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Project Transfer: Five Years Later
Project Transfer is a voluntary code of practice endorsed by 36 publishers to provide best practices for transferring journals between publishers. It aims to minimize disruptions to access during transfers. An alerting service notifies subscribers like librarians about upcoming transfers. The service was recently upgraded to be more robust and searchable. Surveys found publishers and librarians still encounter issues during some transfers. Future work may expand the code of practice and increase its formality. Participation and awareness of Transfer remains important.
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Project Transfer: Five Years Later
- 1. Project Transfer: Five Years Later ER&L 2012 Nancy Beals (Wayne State University Libraries) Jennifer Bazeley (Miami University Library)
- 2. Overview Context • Journal Transfersand Consequences What and How • What is Transfer? • Who Endorses Transfer? • Spreading the Word Feedback • Publisher Survey • Librarian Survey Putting It Together • What Librarians Can Do • Transfer Alerting Service: Before and After the Upgrade Looking Ahead • What’s Next? • Getting Involved
- 3. Journal Transfers http://www.flickr.com/photos/girliemac/6519540231/in/set-72157628409467125 By GirlieMac
- 4. Transfers and Consequences •Why journals migrate between publishers • The “vulnerability” of e-resource access during transfers • Problems: – Interrupted access – Delayed access – Disappearing back files – Wrangling over entitlements – Changed login or authentication procedures – Admin load in fixing new or altered setups • Causes: – Poor communication – Different infrastructure – Missing or scrambled data – Lack of coordination or time – Competing or contrary motivations
- 5. Another Standard? (Butit’s not an acronym!) http://xkcd.com/927/ By Randall Monroe
- 6. What is Transfer? •Voluntary Code containing best practice guidelines for both Transferring and Receiving publishers • Supported (to date) by 36 publishers who publicly endorse the Code • An alerting service, communicating details of journals “on the move” to almost 400 registered recipients – mainly librarians • An ongoing, if informal, program of education and presentation to help different constituencies in the library supply chain better understand each others’ problems and priorities • Supported and championed by a small working group – 8 publishers, 5 librarians and 6 others – meeting once every two months
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- 8. Transfer Code ofPractice The Code is now in a revised Version 2.0 and covers six main areas: • Access to the transferred title: – Includes ensuring continued access to customers where the Transferring publisher has granted perpetual access entitlements. • Provisions around digital content files: – Covers the transfer of digital files and spans both current (born digital) and archival (digitized from print) content, where available. • Subscription lists: – Covers early transfer of subscription lists and an outline of subscriber data types. • Journal URLs: – Covers transfer of journal-related domain name(s) and provision of a link or redirect to the new journal home page. • DOI name ownership: – Covers changes to Digital Object Identifier (DOI) name ownership. • Communication: – Covers communication to customers and relevant intermediaries. Customers here include recipients of electronic ToC alerts.
- 9. How Does ItWork? • By registering as Transfer compliant, publishers agree to abide – where commercially possible – by the terms of the Transfer Code of Practice – Remember: this endorsement is entirely voluntary • Librarians and societies are increasingly requesting Transfer compliance in their licensing and contractual agreements with publishers • Other reports and initiatives (from JISC Collections and others) are citing Transfer and recommending compliance • Transfer’s recommendations provide a useful framework for overhauling internal procedures and encouraging a degree of “self regulation” on the part of publishers • But it’s hard to give the Code more “teeth” as we have to be careful to avoid any anti-competitive practices • And a recent informal listserv poll alerted us to several ongoing issues, some involving Transfer-compliant publishers
- 10. Basic Alerting Service •Publishers provide a simple set of information items about the title transferred – Names of Transferring and Receiving Publishers & contact persons at both – Title and ISSN of journal being transferred – Effective transfer date – And some other information: see examples later • Wherever possible, contact points for both Transferring and Receiving publishers are included • Email alerts are generated and sent to subscribing recipients – Most recipients to date are librarians, but other players such as subscription agencies also interested on behalf of their customers • More than 200 journal transfers have been notified using this mechanism • Simple but effective. Doesn’t itself solve problems, but gives a pretty good heads-up that “this might be a title to watch!”
