Re: [Ref-Links] Do you need to know content-type?

["Tim Ingoldsby" <TINGOLDSBY@AIP.ORG>]

AIP has made a variety of agreements with aggregators, A&Is, etc. to allow =
linking to our full text articles.  However, at this time - and perhaps =
for a very long time - we are only permiting these partners to link to our =
full text in PDF.  These links are being "handled" at this time without =
using the DOI.

We do have full text HTML up for a few of our journals, primarily Applied =
Physics Letters (http://ojps.aip.org/aplo/) and Journal of Chemical =
Physics (http://ojps.aip.org/jcpo/).  Because of the current shortcomings =
of Web display of special characters and display equations (to say nothing =
of the printing limitations of browsers), we have not rushed to put up =
full text HTML for all 16 of our journals.  However, we expect the =
situation to improve within the next 12 - 18 months.  At that point we =
will need to decide if we will allow outside services access to our richly =
linked HTML, in addition to the PDF files.

If, as I expect will be the case, we do decide to open up access to the =
HTML full text, we will then have two options:

a.  have all links first come to an HTML "intermediary" page, where users =
linking in from outside can perhaps see header information (title, =
authors, abstract), and select among full text options (e.g., HTML, PDF, =
PostScript, etc.).  This is the strategy being used by Academic Press, =
among others.

b.  have the business partner construct full text link choices on their =
site to each of the full text content formats available for linking.

Obviously, choice (a) does not require a "content-type" field in the DOI =
metadata, but choice (b) does, under most circumstances.  I tend to favor =
having choice (b) available to application developers.  After all, users =
who have just seen the header information on an A&I site, and have decided =
that they now want to see the full text of the article, will only be =
irritated by being linked to a page on the publisher site that shows them =
exactly what they have just viewed on the A&I/aggregator site all over =
again.  I do agree with Eric that there are other ways to achieve this, =
but even so I don't think we should exclude using a "content-type" field =
in the DOI metadata from being one option available to publishers.

Tim


Tim Ingoldsby
Director of Business Development
American Institute of Physics
Phone:  +1 516 576 2265
Fax::  +1 516 576 2327

>>> Eric Hellman <eric@hellman.net> 03/01 1:22 PM >>>
In designing the metadata for SLinkS (http://www.openly.com/SLinkS/) I =
made
a conscious decision not to provide a field for describing  available
content-type, in other words, html vs. pdf vs. RealPage vs. xml vs. TeX =
vs.
PostScript.

I'd like to ask the newly constituted list for a reality-check: Are there
any situations in which a linking application REALLY has to have a
content-type field in journal-level metadata?

The argument against is as follows.

1. A reference link to a scholarly article ought to first resolve to an
HTML page, at least in 1999. A user (or a browser-agent) can then select
from multiple formats, if they exist.

2. There are better ways to determine content-type: HTTP MIME headers,
filename extensions.

3. If a content-type in the metadata conflicts with the MIME header
content-type, what is an application to do?

4. What about servers which produce dynamic content using HTTP content-type=

negotiation?

5. A publisher may provide separate reference links for separate
content-type internally, but they are unlikely to use journal-level
metadata for this purpose.

6. Content-type is very likely to be non-uniform at the journal level.
Different volumes often have different content-types available.

7. RDF can include content-type metadata using vocabulary in other =
namespaces.

8. K.I.S.S.

Comments?

Eric

PS I posted the latest version of SLinkS last week.

Eric Hellman, President                            Openly Informatics, =
Inc.
eric@openly.com                                    10 Columbus Ave., Suite =
C
tel/fax 1-973-509-7800                             Montclair, NJ 07042
Tools for 21st Century Scholarly Publishing        http://www.openly.com/=
=20

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