Re: scientific publishing process (was Re: Cost and access)

On Sun, Oct 5, 2014 at 2:39 PM, Mark Diggory <mdiggory@atmire.com> wrote:

> Hello Community,
>
> On Sun, Oct 5, 2014 at 1:19 PM, Luca Matteis <lmatteis@gmail.com> wrote:
>
>> On Sun, Oct 5, 2014 at 4:34 PM, Ivan Herman <ivan@w3.org> wrote:
>> > The real problem is still the missing tooling. Authors, even if
>> technically savy like this community, want to do what they set up to do:
>> write their papers as quickly as possible. They do not want to spend their
>> time going through some esoteric CSS massaging, for example. Let us face
>> it: we are not yet there. The tools for authoring are still very poor.
>>
>> But are they still very poor? I mean, I think there are more tools for
>> rendering HTML than there are for rendering Latex. In fact there are
>> probably more tools for rendering HTML than anything else out there,
>> because HTML is used more than anything else. Because HTML powers the
>> Web!
>
>
>> You can write in Word, and export in HTML. You can write in Markdown
>> and export in HTML. You can probably write in Latex and export in HTML
>> as well :)
>
>
>> The tools are not the problem. The problem to me is the printing
>> afterwords. Conferences/workshops need to print the publications.
>> Printing consistent Latex/PDF templates is a lot easier than printing
>> inconsistent (layout wise) HTML pages.
>>
>
> There are tools, for example, theres already a bit of work to provide a
> plugin for semantic markup in Microsoft Word (
> https://ucsdbiolit.codeplex.com/) and similar efforts on the Latex side (
> https://trac.kwarc.info/sTeX/)
>
> But, this is not a question of technology available to authors, but of
> requirements defined by publishers. If authors are too busy for this
> effort, then publishers facilitate that added value when it is in their
> best interest.
>
> For example, PLoS has a published format guidelines using Work and Latex (
> http://www.plosone.org/static/guidelines), a workflow for semantically
> structuring their resulting output and their final output is well
> structured and available in XML based on a known standard (
> http://dtd.nlm.nih.gov/publishing/3.0/journalpublishing3.dtd), PDF and
> the published HTML on their website (
> http://www.plosone.org/article/info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pone.0011233
> ).
>
> This results In semantically meaningful XML that is transformed to HTML
>
>
> http://www.plosone.org/article/fetchObjectAttachment.action?uri=info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pone.0011233&representation=XML
>
> Clearly the publication process can support solutions and when its in the
> best interest of the publisher. They will adopt and drive their own markup
> processes to meet external demand.
>
> Providing tools that both the publisher and the author may use
> independently could simplify such an effort, but is not a main driver in
> achieving that final result you see in PLoS. This is especially the case
> given that both file formats and efforts to produce the "ideal solution"
> are inherently localized, competitive and diverse, not collaborative in
> nature. For PLoS, the solution that is currently successful is the one that
> worked to solve todays immediate local need with todays tools, not the one
> that was perfectly designed to meet all tomorrows hypothetical requirements.
>
> Cheers,
> Mark Diggory
>
> p.s. Finally, on the reference of moving repositories such as EPrints and
> DSpace towards supporting semantic markup of their contents. Being somewhat
> of a participant in LoD on the DSpace side, I note that these efforts are
> inherently just "Repository Centric", describing the the structure of the
> repository (IE collections of files), not the semantic structure contained
> within those files (ideas, citations, formulas, data tables, figures). In
> both cases, these capabilities are in their infancy and without any strict
> format and content driven publication workflow, and lacking any rendering
> other than to offer the file for download, they ultimately suffer from the
> same need for a common Semantic Document format that can be leveraged for
> rendering, referencing and indexing.
>
>
> --
> [image: @mire Inc.]
> *Mark Diggory*
> *2888 Loker Avenue East, Suite 315, Carlsbad, CA. 92010*
> *Esperantolaan 4, Heverlee 3001, Belgium*
> http://www.atmire.com
>
>


-- 
[image: @mire Inc.]
*Mark Diggory*
*2888 Loker Avenue East, Suite 315, Carlsbad, CA. 92010*
*Esperantolaan 4, Heverlee 3001, Belgium*
http://www.atmire.com