BookMetaHub – Metadata made simple!
ScienceOpen began working with book content in 2019 with the purpose of broadening our solutions for publishers and adding more books to our discovery network.
Coming from an extensive engagement in the journal indexing environment, we quickly identified some disadvantages of the book publishing industry, primarily in the data and corresponding data formats used for online sharing of book content.
When compared to the available article content, these data formats have a qualitative and quantitative disadvantage: most were not primarily designed with the purpose of indexing in a digital research environment in mind.
Because of the lack of standardized communication between various indexing systems and respective data formats, these inconsistencies can lead to the creation of numerous barriers in the accessibility and visibility of book content online. Missing persistent identifiers, machine-readable licenses, or content link-outs affect not only the user experience within an electronic research environment but have implications for the entire publishing landscape around books, including the various stakeholders involved in this process.
As database experts, we wanted to resolve those encountered barriers through an interface implementation based on our state-of-the-art technology features with enhanced discoverability for book records in focus, while as the namesake for open science, we were aiming for a solution that will shift the status quo towards more openness in science.
Metadata made simple!
Answering the challenge, we came up with the idea of creating a free interface for publishers, where they can make or enhance their available metadata to make it compliant with digital environment requirements.
And as this proposal was very much in line with the German Ministry of Education and Research’s strategy to fund projects supporting the transformation towards Open Access; we applied and were awarded a grant to create the said platform and suite of tools for book publishers.
So today, after months of hard work from our developers, we have the great pleasure of announcing the launch of ScienceOpen’s latest development: The BookMetaHub, an online platform that will aid in the enrichment and standardization of new and existing metadata for open access and traditional book publications alike.
BookMetaHub’s solutions for publishers
BookMetaHub will not only help to build a more open and inclusive publishing ecosystem, but it will also help publishers simplify content management by providing a freely accessible, cutting-edge hub designed for an easier exchange and update of interoperable book and chapter metadata for academic book titles.
Newly created (or imported and subsequentially enhanced) metadata files are readily exportable in industry-standard formats such as BITS or Crossref XMLs, (with MARC and ONIX export coming later this year) allowing for widespread compatibility and distribution across various databases and repositories.
In simpler terms: ScienceOpen is providing a platform for publishers to create and facilitate the exchange of open book metadata!
The BookMetaHub, therefore, offers a straightforward solution for publishers to help them connect to the infrastructure of the scholarly publishing landscape more easily while at the same time increasing global visibility and discoverability—thus making metadata creation, management, and delivery an intuitive and simple task for open access and non-open access publishers.
BETA launch of BookMetaHub
ScienceOpen recently launched the BETA version of BookMetaHub, inviting select publishers to attend a live demo and then test and use the interface by manually adding and enhancing metadata.
At this launch event, we also gathered some first impressions and feedback from our users, with lots of positive input on the user-friendliness of the interface and the enhanced accessibility. All comments and feedback will assist our technical team in translating their invaluable feedback into improved functionality of our tools and features enabling prompter access to the online publishing landscape from various points of departure.
Open metadata for OA and non-OA books is critical for the transformation of the entire scholarly landscape.
Join BookMetaHub’s testing and share your feedback with us!
As previously stated, BookMetaHub is still in the BETA phase, with many new features on the way.
Your feedback is extremely valuable to us! If you represent a publishing house, institutional scientific publishers, libraries, or university presses, feel free to test some of the features that are already available, and share your thoughts with us via this questionnaire.
