FEATURE
E-books Wouter van der Velde, eProduct manager eBooks, Springer A
part from a few exceptions where an author does not give us the electronic distribution rights, all Springer book-titles will be available as e-books.
E-books on SpringerLink can be read directly in the internet browser through the ‘look inside’ functionality. This allows users to discover immediately whether a title is interesting to them. Next to that, all e-books are available in PDF, and each chapter is available for download as a separate PDF document More
recently, Springer made another
investment and started producing its e-books in full text XML format. By producing e-book titles in full-text XML, Springer can easily convert to the EPUB format. Currently Springer converts e-books to EPUB 2. The plan is to make these files (one book, one file) available to e-book customers on SpringerLink over the course of 2012 in addition to the PDF files. As an IDPF member, Springer keeps abreast of the latest developments like EPUB 3. The
advanced capabilities – such as the display of mathematical equations, specifically – are of high interest for Springer because of our large maths publishing programme. And as soon as EPUB 3 is fully supported by reading devices, Springer is ready for it. Formats such as EPUB 3 will facilitate and challenge authors and publishers to create, publish and host new content formats that include multimedia. We anticipate that e-books will evolve from being just a written content carrier to dynamic, interactive and multimedia resources. Springer has already taken steps in this direction and launched a revolutionary new product:
SpringerReference.com. This database contains Springer’s major reference works, and each entry can be updated anytime, while peer-reviewed.
Five years since the launch of our e-book programme, Springer has noticed that e-books have evolved. They have changed from yet
Henk Compier, managing director, InTech T
here is a huge need for many scientists to publish something that is larger than a journal paper. We currently have 1150 open-access e-books but many more in the pipeline. We are an electronic publisher but authors get print copies of their books through print on demand (POD) although POD is not a primary business model for us.
Our books are in PDF format but we also have EPUB, HTML and are working towards XML for the newer content. We are also exploring EPUB 3, adding multimedia, breaking away from the traditional print and embedding video. There are some challenges with the EPUB format if authors want to include video from many sources. Authors retain copyright so we need to ensure that they can use these things in different environments. EPUB is by nature a closed format because it needs to also be able to work offline. We see access from e-readers growing enormously but the number of web downloads is growing too. We’ll be looking at the various platforms we support. What we can’t see is
22 Research Information APR/MAY 2012
how much is repurposed onto tablets and other devices so we are looking at refining the way we do platform statistics.
E-books and journals are converging somewhat and also diverging. With online you can make journal papers longer. Books can also
‘Some book challenges haven’t changed since the days of Gutenberg, especially the idea of endorsing authors’
be longer and often collaborative. In the old world books were more annuls for reference. Now we see more primary research published in books.
Journals are also breaking away from
their traditional format and becoming more intertwined. In some areas of science, such as human genome research, data is really essential and we try to accommodate for that in our products.
Some book challenges haven’t changed since
the days of Gutenberg, especially the idea of endorsing
authors. Many scientists have to depend on being cited in journals as books do not have that option in depth at the moment and are less well defined, although Thomson Reuters has been developing a model for this. We have constructed our metadata in such a way that it can be cited but this is not comprehensive in industry. Such endorsement depends a lot on being covered in databases.
The biggest challenge for e-books is that a lot
of people don’t interpret e as electronic but as another format for print.
Of course there is rights management. We use Creative Commons for e-books. There may be issues in the future where people mashup paid and open-access content. I hope with DRM at least some of this paid-for content will be available, such as the abstract.
If you look at the web and the collaboration tools that are shaping content, content will change in ways we don’t know. In five years there will be far more content but how it will look I really can’t tell.
www.researchinformation.info
another electronic resource, to a more mature product like e-journals, to an accepted and well-used electronic product for researchers and students. And many developments in hardware have only accelerated the acceptance rate. Today many people carry one or more devices that can be used for mobile browsing and e-book reading. Libraries and publishers have
‘E-books will evolve from being just a written content carrier to dynamic, interactive and multimedia resources’
also learned a great deal about the importance of the discoverability of e-books, which is key to the success of these products. Business models are also a key driver of success. Publishers need to adjust their ways of selling content in a way that is most suitable to their customers’ needs. In the coming years we will see a lot of experimenting with new business models, such as evidence-based and patron-driven purchasing.
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