BGS is actively embracing the digital publishing age, says Keith Westhead.
Geoscientist 22.08 September 2012
Scientific publishing was simpler when we only had paper. In Earth sciences, for example, we had maps, books, reports, pamphlets and journal papers, all very familiar to publishers and readers. Now the world has gone digital, the publishing job has become more complicated - but at the same time, more exciting.
NERC British Geological Survey (BGS) is running an ‘Intelligent Publications’ research and development project, to look at how it can modernise its published outputs to embrace this rapidly evolving digital era. We are even rethinking the process of scientific writing itself, using a ‘wiki’ approach similar to Wikipedia but carried out in-house - under the watchful eye of scientific editors. Text that is ‘born-digital’ like this is easier to break into packages and to use as a resource for future digital publications. It can also be linked ‘intelligently’ with other information, such as images, databases, maps and even 3D models.
We are also considering what a new range of digital publications produced by the BGS might look like. Here the problem – but also the opportunity! - is the sheer number of possibilities that digital publishing offers. We have found it best not to think simply in terms of a digital update to our existing series of publications (such as BGS Memoirs) but rather to think of a new, much more flexible range of publications presented in a spectrum of styles and delivered on an array of digital platforms.
For example, we might be able to produce a publication in a ‘Discovery’ style for a public audience, delivered using a tablet computer app. Alternatively, we might deliver a more ‘in-depth’ scientific style for a research audience through a richer, website platform. Moreover, because the publication can be assembled from a range of linked digital elements, it could take any form: for example, an interactive digital map, or 3D model, or a written publication with embedded digital elements. We will be conducting trials of these sorts of publications in the coming year and are keen to receive feedback. The possibilities for revolutionising the way we present our science are very exciting.
BGS is not alone, of course, in tackling this new world of digital publishing. Popular scientific publishers such as National Geographic are beginning to provide a mixture of web-based, mobile and printed outputs. Leading journal publishing houses are moving towards interactive, web-based outputs for peer-reviewed papers, such as Elsevier’s ‘Article of the Future’.
The user can only be the winner in this race to a digital future, as providers of information compete for their attention with a rapidly broadening array of interactive publications. The challenge for publishers will be to remain as islands of authoritative information amid an ever-widening ocean of possibly dodgy digital data!
* Dr R Keith Westhead is Head of Knowledge Exchange at the British Geological Survey