255 shaw

ticTOCs – The Future of Unlocking the Value of Publisher’s RSS feeds?

John Shaw

Director of Publishing Technologies

SAGE

ticTOCS SSP – November 2007

• Overview

• RSS review – use in academic publishing

• What is ticTOCs– Background– Partners– Aims and objectives – Timelines– Project deliverables


OverviewState of academic research and content available• 20-25k peer reviewed journals• > 60% published online• 5.5 million researchers globally• Efficiency in discovering content desired • Email alerts most prevalent for use in journals• RSS TOC alerts availability growing

– Over 38 publishers totaling more than 7000 feeds

• RSS confusing to many


What is RSS?Vocabulary…

– XML (ĕks’ĕm-ĕl’) NOUN: A metalanguage written in SGML that allows one to design a markup language, used to allow for the easy interchange of documents on the World Wide Web

– RSS (är’ĕs’ĕs) NOUN: A lightweight XML format designed for sharing headlines and other web content

– ATOM (ăt’әm) NOUN: An XML-based document format for the syndication of web content such as weblogs and new headlines


What is RSS?What RSS IS …

– An increasingly popular tool being used by Fortune 500 companies

– A very quick and easy way to syndicate content online

– A new way to push content alerts, corporate news, and new product information

– A potential revenue stream in the coming years

– An answer to e-mail overload


The History and the Hype …Background …1997 – Microsoft created Channel Definition Format for

the Active Channel feature of IE 4.01997 – David Winer designed an XML-based format for

syndication of his Scripting News weblog1999 – Dan Libby of Netscape created an XML-based

format for use with My Netscape Portal2002 – David Winer created RSS 2.0 and renamed the

format to Really Simple Syndication2003 – Aaron Swartz designed RSS 3.02003 – Atom specification developed


How do you find it on a site?

Who Uses It and What Does it Look Like?


<?xml version="1.0" encoding="ISO-8859-1" ?>

- <rdf:RDF xmlns:rdf="http://www.w3.org/1999/02/22-rdf-syntax-ns#" xmlns="http://purl.org/rss/1.0/"

<title>Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin current issue</title>

<link>http://psp.sagepub.com</link>

<description>Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin RSS feed -- current issue</description>

<prism:issn>0146-1672</prism:issn>

- <items>

- <rdf:Seq>

<rdf:li rdf:resource="http://psp.sagepub.com/cgi/content/abstract/31/10/1315?rss=1" /> </rdf:Seq>

</items>

- <title> <![CDATA[ Forgiveness and Its Associations With Prosocial Thinking, Feeling, and Doing Beyond the Relationship With the Offender ]]>

</title>

<link>http://psp.sagepub.com/cgi/content/abstract/31/10/1315?rss=1</link>

- <description> <![CDATA[ <p><I>Past research has revealed that forgiveness promotes prosocial cognition, feeling, and behavior toward the offender..</I></p> ]]>

</description>

<dc:creator>Karremans, J. C., Van Lange, P. A. M., Holland, R. W.</dc:creator>

<dc:date>2005-09-02</dc:date>

What Does Lightweight XML (RSS) Look Like?


What does an RSS feed look like?



What does an RSS feed look like?



What is ticTOCs?• The aim of the ticTOCs project is to develop a

freely available service which will transform journal current awareness by making it easy for academics and researchers to find, display, store, combine and reuse tables of contents from multiple publishers in a personalisable web based environment.

• Facilitate the re-use of aggregated journal TOC content on a subject basis by gateways, subject-based resource discovery services, library services and others, where it can act as a showcase of the latest research output.


What is ticTOCs?• JISC funded research project

• University, publisher, and third party backed development project and service

• Projected deployment of “basic” service in April 2008


ticTOCs Partners

University of Liverpool Library (lead),

Oxford University Press

Heriot-Watt University SAGE

Cranfield University Institute of Physics

CrossRef Inderscience Publishers

ProQuest MIMAS

RefWorks Open J-Gate

Emerald Intute

Nature Publishing Group Directory of Open Access Journals


What is ticTOCs? - Objectives• Create a ticTOCs web-based environment that allows

researchers to easily discover, subscribe to, search within, be alerted to, aggregate, personalise, export and reuse standardised Table of Contents RSS feeds and their content from any networked PC at their convenience

• To facilitate the exploitation and acquisition (via site license, subscription, open access or purchases) of the full text of articles discovered by users via ticTOCs, in the period shortly after their publication

• To facilitate the re-use of aggregated journal TOC content on a subject or topic basis by gateways, subject-based resource discovery services, library services, VREs and other services, where it can be exposed to a wider market, act as a showcase of the latest research output, and deliver relevant content to researchers.


What is ticTOCs? - Objectives• To enable library and information services, publishers,

gateways, content aggregators and journal directories to allow their users to embed journal TOC RSS feeds of interest, with one click, into a freely available personalisable web-based interface which will perform as a current awareness environment.

• To create advocacy materials on journal TOC RSS standardisation, and thereby facilitate their interoperability and improve the quality of their data.

• To develop a business plan to maintain ticTOCs as a self-sustaining service, free to the individual end user, after the project phase

• To disseminate the findings of the project to ensure knowledge transfer



Sample screenshot of ticTOC service


ticTOCs - Timelines• ticTOCs Stage 1. Initial Setup, first technical

development cycle, and Prototype. April 2007 to November 2007

• ticTOCs Stage 2. Prototype enhancement, service release, second technical development cycle, business model. Dec 2007 to June 2008

• ticTOCs Stage 3. Further development, innovative investigations. July 2008 to November 2008

• ticTOCs Stage 4. Integration of realistic innovative developments in third technical development cycle, further promotion, handover to self-sustaining service. December 2008 to March 2009.


ticTOCs - Deliverables• Public blog to report on progress with the project• Prototype ticTOCs site• Content for reuse at third party sites• Advocacy materials on journal TOC RSS

standardisation• Sustainable business model• Full, public ticTOCs site• Promotional materials for launch of full ticTOCs service• Final report• Completion report


Why participate?

• Researchers want to find content!

• Community/Social networking of RSS

• Usage of journal content (publisher)

• Service will be supported by publishing and library community

• Initial take-up and support is simple

• Emerging new standard that has the potential to change the way we use RSS


Additional Resources:ticTOCs website: http://www.tictocs.ac.uk/

RSS and ticTOCs: http://www.slideshare.net/libram/journal-current-awareness-past-present-future

ticTOCs news: http://tictocsnews.wordpress.com/

ticTOCs review: http://www.rss4lib.com/2007/07/tictocs_journal_tables_of_cont.html

RSS: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RSS_(file_format)

Project Manager for ticTOCs: Joe HiltonAddress: Sydney Jones Library, University of Liverpool, Chatham St, PO Box 123 Liverpool, United Kingdom, L69 3DA.Email: [email protected]


Thank you

John [email protected]

255 shaw

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