1. Supplemental Information: Who’s Doing What and Why NISO-NFAIS Supplemental Journal Article Materials Working Group
Alexander (‘Sasha’) Schwarzman
Co-chair, NISO-NFAIS Working Group on
Journal Article Supplemental Materials
CSE 2012 Annual Meeting
Seattle, WA
20 May 2012

2. Deluge: sup. mat. ratio
Chart courtesy of Ken Beauchamp, American Society for Clinical Investigation
Seattle, WA 20 May 2012
CSE 2012 Annual Meeting

3. Examples
Supplemental Material for
Male-Male and Male-Female Aggression May Influence Mating Associations in Wild Octopuses (Abdopus aculeatus)
Christine L. Huffard, Roy L. Caldwell, and Farnis Boneka
Journal of Comparative Psychology, Vol. 124, No. 1, pp. 38–46.
View article
Files:
Huffard_Supplementary_Table_1.doc
Huffard_Abdopus_fight.mpg This content was submitted by the author as supplemental material for an article published in APA’s PsycARTICLES. The content is presented as the author submitted it. APA assumes no liability for errors or omissions and makes no warranties of any kind. APA assumes no responsibility for any reader’s use of the materials. All questions regarding the supplemental data should be directed to the corresponding author of the published article.
The reader is expected to respect the intellectual property of the author and the copyright of the American Psychological Association (APA). The content should not be reused without permission from the author and APA.
Seattle, WA 20 May 2012
CSE 2012 Annual Meeting

4. Examples (cont’d)
Supporting Info for: Yu J., et al. (2005), The Genomes of Oryza sativa: A History of Duplications, PLoS Biol. 3(2), e38. … Figure S7. Duplicated Segments in the Beijing indica Assembly. Plotted in the Manner of Figure 6, and with a Total of 12 Panels (507 KB ZIP). Table S1. Raw Data for Beijing indica and Syngenta japonica Assemblies Read length is the number of Q20 bases. Clone sizes are specified in terms of 10th and 90th percentiles. (16 KB XLS).
Seattle, WA 20 May 2012
CSE 2012 Annual Meeting

5. Examples (cont’d)
Cell, Volume 144, Issue 4, February 2011 doi: Revisiting the Central Dogma One Molecule at a Time Supplemental Data for Bustamante et al. Document S1. Extended Discussion, Two Figures, and Supplemental References (PDF 534 kb)
Seattle, WA 20 May 2012
CSE 2012 Annual Meeting

6. What is in the Pandora’s box?
Multimedia
Chemical structures, crystallographic structures, D images, gene sequences, protein structures
Computer programs (algorithms, code, libraries, and executables)
Tables, Figures, Text (Experimental procedures, Extended methodology, Survey results, Derivations, Extended bibliographies, …)
Datasets (datasets are not the focus of this group)
Seattle, WA 20 May 2012
CSE 2012 Annual Meeting

7. Supplemental materials: good idea
Enabling technology makes it possible for:
authors to present supporting evidence, e.g., multimedia, data sets, computer programs;
researchers to reveal in-depth studies that would not be available in print;
readers to replicate experiments and verify results.
Seattle, WA 20 May 2012
CSE 2012 Annual Meeting

8. Questions to ponder
Degree of importance. Are all supplemental materials equally important? As a busy editor, reviewer, or reader; which ones must I focus on?
Discoverability. How do I (librarian, indexer) know the article has supplemental materials? (Deadbeat parent)
Identification. How do I know which article is the parent of orphaned / abandoned supplemental materials?
Citing and linking. How do I provide a persistent link to the supplemental materials, and how do I cite them?
Seattle, WA 20 May 2012
CSE 2012 Annual Meeting

9. Questions to ponder (cont’d)
Viability and preservation. Will it be possible to render (read, play, execute, etc.) sup. mat. in 20 years? 200 years? It is likely that sup. mat. will have to undergo periodic migration. Then, do I look at the original or the converted object? Are they equivalent?
Transmission and packaging. When fulfilling an interlibrary loan request or transmitting sup. mat. to an archive, how do I package them with the article? How do I ensure that nothing was lost or corrupted?
Seattle, WA 20 May 2012
CSE 2012 Annual Meeting

10. Questions to ponder (cont’d)
Intellectual property rights. Who has rights over sup. mat., and where are they recorded?
Curatorial responsibility. Who has custody over sup. mat.: author, publisher, library, data center, institutional repository, archive, any other actor?
Business models. If someone is going to provide peer review, identification, description, linking, preservation, and maintenance of sup. mat’s, what sustainable business models could support the expense?
Seattle, WA 20 May 2012
CSE 2012 Annual Meeting

