NISO/NFAIS Supplemental Journal Article Materials Working Group: An Update on an Industry Initiative Alexander (Sasha) Schwarzman American Geophysical

NISO/NFAIS Supplemental Journal Article Materials Working Group:

An Update on an Industry Initiative

Alexander (‘Sasha’) SchwarzmanAmerican Geophysical Union

[email protected]

Co-chair, NISO/NFAIS Working Group on Journal Article Supplemental Materials

2011 CROSSREF WORKSHOPS

Cambridge, MA14 November 2011

Deluge: sup. mat. ratio

Cambridge, MA 14 November 2011 CrossRef Workshops 2

Chart courtesy of Ken Beauchamp, American Society for Clinical Investigation

What is in the Pandora’s box?

• Multimedia• Chemical structures, crystallographic structures,

3-D images, gene sequences, protein structures • Computer programs (algorithms, code, libraries,

and executables)• Tables, Figures, Text (Experimental procedures,

Extended methodology, Survey results, Derivations, Extended bibliographies, …)

• Datasets (datasets are not the focus of this group)


Supplemental materials: Yes, we can!

Enabling technology makes it possible for:• authors to present supporting evidence, e.g.

- datasets- multimedia

• researchers to present in-depth studies that would not be available in print

• readers to replicate experiments and verify results


Yes, we can… But should we?

• Do I (reader, reviewer) really need to look at sup. mat.? [Degree of importance]

• How do I (librarian, indexer) know sup. mat. exists? How do I find it? [Discoverability]

• How do I cite / link to sup. mat.? [Identification and Linking]

• Will sup. mat. be available in 20 years? … 200 years? [Preservation]


Yes, we can… But should we? (cont’d)

• Will sup. mat. be viewable / executable? [Conversion / Forward migration]

• Then: Is this object original or converted? • How do I transmit sup. mat. and know that

nothing was lost or corrupted? [Packaging]• Who owns it? [Intellectual property rights]• Who has custody? [Curatorial responsibility]• Who pays for curating? [Business models]


Who cares? You should – if you are an …• Author / Editor• Reviewer• Reader• Publisher• Hosting platform / Institutional Repository /

Data center / Individual• A&I service• Reference linking and Citation indexing service• Librarian / Archivist / Historian of scholarship


NISO / NFAIS Working Group


Supplemental content type: Integral, Additional, Related


Classification• Supplemental materials

- Integral content (“pseudo-supplemental”)

For technical, business, or logistical reasons treated as if it were supplemental – but it is NOT!

- Additional content (“truly supplemental”)• Related content

Generally resides in an official data center or institutional repository. The publisher has no responsibility or authority over it and does not host it.

No recommended practices offered.

- Cambridge, MA 14 November 2011 CrossRef Workshops 10

Recommended business practicesIntegral content Additional content

Selecting / Peer reviewing

At the same level as core article

May not be reviewed at the same level

Copyediting At the same level as core article. Should be noted if not

May not be edited at the same level. If so, should be noted

Referencing within article

Cite/link at the same level as table or fig. No ref. list entry, for this content is part of article

Provide in-text citation and link at the appropriate point in text, rather than at the end

Citing from other pubs

Not to be cited separately. Cite article as a whole

Can be cited separately

References within sup. mat.

Integrate references into the ref. list of the core article

Keep references separate from the core article ref. list


Recommended business practices (cont’d)

Integral content Additional content

Preserving Preserve at the same level as the core article

Provide the same metadata markup

Include in migration plans

Take preservation into consideration when accepting

If uncertain about preservation, have author submit to a trusted repository and link to it

Intellectual property rights

Treat rights in the same manner as the rights for the core article

Anyone who has access to online article should also have access to Integral content

Determination of rights for Additional content may differ and should be transparent to users



• Identifying / linking and managing sup. mat.- Identify sup. mat. using DOIs to ensure links to

and from core article- Links should be bidirectional- Separate DOIs for Integral and Additional content- If journal content is hosted by a host / aggregator

it should also deliver supplemental materials- An author’s website is not an appropriate place

for the sole posting of supplemental materials



• Discovering supplemental materials- Consistent placement, naming, and navigation- Indicate presence in the table of contents- Link to Integral content from within the article- Link to Additional content “above the fold” on the

first PDF or HTML page of the article- Aid A&I services by including metadata that

indicate the purpose and format of the supplemental materials



• Providing context for sup. materialsInclude on a landing page or within the content:- Core article citation and DOI- Title and/or succinct statement about the content- For multimedia: player, file extension, and size - List multiple files- Browser information, if supplemental content

rendition is browser-dependent - Sup. mat. DOI or another identifier, if assigned


