1 ITEC 810 Workshop An Analysis of Platforms for Scholarly Publication Yun Li Supervisor: Robert Dale

2 Agenda Purpose The General Publishing Process A Survey of Journal Publishing Process Automation in the Publishing Process Conclusion

3 Purpose To help us understand the workflows of publishing process… To identify possible automated editorial assistance – Where in the publishing process? – What kinds of integrations with existing text processing platforms? The Editorial Process: Manuscript Submitting Peer-reviewing Manuscript Revision The Production Process: Copy-editing Typesetting Proof-reading

4 The Editorial Workflow 1. Author submits article 2. Editor sends it to reviewers 3. Reviewers return reports No Yes A rejection letter is sent to Author Reject outright? 4. Editor assesses Reviews and make s a decision Publish outright? 5. Author revises article and resubmits it to Editor No Production Process Yes

5 The Production Workflow? When accepted article is passed into production process… – What is the workflow of scholarly journal production process? – What roles are involved in it? – What text processing platforms do they use?

6 Survey of Journal Publishing Process A 10-question web survey distributed by 400 editors from 360 computer science journals – Editors are identified through information on the websites of 360 A+, A and B ranked journals in the CORE journal ranking list 100 usable responses (25%) Questions asked cover some general tasks in production process – Copy-editing – Typesetting – Text processing platform

7 Questions of Processing Accepted Manuscripts Q2: How is copy-editing of accepted manuscripts carried out for your journal? copy-editors on the fulltime staff46.9% external freelance copy-editors14.8% no copy-editing is carried out11.1% other27.2% Q3: How are the copy-editor's revisions incorporated into the manuscript for return to the author for checking? copy-editors39.5% in-house typesetters11.8% external typesetters7.9% author7.9% other32.9%

8 Questions of Document Formats used by Author and Copy Editor Q4: In which format(s) do you provide the accepted versions of manuscripts to your copy-editors? hard copy6.9% electronic-word62.56% electronic-PDF40.3% other36.1% Q5: In which format do copy-editors indicate the changes to be made to articles? hard copy5.6% PDF with added embedded comments38.97% Word with comments and changes26.4% other29.2%

9 Questions of Document Formats used by Typesetters Q6: Who makes the copy- editing changes to the manuscript? author40.9% copy-editor53% typesetter21.2% other22.7% Q7: In which format(s) do you provide the final revised versions of manuscripts to your typesetters? hard copy4.6% electronic-word60% electronic-PDF38.5% other36.9% Q8: What text processing platform does typesetter use to create the final published article? Microsoft Word21.5% LaTeX24.6% don ’ t know 53.8% other23.1%

10 Production Workflow 1: 1. Editor delivers a Word document to In-house Copy-editor 2. Copy-editor makes copy-editing changes to the Word document, and returns to Editor 3. Editor sends it back to Author for approving 4. Author approves the document and returns it to Editor 5. Editor sends the Word document to Typesetter 6. Typesetter finalises the document using Word Target Audience Platforms Possible Automation: A plug-in grammar/styling checker with Microsoft Word A plug-in formatting tool with Microsoft Word

11 Production Workflow 2: 1. Editor delivers a PDF document to In-house Copy-editor 2. Copy-editor marks up the PDF with comments and changes, and returns to Editor 3. Editor sends PDF back to Author 4. Author changes the Word document base on the comments in the PDF & returns it to Editor 5. Editor sends the Word document to Typesetter 6. Typesetter finalises the document using Word Target Audience Platforms Possible Automation: A plug-in grammar/styling checker with Acrobat A plug-in formatting tool with Microsoft Word

12 Production Workflow 3: 1. Editor delivers a LaTeX document along with its PDF format to In-house Copy-editor 2. Copy-editor marks up the PDF with comments and changes and sends them to Typesetter 3. Typesetter carries out a corrected PDF document & returns to Editor 4. Editor sends it back to Author for approving 5. Author approves the document and return it to Editor 6. Typesetter finalises the document using LaTeX Target Audience Platforms Possible Automation: A plug-in grammar/styling checker with Acrobat A plug-in formatting tool with LaTeX

13 Before we finish… We discussed the general publishing process – Editorial process – Production process We explained the workflows of these processes We also suggested some possible automation in the workflows

14 Questions…?