0.8 Online hosting issues and options  (Page 3/11)

Full-service publishers will typically provide print production support as well as online services, including typesetting/composition, design services, printing and binding, fulfillment, and inventory warehousing.

In addition to the conventional publishing services outlined above, visually oriented disciplines require online journal functionality capable of presenting multimedia content. This functionality includes tools that allow a user to pan images, zoom in on details, navigate 3D reconstructions of buildings, overlay states of a work of art or the construction stages of a building, model structural forces, map archaeological sites, and other capabilities that make it possible to illustrate and document an argument more thoroughly than is possible in print. See Ballon and Westermann (2006), 57-58. An object demonstration of these multimedia features will be available starting with the 2010 volume of JSAH Online , published by the Society of Architectural Historians in partnership with the University of California Press.

An online platform that supports such features would incorporate:

• A suitable graphic user interface and online journal design. Online publications in visually oriented disciplines require greater attention to design than text-intensive journals. Additionally, the user interface of a journal offering robust multimedia functionality must be simple and intuitive.
• Support for managing digital objects through the editorial process. Most publishers provide Web-based editorial and workflow management systems that allow editors to track manuscripts from submission through to publication. See n125. A journal that includes many images and other digital objects will want a workflow management system that checks the format of images and other digital objects to determine whether they comply with the journal’s publication standards.
• Support for 3D models. In some disciplines, such as architectural history and archaeology, researchers are making increased use of three-dimensional reconstructions of altered or destroyed buildings, unexecuted designs, and archaeological ruins. As 3D models are incorporated into journal articles, a journal’s online publishing platform will need to support viewers for these models.
• Support for viewing zoomable images. Allowing a user to zoom to magnify details of images requires the capacity to upload and store high-resolution images, as well as an appropriate image viewer integrated into the journal’s online publishing platform.
• Integration of GIS mapping. GIS mapping (for example, via Google Earth), (External Link) . allows users to view images and models in geospatial context with the aid of satellite imagery and maps. For a journal making extensive use of GIS mapping, it may be important for the platform to support a spatial index, allowing users to search for content based on the physical location of a site.

The society and its online publishing partner will need to implement editorial policies and production processes—including metadata tagging and uploading protocols—to manage the various digital objects described above. Multimedia features also require that special attention be paid to technical format specifications for submitted content. These considerations are critical to ensure that the material is presented properly and to allow the society to make appropriate provisions for digital archiving and preservation. The submission standards and guidelines for multimedia material will typically need to be defined in collaboration with a society’s publishing partner. A society may also need to make provisions for image rights vetting. See “Image Copyright,” below.