk-tops of students and faculty. Elsevier will deliver the journal information to participating universities in standard formats. The universities will incorporate the information in local prototype or operational systems. A wide variety of delivery alternatives, search and retrieval systems, and print-on-demand options will be compared.

Organizational and economic. To understand, through the implementation of prototypes, alternative costing, pricing, subscription and market models that may be "viable" in electronic scenarios; comparing such models with existing print-then- distribute models; and understanding the role of campus organizational units under such scenarios. The overall goal is to reduce the unit cost of information delivery and retrieval. "Viable" means economically and functionally acceptable to all parties.

User behavior. To study reader usage patterns under different distribution (technical, organizational and economic) situations. Improvement in the functionality of the information, whether as to article structure or retrieval tools, will also be considered. Certain data will be collected uniformly at all sites for analysis in the aggregate and for comparison among different systems.

3. OPERATIONAL ASPECTS

Elsevier agreed to provide electronic files to the participating libraries for 42 journals in materials science: The files consist of:

TIFF bit-mapped page images (cover-to-cover, including tables of contents), scanned from the printed page at 300 dpi (600 dpi for certain applications), and Group IV fax compression.

Edited and structured ASCII "heads" for each editorial item, including bibliographic citation and article abstract.

Unedited ICR-generated ASCII full text, for searching but not display.

The files are created by Elsevier who ships them to Engineering Information (EI); EI maintains the archive and acts as the Internet host (Hunter, 1992)

4. JOINT INITIATIVE AT THE UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN

The TULIP project at the University of Michigan initially began with a proposal being submit-ted to Elsevier from the university's College of Engineering (its Computer Assisted Engineering Network), the Information Technology Division, and the Library. Later, the School of Information and Library Studies became a participant in this joint effort. Complementary expertise from all units made the proposal much stronger and it certainly represented a synergistic approach. The University of Michigan is working with 37 materials science journals. As of June 21, l993, the project is in production and the files are available on the campus servers. The files appear on the Library's online catalog (MIRLYN -- Michigan Research Library Network); the data is available to MIRLYN users as the MDAS (Multiple Database Access System) file MASC (Materials Science). Once a citation has been located on MASC, one can print the full image of the item. Each record is linked to a scanned image (300 dpi) of the article, editorial, correspondence, etc., which can be laser printed. While any user will be able to dial into MIRLYN, discover if an article exists, have it printed, or read it online, a computer which runs the X Window System (and has a connection to the campus backbone network) is required. Versions of X are available, in addition to UNIX, for Macs, PCs, and other platforms. Files are provided biweekly; the files are growing at about 103,000 pages per year; 11 GBs of storage are required. Engineering Information maintains the files and acts as the Internet host; EI distributes the files without charge to the participating institutions.

The College of Engineering is permitting the campus to use its DIReCT (Desk-top Information Resources for Collaboration Technology) for the TULIP project. DIReCT has developed a user interface, a search engine, database structure, and associated modules to allow for concurrent searching of ASCII data from any authorized work station in the network. And it is working on developing user pro-filing functions and passive searching as well as on demand searching (1992).

5. SEARCHING THE MATERIALS SCIENCE DATABASE

The University of Michigan's MASC (MATERIALS SCIENCE DATABASE) include the following journal titles:

Applied Catalysis A

Applied Catalysis B

Applied Surface Science

Chemical Engineering Journal

Composite Structures

Composites Science & Technology

European Polymer Journal

International Journal of Plasticity

Journal of Crystal Growth

Journal of Electron Spectroscopy

Journal of the Less-Common Metals

Journal of Magnetism & Magnetic Materials

Journal of Molecular Catalysis

Journal of Non-Crystalline Solids

Journal of Nuclear Materials

Journal of Physics & Chemistry of Solids

Materials Characterization

Materials Letters

Materials Research Bulletin

Materials Science & Engineering A

Materials Science & Engineering B

Materials Science Reports

Mechanics of Materials

Nuclear Instrument & Methods B

Optical Materials

Physica C

Progress in Materials Science

Sensors & Actuators A

Sensors & Actuators B

Solar Energy Materials

Solid State Communications

Surface & Coatings Technology

Surface Science

Surface Science Reports

Synthetic Metals

Thin Solid Films

WEAR
 
 

The MASC (Materials Science) file can be searched by author, title, or keyword:

Search by author. Enter the author's last name followed by the first name or initial.

Examples: a=farhatt, john

a=farhatt, j

MASC can list up to 10 co-authors for an item. A search will retrieve all occurrences of the author's name regardless of whether the author is the first name listed or the last.

Search by title. This command is to be used when searching for the title of a journal only. When searching for the title of an article, the "Search by keyword" command should be used.

Enter the full title of the article, do not include any leading definite articles, such as "the," "a," "los," "der," etc. Capitalization is not necessary.

Examples: t=journal of crystal growth

t=optical materials

Search by subject. Searching by subject is not a useful search strategy in MASC. Searching for one or more items in a subject area is easier and more efficient with keyword searching.

Search by keyword. To search by keyword, select the most unique or "key" words from the title or subject you want to find. Avoid using common words such as journal, proceeding, material, etc. Keywords can be combined using Boolean and positional operators, and field limiting.

