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Balancing
Act: DCL Helps HighWire Press
Bring
Scholarly Publishing to the Internet

Outsourcing
of High Speed, Accurate Data Conversion Enables "New Age University
Press" To Put 225 Life Science,
Medical and Technical
("STM")
Journals Online Each Month
PALO
ALTO, CA. - In Medieval times it was done by hand, then came
Gutenberg and movable type. Today, we have the Internet. Scholarly
research that once took years to publish, then months, can now be
done in days. But when you're HighWire Press and you have
content for 225 scholarly publications to put online each month,
how do you convert such a volume of data, accurately and on time?
Answer: you outsource to expert content preparation companies
like Data Conversion Laboratory (http://www.dclab.com).
HighWire
Press was founded in 1995 by Mike Keller, director of Stanford University
libraries, as "a Silicon Valley realization of a university
press in the new millennium (http://highwire.stanford.edu).
" Simply put, HighWire uses the Internet to post papers, articles
and data that otherwise would not be available for months-if at
all-through traditional commercial or academic publishers. Starting
with online production of the weekly Journal of Biological Chemistry,
HighWire now produces online content for over 225 STM sites, most
of them life science, medical and technical journals.
Getting
Content Online and On Time
Getting
so much content online, on time, is no easy task. The text,
tables and graphics that make up the content of those publications
is fed to HighWire in a wide variety of formats-print and electronic,
each month. All of this data must be reformatted and tagged
so it can be posted on the Internet. For several years now, SGML-standard
generalized markup language-has been the format of choice for tagging
and posting complex data on the Web. However, accurately converting
a mountain of data to SGML each month is not something HighWire
wanted to handle on its own. "We realized early that
if HighWire was to be successful, we needed to stay within our core
service competencies-namely, working with scholarly publishers and
their customers-and outsourcing tasks like data conversion to companies
with that kind of expertise," said Kathryn Henniss, production
manager for HighWire Press.
HighWire
identified three main criteria as necessary for a successful partnering
relationship with a data conversion facility: price, the ability
to meet tight monthly deadlines, and the ability to work closely
with a reasonably demanding group of editors whose needs then shifted
as new products were added.
HighWire
identified several likely outsource facilities-among them, Data
Conversion Laboratory (DCL). DCL was a recognized expert in SGML
conversion, and had already distinguished itself by doing high-end
conversions for everyone from the Library of Congress to New York
Public Library.
Proven
Methodology
DCL
has in place a proven methodology that incorporates a critical "proof
of concept" phase into every conversion project. Before
proceeding with full conversion, experts from DCL review all content
to be converted, giving a written estimate of time and cost. Next,
working closely with the client, DCL assembles a representative
sample of the data to be converted-typically the most complex data
available-and performs a trial conversion. In HighWire's case DCL
performed an SGML conversion for a scientific journal published
by Oxford University Press. DCL technicians then reviewed the converted
data with HighWire's editors, adjusting the conversion process until
the desired results were achieved. Once HighWire's production staff
were satisfied the process had been "proven," DCL proceeded
with the full conversion.
"Highwire
certainly appreciates this methodical approach to project engineering,
because it rules out any need to compromise quality while still
allowing for time and money to be saved, because exceptions are
dealt with up front and not in process," Henniss noted. In
HighWire's case, it enables DCL to deliver thousands of finished
pages for dozens of publications each month, on time and on budget.
"Not only is DCL handling that many publications for us, they've
ramped up to include conversion of retrospective content from publishers
that have backfiles they'd like to put online as well," Henniss
added.
Over
a two-year period, HighWire and Data Conversion Laboratory have
partnered to develop a system for tracking and converting all the
publications sent to DCL. "Typically, HighWire supplies
DCL with print and electronic versions of publishers' files. DCL
acknowledges receipt, and in a short timeframe-about three days-they
send us a test file for approval. Once we approve, the balance
of the data for that publication is converted and returned to us.
This is done for all the publications DCL handles, and keeping
track of them is no problem. DCL is very flexible and works with
the systems we provide to make sure both sides are in good command
of what's happening," Henniss stated.
Henniss
sees rapid expansion for HighWire, and DCL's conversion role, in
the foreseeable future. "We've grown to 225 publications
because we understand the research community we serve and we have
very good feedback on the product we put online. Obviously companies
like Data Conversion Laboratory are key to the creation-and conversion-of
that product. They are part of the HighWire infrastructure
and a key to our success," Henniss concluded.
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