STM E-Production Seminar 2006

E-Production's 2006 Theme

This seventh in a series on strategies of STM production in the e-environment, this program focuses on book and journal production. Converging book and journal production processes and purchasing decisions are being driven by an emphasis on speed of publication and dissemination via a range of e-content channels for books and journals.

The philosophy remains the same. Production decisions are central to the entire STM publishing enterprise because:

  • Purchasing decisions have a crucial impact on the bottom line
  • The production function has a key role in winning and retaining authors
  • Effective content management is vital to a publisher's overall strategic development

Our aim is to brief middle management on best practice, especially in areas of change. Presentations are cutting edge, but the speakers make every effort to be comprehensible to executives in other publishing functions.

Our objective is finding the best international speakers to cover topics which, we know from past evaluations, are of strong interest to the registrants. Speakers are given enough time to expand on their subjects and for questions and discussion after each presenttion.

Programme

09:00    Registration

09:30    Introductory remarks
Edward Wates, UK Journal Production Director, Blackwell Publishing Oxford

WORKFLOW
09:45     Keynote Presentation
Book production for the digital age - combining workflows for print, online and POD
Patrick Thibor, Director Content Management, Springer, Heidelberg, Germany
Every new Springer book title - monographs, book series and major reference works -- published from 2005 on, as well as an array of titles published from 1997-2004, is now available in electronic format, accessible along with Springer journals on one, integrated platform on SpringerLink.

The introduction of the Springer eBook program and the expansion of the POD activities are the major impulses for introducing a global workflow that integrates the production and distribution of print and online products. A precondition for the introduction of this workflow was the groundwork in the technical domains like PDF specifications, artwork requirements and XML structuring. The presentation will also address the vital impact of standardization on finding a balance between the sometimes competing objectives of quality, efficiency and flexibility.

10:30      Refreshment Break

PRODUCTION/EDITORIAL I
11:00    Editorial Online Systems and the production interface
Charles Trowbridge, Manager, Peer Review Operations, American Chemical Society, Washington, D. C.
The days when there was a functional gap between the work of the academic editor and the work of the publisher have long vanished. However, the recent development of EO systems leading to a seamless transition in the handing over of individual articles to production editors has created problems as well as new possibilities for streamlining. This presentation reviews the state of play.

STANDARDS I
11:40    Article versions in the digital environment
Cliff Morgan, Vice President, Planning & Development Director, John Wiley & Sons, Chichester
Journal articles are increasingly made available in digital form by authors, preprint archives, publishers, and subject or institutional repositories, among others. The version of the article made available this way may be a pre-accepted draft, the accepted manuscript, a proof, the published article, a post-publication update, or some other variant. There is no commonly accepted standard terminology for identifying journal article versions. The presentation will discuss work that has been done to address this issue.

STANDARDS II
12:05    TRANSFER - Implementation of procedures and policies for the transfer of journals
Nancy Buckley, Director of International Journal Sales, Blackwell Publishing
With the absence of any universally agreed standards, the transfer of journals also causes major headaches for the publishers themselves, with inconsistent subscriber data for institutional, member, society or consortia customers, differing ownership of backfiles, conflicting formats, granularity of linking, and the imperative to maintain links to the previous publishing platform. TRANSFER is a project from the whole information chain to create good practice in this area.

12:30 - 13:30    Lunch

MINI-SYMPOSIUM ON CONTENT MANAGEMENT
The aim of this mini-symposium is to look at how content management systems make possible the ever-expanding opportunities for exploitation of content. There are two presentations by suppliers explaining their perception of publisher needs and how their companies and others strive to satisfy customers. These are followed by a survey provided by an experienced publisher emphasising problems in meeting ever-changing challenges.

13:30   Accelerating the creation of information products
David Kellogg, President and CEO, Mark Logic Corporation, San Mateo, California
A number of leading STM companies work with the Mark Logic XML content server to accelerate the time-to-market of new products. The speaker will emphasise customer solutions and the way in which management systems of publishers can take advantage of these technologies.

14:00   New validation technologies for publishing
Eamonn Neylon and Alex Brown, Consultants, Griffin Brown, Cambridge
A new family of standards is improving the ways in which some publishers are managing their structured content. These emerging standards, collectively known as ISO DSDL (Document Schema Definition Languages), are being developed to address many of the existing frustrations publishers experience with legacy document validation technologies. In this session, we will share our experiences of implementing quality control systems using DSDL-based approaches for two leading academic publishers, and of helping companies develop their own strategies for managing the quality of electronic content. The work in developing these new standards is ongoing and there are issues awaiting standardisation through the ISO process. However, those parts of DSDL already published show how tangible improvements can be made to the usability of structured data. Also, some public services, which demonstrate the concepts discussed, will be demonstrated.

14:30    Dis-Content management: keeping the show on the road
Alan Bacon, Head of Production Services, Blackwell Publishing, Oxford, England
There is always a mismatch between theory and practice when exciting new solutions meet the realities of large-scale content management- -- expectations will always exceed capability, and the best-laid plans usually survive only as dusty copies at the bottom of a drawer. Hard experience has shown that pragmatism is the only approach that works when you have to 'get the content ot there', and that -- for Production people at least -- you can't usually afford the luxury of endless analysis and theorizing. . . this presentation provides a not-too-serious look at content management from the sharp end.

15:00    Refreshment Break

PRODUCTION/EDITORIAL II
15:30    Dodging the bullet: surviving Office 2007
Bruce Rosenblum, Chief Executive Officer, Inera, Inc. Newton, Massachusetts
Office 2007 brings radical changes to Microsoft Word including a new user interface, a new XML-based file format, and a new math editor. These changes present major challenges for production operations that have built workflows around earlier versions of Word. This presentation will explain the changes most likely to affect STM production operations and discuss strategies for coping with the imminent arrival of author files in the new format.

PANEL SESSION
16:15 - 17:00
Chaired by Anthony Watkinson, Director of Industry Liaison, Centre for Publishing, University College, London
The panel includes all the speakers and chairman for the day. They will discuss, with participants, issues arising from the presentations and other cutting edge areas in production.

Events Terms and Conditions

Cancellation
Where an event has registration fees, cancellations made in writing up to 30 days before an event are eligible for a 50% refund. No refunds can be made for cancellations received on or after 30 days prior to the event date, however, substitutions may be made free of charge at any time.

Insurance
Registration fees do not include insurance. Participants are advised to take out adequate personal insurance to cover travel, accommodation, cancellation and personal effects.