editor’s conference 2013 – technology update technological developments at biomed central john...
TRANSCRIPT
Editor’s Conference 2013 – Technology Update
Technological developments at BioMed Central John Taylor, Chief Technology Officer Rachel Craven, Senior Product ManagerMay 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 18-24 month plan to re-engineer BMC core technologies – improve security, reliability and
performance.
Benefits to our work will be realised in - H2 2013.
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 measurableimprovements – 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 email settings and event notifications at journal-level
Define email signatures at journal-level
Configure statuses to display in ‘My’ at editorial model level
Configure assignment emails 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 journalSuggest transfers through the ‘Reject’ pageSelect from list of suggested destinationsTransfer 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 emails 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: SubmissionWhat 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 email management tool
… and much, much more…