11. Who cares? You should – if you …
… play a role in the scholarly communication process as an:
Editor / Reviewer / Author / Reader
Publisher
Hosting platform / Institutional Repository / Data center / Individual
A&I service
Reference linking and Citation indexing service
Librarian / Archivist / Historian of scholarship
Seattle, WA 20 May 2012
CSE 2012 Annual Meeting

12. Researcher community response
One camp:
More supplemental materials should be made available!
Technology will solve most problems!
The other camp:
Scholarly journal is not a data dump!
An article is not an FTP site!
Seattle, WA 20 May 2012
CSE 2012 Annual Meeting

13. Publisher community response
2009: Cell imposes limits on the number and kind of supplemental materials accepted
2010: The Journal of Neuroscience bans supplemental materials altogether; intends to embed dynamic content in its articles’ PDF
2011: The Journal of Experimental Medicine limits supplemental materials only to "essential supporting information"
Seattle, WA 20 May 2012
CSE 2012 Annual Meeting

14. Chronology
February 2009: NFAIS Best Practices for publishing journal articles
November 2009: Schwarzman’s White Paper on supplemental materials survey results
January 2010: NISO-NFAIS supplemental materials Thought Leader Roundtable
August 2010: NISO-NFAIS Working Group on journal article supplemental materials
NFAIS Best Practices for publishing journal articles: One key recommendation on supplemental materials was that the journal make a clear connection between an article and the supplemental materials that accompany it. Once published, the supplemental materials should be considered part of the journal’s archival record and should not be changed without a clear statement of correction. Publishers, the document noted, should always supply a recommended citation as well as good, descriptive metadata for those materials. A&i services covering the journal article should include the presence of supplemental data in the article record, indicating file types and DOI.
“No good deed goes unpunished” “As you brew, so must you drink”
Seattle, WA 20 May 2012
CSE 2012 Annual Meeting

15. NISO / NFAIS Working Group
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CSE 2012 Annual Meeting

16. Supplemental materials: Pseudo vs. truly
Print model: article layout implicitly reflected functional distinction between essential and nonessential objects (body vs. appendix)
Mixed electronic-print model: both essential and nonessential objects are often treated as “supplemental materials” – yet, some are NOT
Is the material essential or not? This must be stated explicitly for machine and human reader
Seattle, WA 20 May 2012
CSE 2012 Annual Meeting

17. Dimension 1: Importance
Integral (“pseudo-supplemental”)
Essential for full understanding of work
but treated as if it were supplemental.
Rationale: technical, business, or logistical limitations
Additional (“truly supplemental”)
Not critical for understanding the work.
Relevant and useful – but still optional
The distinction is conceptual and has
NOTHING TO DO with formats
Seattle, WA 20 May 2012
CSE 2012 Annual Meeting

18. Dimension 2: Custody Publisher Institutional repository or Data center
Recommended practices offered
Institutional repository or Data center
The publisher has no responsibility or authority over
content and does not host it.
No recommended practices offered
Individual
Not appropriate for hosting supplemental materials
Seattle, WA 20 May 2012
CSE 2012 Annual Meeting

19. Supplemental materials classification
Importance
Curated by
Integral
Additional
Publisher
Recommended practices offered
Institutional repository or Data center
No recommended practices offered
[large data sets]
Individual
Not appropriate
Seattle, WA 20 May 2012
CSE 2012 Annual Meeting

20. Business Working Group – policies Co-chairs: Linda Beebe (APA), Marie McVeigh (Thomson-Reuters ISI)
Recommended Practices: scope and general principles
Definitions: sup. mat., article, data, metadata, etc.
Curation and life cycle: selection, peer review, editing, presentation, providing context, referencing, citing, managing/hosting, discovery, preservation
Intellectual property rights management
Roles and responsibilities of authors, editors, reviewers, publishers, libraries, A&I services, repositories
Seattle, WA 20 May 2012
CSE 2012 Annual Meeting

21. Technical Working Group – “how” Co-chairs: Dave Martinsen (ACS), Sasha Schwarzman
Metadata, incl. persistent identifiers
Preservation, incl. archiving and migration
Packaging for exchange and delivery
Seattle, WA 20 May 2012
CSE 2012 Annual Meeting

22. Recommended business practices
Integral sup. mat’s
Additional sup. mat’s
Selecting / Peer reviewing
At the same level as the article
May not be reviewed at the same level
Copyediting
At the same level as article. Should be noted if not
May not be edited at the same level. If so, should be noted
Referencing within article
Cite / link at the same level as table or fig. No ref. list entry: this content is part of the article
Provide in-text citation and link at the appropriate point in text, rather than at the end
Identifying
DOI must be assigned
DOI may be assigned
References within sup. mat.
Integrate references into the ref. list of the article
(Biophysical Journal)
Keep references separate from the article ref. list
Seattle, WA 20 May 2012
CSE 2012 Annual Meeting

