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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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