- 11. Spreading the Word •Transfer can only be effective if its recommendations are known and understood within the supply chain • So we like to take opportunities like this to brief diverse audiences and argue for wider uptake • We recognize that different players in the transfer process have different concerns and motivations • And try to tailor information accordingly for Publishers, Societies, and Librarians • Central control or coordination within the publishing house helps avoid problems and encourages prompt and effective communication to the market • Publishers need to be aware of the downstream effects of transfer operations, so that they can avoid or mitigate any problems that could arise • Societies are encouraged to support Transfer compliance, whether they self-publish or partner with commercial publishers
- 12. Publishers Endorsing Transfer ALPSP Nature Publishing Group American Institute of Physics Oxford University Press American Psychological Palgrave Macmillan Association BioMed Central Royal Society of Chemistry Brill Sage Publications Cambridge University Press Society for General Microbiology Elsevier Springer Emerald Taylor & Francis IOP Walter de Gruyter IOS Press Wiley Blackwell Complete list of publishers: http://www.uksg.org/transfer/transfer_publishers
- 13. Publisher Survey • June 2010 • Emailed 1,824 pubs in 40 countries • Response rate 8.3% • 151 respondents: 34 commercial publishers; 8 nonprofits; 16 societies; 7 university presses
- 14. Issues Relating toTransferring Journals
- 15. Issues Relating toTransferring Journals
- 16. Issues Relating toReceiving Journals
- 17. Managing the CommunicationProcess
- 18. Librarian Survey • May2011. The survey was sent out in collaboration with the International Coalition of Library Consortia (ICOLC). • 164 respondents: 65% North America, 14% Europe, 14.5% Asia-Pacific
- 19. Managing Access toJournals
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- 22. Librarian Transfer Awareness •“The initiative is helping. The transfer notification list and archive is becoming a useful knowledgebase of information. The transfer listserv and the website have both been very useful to me—please continue to develop them further!” • “I have noticed that many publishers are getting better at communicating—more specific emails, easier-to-find lists on their websites, improved access icons.” • “Certainly the issues around transfer titles have reduced since Project Transfer started.”
- 23. What Librarians CanDo Tell your (librarian) friends about Transfer Encourage publishers that you buy from to endorse Transfer (if they don’t already) Use the new Enhanced Transfer Alerting Service http://etas.jusp.mimas.ac.uk/ Search here http://etas.jusp.mimas.ac.uk/search/ Subscribe to the RSS feed here http://etas.jusp.mimas.ac.uk/rss/
- 24. Before: Original TransferAlerting Service
- 25. Before: Original TransferAlerting Service
- 26. Before: Using theOriginal Alerting Service
- 27. After: Upgrading theAlerting Service http://www.flickr.com/photos/girliemac/6509400771/in/set-72157628409467125 By GirlieMac
- 28. After: Upgrading theAlerting Service • The basic alerting service “does a job” and is in daily use – Drop in some numbers – Put in a couple of very recent postings • Somewhat restrictive and not very scalable • Enhancements proposed by the Transfer team to UKSG • JISC funding approved for an ETAS (Enhanced Transfer Alerting Service) • Encompassing improvements in the alerting service itself and putting in place a proper, searchable database to underpin and complement the service • MIMAS (based at the University of Manchester, UK) will host and run the service as part of JUSP (Journal Usage Statistics Portal) • ETAS has been designed, built, and released • Historical information still being loaded
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- 34. ETAS RSS Feedin Reader
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- 37. What’s Next? • Version3.0 – Preservation – Discovery Services and Link Resolvers – Search Engine Discoverability – Social Media and Apps – Transfer of Administrator Contact Information – Formal Recommendation?
- 38. Getting Involved Everyone: Learn more about Transfer: http://www.uksg.org/transfer Librarians: Learn about the Enhanced Transfer Alerting Service: http://etas.jusp.mimas.ac.uk/ Publishers: Talk to us about endorsing the Code of Practice: http://www.uksg.org/Transfer/Code
- 39. Thank you! Nancy Beals(Wayne State University Libraries) Nancy.Beals@wayne.edu Jennifer Bazeley (Miami University Library) bazelejw@muohio.edu
Editor's Notes
- #5 Why journals migrate between publishersThe “vulnerability” of e-resource access during transfersProblems:Interrupted accessDelayed accessDisappearing back filesWrangling over entitlementsChanged login or authentication proceduresAdmin load in fixing new or altered setupsCauses: Poor communicationDifferent infrastructureMissing or scrambled dataLack of coordination or timeCompeting or contrary motivations
- #7 A voluntary Code containing best practice guidelines for both Transferring and Receiving publishersSupported (to date) by 36 publishers who publicly endorse the CodeAn alerting service, communicating details of journals “on the move” to almost 400 registered recipients – mainly librariansAn ongoing, if informal, program of education and presentation to help different constituencies in the library supply chain better understand each others’ problems and prioritiesSupported and championed by a small working group – 8 publishers, 5 librarians and 6 others – meeting once every two months
- #8 http://www.uksg.org/Transfer/Code
- #9 The Code is now in a revised Version 2.0, and currently covers six main areas:Access to the transferred title: Includes ensuring continued access to customers where the Transferring publisher has granted perpetual access entitlements.Provisions around digital content files: Covers the transfer of digital files and spans both current (born digital) and archival (digitized from print) content, where available.Subscription lists: Covers early transfer of subscription lists and an outline of subscriber data types.Journal URLs: Covers transfer of journal-related domain name(s) and provision of a link or redirect to the new journal home page.DOI name ownership: Covers changes to Digital Object Identifier (DOI) name ownership.Communication: Covers communication to customers and relevant intermediaries. Customers here include recipients of electronic ToC alerts.