Technical Recommendations• Metadata schema

- Supplemental material (top-level “wrapper”)- Core article (parent article) metadata- Type: (Integral | Additional)- Core article item being supplemented (figure,

table, etc.) - Descriptive metadata- Physical metadata- Object or Object group


Technical Recommendations (cont’d)

• Metadata schema (cont’d)- Object or Object group

Core article item being supplemented Descriptive metadata Physical metadata Object or Object group


Object groups

• Logically different objects that share some common metadata, e.g., a series of graphs or images

• Various representation of the same logical object, e.g.,A chemical structure represented by:- a connection table, - an image of a molecule in a static orientation, and - an interactive application allowing manipulation by the viewer.

Protein-related information represented by:- analytical measurements,- chemical structure, and- derived structures.


Descriptive metadata

• ID• version• label• contrib_group• content_descriptor• title• language • alt_title• accessibility_long_desc• summary

• subject_descriptor• physical_form_descriptor• ref_count• publication_info• creation_date• preservation_level• copyright• license• open_access


Physical metadata

• creation_application- platform- software (name, version)- application_information

• ext_link• filename• fixity

- fixity_method- fixity_value

• format• format_registry

• mime_subtype• mime_type• primary_representation• relationship• rendering-application

- platform- software (name, version)- application_information

• size• validity


Packaging• Journal title / ISSN• Core article metadata• Persistent link to core article• Persistent link to supplemental materials• Manifest (machine-readable)

- Number of top-level object groups / objects- Number of objects in each object group- File names and total size of each object group with its objects- Copyright status of each object group / object- Description- Executable information and instructions


Conceptual challenges

• Heterogeneity: an archive (ZIP, TAR, RAR) or a document (PDF, MS Word) may contain both Integral and Additional content. The two may need to be separated for different identification and linking

• Hierarchy and Recurrence: an archive may contain a tree with many branches and sub-branches with nested objects and groups


Conceptual challenges (cont’d)• Granularity down: what to identify — entire

sup. mat., groups, objects, …? At what level do you stop?

• Granularity up: link to a specific item within the core article or to the core article as a whole?

• Relationships: related but logically different objects; alternate representations of logically the same object


Practical challenges

• Is sup. mat. importance “in the eye of the beholder?” (what’s Additional to you is Integral to me) — some beholders are more equal than others: a decision made upfront determines downstream processing

• Real costs, hypothetical benefits• Business models: is sup. mat. a money

maker or a money waster?


What does the future hold?

“… over time the concept of supplemental material will gradually give way to a more modern concept of a hierarchical or layered presentation in which a reader can define which level of detail best fits their interests and needs.”

Marcus, E. (2009), Taming supplemental material, Cell 139(1), p.11, doi:10.1016/j.cell.2009.09.021


SourcesBeebe, L. (2010), Supplemental materials for Journal articles: NISO/NFAIS Joint Working

Group, Information Standards Quarterly 22(3), p.33, doi:10.3789/isqv22n3.2010.07

Carpenter, T. (2009), Journal article supplementary materials: A Pandora’s box of issues needing best practices, Against the Grain 21(6), p.84

Marcus, E. (2009), Taming supplemental material, Cell 139(1), p.11, doi:10.1016/j.cell.2009.09.021

Maunsell, J. (2010), Announcement regarding supplemental material, The Journal of Neuroscience 30(32): p.10599

NFAIS (2009), Best practices for publishing journal articles, 30 pp., http://www.nfais.org/files/file/Best_Practices_Final_Public.pdf

Schwarzman, S. (2010), Supplemental materials survey, Information Standards Quarterly 22(3), p.23, doi:10.3789/isqv22n3.2010.05

http://www.agu.org/dtd/Presentations/sup-mat/10.3789_isqv22n3.2010.05.pdf

NISO/NFAIS Supplemental journal article materials project

http://www.niso.org/workrooms/[email protected]


http://dx.doi.org/10.3789/isqv22n3.2010.07

http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.cell.2009.09.021

http://www.nfais.org/files/file/Best_Practices_Final_Public.pdf

http://dx.doi.org/10.3789/isqv22n3.2010.05

http://www.agu.org/dtd/Presentations/sup-mat/10.3789_isqv22n3.2010.05.pdf

http://www.niso.org/workrooms/supplemental

Q & A

Documents

NISO/NFAIS Supplemental Journal Article Materials Working Group: An Update on an Industry Initiative Alexander (Sasha) Schwarzman American Geophysical