23. Recommended business practices (cont’d)
Integral sup. mat’s
Additional sup. mat’s
Preserving
Preserve at the same level as the article
Provide the same level of metadata markup
Include in migration plans
Take preservation into consideration when accepting
If uncertain about preservation, have author submit to a trusted repository and link to it
Intellectual property rights
Treat rights in the same manner as the rights for the article
Anyone who has access to the article should also have access to Integral sup. mat’s
Determination of rights for Additional content may differ and should be transparent to users
Seattle, WA 20 May 2012
CSE 2012 Annual Meeting

24. Recommended business practices (cont’d)
Identifying / linking and managing sup. mat.
Sup. mat’s should be linked, bi-directionally, to and from the article
Integral and Additional content should not be mixed
If journal content is hosted by a host / aggregator it should also deliver supplemental materials
An author’s website is not an appropriate place for the sole posting of supplemental materials
Seattle, WA 20 May 2012
CSE 2012 Annual Meeting

25. Recommended business practices (cont’d)
Discovering supplemental materials
Consistent placement, naming, and navigation
on the ToC
on the landing page
in the article
in the supplemental materials
Consistency across the articles and across journals
Aid A&I services by including metadata that indicate the function and format of the sup. mat’s
Seattle, WA 20 May 2012
CSE 2012 Annual Meeting

26. Recommended business practices (cont’d)
Providing context for sup. materials
Include on a landing page or within the content:
Article citation and DOI
Title and/or succinct statement about sup. mat’s
For multimedia: player, file extension, and size
List multiple files
Browser information, if supplemental mat.’ rendition is browser-dependent
Sup. mat. DOI or another persistent identifier
Seattle, WA 20 May 2012
CSE 2012 Annual Meeting

27. Recommended technical practices
Minimal metadata
Article DOI
Supplemental materials DOIs
Supplemental materials function: Integral, Additional, or both
Supplemental material content description
File formats of supplemental physical objects
Seattle, WA 20 May 2012
CSE 2012 Annual Meeting

28. Recommended technical practices (cont’d)
Extended metadata for supplemental materials
Summary for download
Content descriptor
Copyright and licensing
Preservation level
Application and platform
created with
to be used for rendering
Additional file information
file names, file sizes
mimetype, fixity, validity
Non-DOI IDs
Contributors
Titles
Languages
Creation date
Original or converted
Subject descriptors
Alt. descriptions (accessibility)
Seattle, WA 20 May 2012
CSE 2012 Annual Meeting

29. Recommended technical practices (cont’d)
Preservation
Publisher must choose its preservation strategy. WG recommends migration over emulation
Retention
Integral objects: original + two latest converted
Additional objects: original + the latest converted
File formats
Publishers uses formal registries, e.g., PRONOM, UDFR
Publisher defines the formats it will support
Seattle, WA 20 May 2012
CSE 2012 Annual Meeting

30. Recommended technical practices (cont’d)
Packaging
Article and all its components should be transferable in a single package, e.g., to fulfill interlibrary loan request, to perform a deposit to an archive or a repository, etc.
There are a number of different packaging specifications available, and this Working Group does not intend to design a new one nor require the use of any particular specifications or tools.
Seattle, WA 20 May 2012
CSE 2012 Annual Meeting

31. Recommended technical practices (cont’d)
Manifest
Journal ID (ISSN)
Article ID (DOI, citation)
Supplemental materials DOIs
List of all files contained in the package. For each:
Function: Integral, Additional, or both
File name, File size, File description
Rendering application information
Detailed copyright information
Instructions
Seattle, WA 20 May 2012
CSE 2012 Annual Meeting

32. NISO/NFAIS Supplemental journal article materials project
Sources
Beebe, L. (2010), Supplemental materials for Journal articles: NISO/NFAIS Joint Working Group, Information Standards Quarterly 22(3), p.33, doi:
Carpenter, T. (2009), Journal article supplementary materials: A Pandora’s box of issues needing best practices, Against the Grain 21(6), p.84
Marcus, E. (2009), Taming supplemental material, Cell 139(1), p.11, doi:doi:
Maunsell, J. (2010), Announcement regarding supplemental material, The Journal of Neuroscience 30(32): p.10599
NFAIS (2009), Best practices for publishing journal articles, 30 pp.,
Schwarzman, S. (2010), Supplemental materials survey, Information Standards Quarterly 22(3), p.23, doi:doi:
NISO/NFAIS Supplemental journal article materials project
Seattle, WA 20 May 2012
CSE 2012 Annual Meeting