- #10 By registering as Transfer compliant, publishers agree to abide – where commercially possible – by the terms of the Transfer Code of PracticeRemember: this endorsement and signup is entirely voluntaryLibrarians and societies are increasingly requesting Transfer compliance in their licensing and contractual agreements with publishersOther reports and initiatives (from JISC Collections and others) are citing Transfer and recommending complianceTransfer’s recommendations provide a useful framework for overhauling internal procedures and encouraging a degree of “self regulation” on the part of publishersBut it’s hard to give the Code more “teeth” as we have to be careful to avoid any anticompetitive practicesAnd a recent informal list serv poll alerted us to several ongoing issues, some involving Transfer-compliant publishers
- #11 Publishers provide a simple set of information items about the title transferredNames of Transferring and Receiving Publishers & contact persons at bothTitle and ISSN of journal being transferredEffective transfer dateAnd some other information: see examples laterWherever possible, contact points for both Transferring and Receiving publishers are includedEmail alerts are generated and sent to subscribing recipientsMost recipients to date are librarians, but other players such as subscription agencies also interested on behalf of their customers215 journal transfers had been notified using this mechanism by Summer 2012 and more have followedSimple but effective. Doesn’t itself solve problems, but gives a pretty good heads-up that “this might be a title to watch!”
- #24 We’ve talked a lot about the details of Transfer, and about how publishers can participate. Librarians in the audience might now be wondering how they can be involved.If you buy from any publishers who do not currently endorse, Transfer, please encourage them to do so. You can simply direct them to the Transfer website, where there is information for publishers. We’ll have this URL on our last slide.Subscribe to the Transfer notification list via e-mail—this site is also on Transfer’s main website. Emails go out to this listserv only when a title is transferring, and the heaviest times of year seem to be spring and fall, as you might guess.Finally, after you join the listserv, incorporate notices for titles you subscribe to in your workflow. I have some slides which show how I use these emails in my own day to day work. Many of you may already do something like this, and it may seem simple, but it’s helped to keep me organized over the last year.
- #25 I use Microsoft Outlook at my institution, and I’ve dedicated a folder in my inbox to Transfer emails. Obviously, I only save the emails that are in regard to titles which we subscribe to at my library.I tend to keep the pertinent emails even after I’ve taken care of them in my catalog, since this is a good way to go back later if I encounter a problem.
- #26 This is what the body of the notification loos like. This particular notice includes two journals that I subscribe to, TESOL Quarterly and TESOL Journal. At this point, the most useful piece of information here is the transfer date—January 2012. I’m going to flag this email so that it appears in my To Do List in Microsoft Outlook on a specified date.
- #27 In My To Do List, the email subject line appears with a flag next to it.
- #29 We’ve talked about Transfer in it’s current incarnation, and how it can be used. We also want to tell you about some forthcoming upgrades to the alerting service. Enhancements were proposed for the service which will make it more flexible, and JISC funding was approved for an Enhanced Transfer Alerting Service.The most exciting part of the upgrade will be a searchable database which underpins the service itself. This means you will be able to go to the Transfer site and search the database for a previous transfer—rather than having to sort through listserv emails.Mimas (based at University of Manchester, UK) is a nationally designated data center, and will host and run the service as part of the Journal Usage Statistics Portal (JUSP).We’re excited to announce that the enhanced transfer alerting service has been designed and built. It’s currently being tested but we expect it to be available online very soon. We’ve captured some screen shots of two upgraded features of the service.
- #30 For Librarians: a searchable database.
- #32 Results will show the information that currently appears in the listserv emails, as well as some new fields, including information about perpetual access, when it is known.
- #36 For Publishers: Updated Transfer submission form for publishers – top of pageThe form allows for more information to be input--
- #37 Including archive and perpetual access details, when they’re known.
- #38 The code is still a work in progress, and we’re currently discussing version 3.0. We’re currently discussing:Preservation is becoming a hot topic, both for the agencies involved and in registries of such services. Should the Transferring publisher clarify whether content will remain a part of existing arrangements?Transferring publishers could identify and pass on information about existing discovery services and link resolvers: should that be formally encouraged?Should we research and suggest steps that publishers could take to ensure the continued discoverability of articles by search engines?Similarly, might we consider including guidelines about redirecting social media sites and apps?Subject to thinking through data protection issues, might Transferring publishers consider transferring email alerts, or at least contact registrants and provide a link for future sign up at the Receiving publisher?More prosaically, should we more formally recommend use of the Transfer alerting service and its improved database?
- #39 If anyone is interested in getting involved, especially librarians, please go to the Transfer website or sign up for the alerting service. Please also feel free to contact us with specific questions or suggestions—our email addresses are in the presentation. User input is what helps to make the service better. For publishers, if you’re not yet endorsing Transfer, please consider doing so—information specific to publishers can also be found on the Transfer site.Thanks for your interest in this and for attending our presentation.