e-Publications

What is an E-publication?
An e-publication is an electronic publication that can be enhanced or enriched with multimedia content.

What is an enhanced (or enriched) publication?
An enhanced (or enriched) publication links an electronic publication – usually a text – with

  • (research) data, models, algorithms, images,
  • metadata and/or
  • post-publication data such as comments or rankings.

An enhanced publication can develop over the course of time. Sources of an enhanced publication are stored at different (sustainable) locations (repositories, digital archives). All content must be referrable or retrievable by (persistent) identifiers.

Universities and research institutes explored different appearances of enhanced publications in a Dutch project of SURF and in the European Driver project.

What is an e-book?
An e-book is a special kind of electronic publication that still meets a book format (e.g. content is divided into chapters) and can be downloaded to read without internet connection. An e-book is given an isbn or alike identifier.

What about Open Access?
Open Access publications can be deposited in university repositories (often managed by the library department) or at research platforms (like PLOSone.org, BioMed Central, or specific journals (e.g. JALC.nl). Open Access publications might be free to the user, but often include a pre-paid publication fee by the university or researcher.

Some specific research requirements and topics for (enriched) e-pubs and e-books

  • a solid peer review process
  • sustainable references and identifiers (no 404’s)
  • ranking and authority of the publication platform
  • authorrights and privacy aspects (e.g. interviews, medical data)
  • careful in drawing conclusions

Sources and further reading

e-IRG publication as iBook
e-IRG publication as iBook
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