Editor’s Conference 2013 – Technology Update Technological developments at BioMed Central John Taylor, Chief Technology Officer Rachel Craven, Senior Product Manager May 2013

Editor’s Conference 2013 – Technology Update Agenda Infrastructure Roadmap Investment in infrastructure What’s new this year Production Editorial Models Transfers Article level metrics Cases Database What’s planned for next year Peer Review and Editorial Tools

Editor’s Conference 2013 – Technology Update Infrastructure Roadmap Mid-2012 Migration to Linux Environment 2013 (Apr) Roll- out of Varnish Caching Services & Intrusion Detection 2013 (May) Upgrade to Oracle 11g Database set- up 2013 (Aug) Elimination of all Microsoft Technologies 2013 (Nov) Set-up of Dual DataCenter environment with improved infrastructure. Ambitious month plan to re-engineer BMC core technologies – improve security, reliability and performance. Benefits to our work will be realised in - H Have tried to minimise the impact on our users, though (in truth) have not always achieved that.

Editor’s Conference 2013 – Technology Update Editorial Tools What are we doing now to improve the reliability, and performance of our Editorial Tools? Project: Initiated in April 2013, with 6 senior developers assigned. completes August 2013 (incremental delivery) Goal: Material improvement in performance of our tools Focus: IMPROVEMENT – Optimisation of Task assignment IMPROVEMENT – Optimisation of Peer Reviewer workflow page IMPROVEMENT – Optimisation combined manuscript reports IMPROVEMENT – Optimisation of Log-in IMPROVEMENT – Test Infrastructure Service Announcements Introduction of technical service announcements from end of June.

Editor’s Conference 2013 – Technology Update Progress to Date Combination of improved caching and software optimisation is realising measurable improvements – however more work to be done over the next few months Our goal is to establish a consistent performance baseline and use functional test tools to monitor acceptance.

Editor’s Conference 2013 – Technology Update Technology Update – what’s new this year

Editor’s Conference 2013 – Technology Update Production What is it? Rebuild of our production systems What’s in it for editors? Handling of fast track MS now more efficient Improved vendor management tools means Embargo tools make it easier to manage PR etc Articles can be published straight to final version, if preferred Handling post-live corrections is quicker and more efficient Improved performance and stability What’s in it for authors? Handling of MSs is now more efficient, increasing speed of publication

Editor’s Conference 2013 – Technology Update Editorial Models What is it? Manuscript assignment within flexible editorial structures Live on 60 BMC Series journals and piloted by 4 independent journals What’s in it for editors? Configure settings and event notifications at journal-level Define signatures at journal-level Configure statuses to display in ‘My’ at editorial model level Configure assignment s at editorial model level What’s in it for authors? Communications from the editors are more journal- and model-specific, and so are more relevant

Editor’s Conference 2013 – Technology Update Transfers What is it? A tool to transfer scientifically sound manuscripts What’s in it for editors? Find a home for sound science outside scope of journal Suggest transfers through the ‘Reject’ page Select from list of suggested destinations Transfer all submissions, reviewer reports and cover letters to the new journal simply Reduce burden on reviewers What’s in it for authors? Reduced review time; faster to publish sound science No need to do major reformatting to resubmit Often no need for further peer review

Editor’s Conference 2013 – Technology Update Article level metrics What is it? Displaying social mentions related to an article, using altmetrics.com What’s in it for editors? Monitor reach of articles by tracking alternative metrics Promote highly mentioned articles via journal homepage Encourage submissions What’s in it for authors? Monitor reach of articles by tracking alternative metrics

Editor’s Conference 2013 – Technology Update Cases Database What is it? Peer-reviewed, text-mined medical case reports from multiple publishers What’s in it for users? The most relevant case reports can be identified by searching and filtering Aids the emergence and early identification of trends, helping advance the knowledge of clinical medicine Through collation, value added to published case reports vs. evidence- based literature What’s in it for editors? Encourages submission of case reports to journals

Editor’s Conference 2013 – Technology Update Technology Update – what’s planned for next year

Editor’s Conference 2013 – Technology Update Peer Review and Editorial Tools What is it? End-to-end rebuild of peer review and editorial tools, reviewer tools and submission system - starts June 2013 Originally scheduled to start in early 2013 but focus on performance and on production systems Building on the infrastructure improvements and ‘look and feel’ of new production system; currently in analysis and finalising technical approach By the end of 2013: Submission system Reviewer tools Contact Management (Phase 2) 2014: Peer Review system Editorial tools

Editor’s Conference 2013 – Technology Update Peer Review and Editorial Tools: Contact Management II What is it? Enhancements to our contact management (editor, reviewer, author) database Phase 1 functionality currently only live for independent journals; phase 2 includes roll out of all functionality to BMC Series What’s in it for editors? Search across multiple journal contact databases Easier searching with faceted search options Manage communications more efficiently with group s to editorial board or sub-set of roles

Editor’s Conference 2013 – Technology Update Peer Review and Editorial Tools: Reviewer Tools What is it? Redesign of invitation and report pages What’s in it for reviewers? More intuitive tool with contextual help features Ability to access all MS files in one place and download as combined report, making it more efficient to review Review history pages showing all review events, for better tracking Ability to ‘Save and continue later’ increasing convenience to the reviewer

Editor’s Conference 2013 – Technology Update Peer Review and Editorial Tools: Submission What is it? Rebuild of our submission system What’s in it for authors? Performance enhancements, meaning quicker file upload and reduction in file conversion time Simple and intuitive “journey” through submission process Easier registration/log-in via ORCID What’s in it for editors? Introduction of anti-fraud measures e.g. validation of author suggested reviewers, journal-specific ethics and consent form

Editor’s Conference 2013 – Technology Update Peer Review and Editorial Tools 2014 What is it? Rebuild of peer review and editorial tools What’s in it for editors? Enhanced performance and stability, making editorial work more efficient Simple, configurable dashboard for organising work, with flags and traffic lights Compare reviewer reports side-by-side Monitor performance via author, reviewer and editor metrics including ratings of reviewer reports; display editor and reviewer capacity data Customisation of communications via management tool … and much, much more…