Examples: and k=absorption and effects

(both terms must appear in the same record)

or k=H"20 or water

(either term must appear in the record)

not k=polymers not properties

(the word "polymers" must appear, but not "properties")

with k=polyacrylic with acid

(both terms must appear in the same sentence in the record)

To narrow a search, limit keywords to certain fields by attaching specific two letter codes to the end of words in keyword searches.

Examples: .jt k=polymer.jt.

(searches for "polymer" in journal title)

.at k=polyacrylic.at

(searches for "polyacrylic" in title of an article)

.ab k=toulene.ab

(searches for "toulene" in the abstract of an article)

Unlike many other citation files, MASC features the entire contents of a journal, cover to cover. Therefore, one may limit keyword searching results to specific document types by using any of the three letter codes and the suffix .ty.

ABS abstract only FLA full length article

ADD addendum PRV product review

COR correspondence REV review

DIS discussion SCO short communications

EDI editorial SSU short survey

ERR errata MIS miscellaneous

Example: k=tribology.ti. and edi.ty.

(searches for an editorial with the word "tribology" in the title)

Note: The foregoing examples reflect a modified version of the examples appearing in a staff training handout ("MASC -- Materials Science Database") prepared by the Engineering Library, University of Michigan, l992-93.

Other search capabilities include: Truncating search terms, nesting keyword searches, and reviewing/editing/re-executing previous searches.

6. ACTIVITY AT OTHER TULIP TEST SITES

All nine test sites are committed to the three basic objectives of TULIP (as noted earlier in this paper). There are some differences in approach, but overall there are more commonalities than dissimilarities. The common elements emerging from the projects include:

The user community is defined as all university faculty, students, staff, and others who use public access terminals in the library.

Data stored on a local server at eight of the institutions; one university plans to access the images from an Engineering Information (EI) server.

Access is protected through password or computer account security.

Minimal availability is delivery of ASCII to the desk-top.

Subscriptions are held to 65-100% of the materials science journals; each site receives images only to those titles subscribed to in paper format.

• More than one financial model will be tested at each site.

• Emphasis is being placed on measuring use and behavioral characteristics of use (Gosling and Warner, l993).

7. DELIVERY MODELS AT MICHIGAN

Focus at the University of Michigan is on testing and comparing different delivery models and their operational aspects. The College of Engineering (Computer Assisted Engineering Network) and the School of Information and Library Studies is developing a sub-project, TULIPview, as part of the DIReCT project. TULIPview allows an X-Windows/Motif interface for searching/viewing the TULIP articles. This system allows interactive full text searching of the OCR'ed article texts and abstracts, and on screen viewing of abstracts and article images. A passive searching capability permits the user to store personal search query profiles which are automatically ran against any new articles in the index. While concurrently, the University Library is experimenting with the feasibility of integrating TULIP data into its online library management system (the NOTIS LMS/MDAS soft-ware). Using the MASC file, users are able to conduct the various searches (as noted earlier) and request that the item be printed. The capability exists to request a printout of the article either by directly using or by modifying existing features of NOTIS (MARK and PRINT). The E-mail protocol in MVS TCP/IP (SMTP E-mail) then is used to mail the citation request(s) to the DIReCT image server which handles the actual printing of articles at selected public access sites on campus (Gosling and Warner, l993).

8. FUTURE IMPLICATIONS

Elsevier is to be commended for its initiative toward working with the various libraries in this experiment. Unquestionably, we will soon witness more experimentation with the delivery of electronic journals. The impact on and behavioral characteristics of the users of this new format has to be of paramount importance. Will the electronic delivery systems meet the users' expectations? Will the "electronic journal" fulfill the users' needs as effectively as the paper journal? Will the construct of the journal as we know it disappear; if so, will a system of unstructured presentations of electronic articles (not appearing as a "journal") be more effective in meeting the scholar's needs? Will the financial aspects learned from the TULIP experiment drive libraries and publishers to deci-sions that may be detrimental to scholarship (e.g., electronic delivery may be significantly more expensive than the traditional paper format), or will the opposite occur? These are just a few impor-tant questions that will have to given thoughtful attention. By 1995, the nine libraries participating in TULIP should have substantiated information that will be invaluable as we move toward trans-forming the delivering of journal literature. And we trust that the cost models being explored and decided on will come down on the side of the user.

This novel experiment will certainly contain several "soft spots." Annual meetings with the TULIP participants collectively and individual dialog with the respective libraries are helping to ameliorate the processes and operational aspects associated with each project.

Will the findings from TULIP be the one of the first corner-stones in the foundation from which publishers and libraries can work cooperatively toward the electronic delivery of electronic information. Some of the first signs resulting from the individual projects are certainly pointing in that direction.

REFERENCES

Gosling, William and Warner, Beth, "TULIP Delivery of Onsite Electronic Journals: Some of the Issues." Unpublished paper, l993.

Hunter, Karen, "TULIP -- The University Licensing Program," an irregular update/four page handout. No. 1, November 1992.

MASC (Materials Science Database), a handout used for staff training. University of Michigan, Engineering Library, l992-93.

"Reading Journals Electronically with TULIP," (no author given), Information Technology Digest (University of Michigan). 2 (1): 10 (January 4, l993).