Publishing at a cross-roads: Who is going to be doing what?

摘要

The chemical web will celebrate its 10th anniversary next year (2004). The impact of the web on chemistry over this time has been dramatic, especially in the arena of chemical information. Whether it is web-based front-ends to existing packages, such as STN on the Web from Chemical Abstracts to entirely new web products, like Scirus from Elsevier, the web has dramatically changed the way chemists acquire information. All database and index producers are now delivering their products through the internet, either using the web or through a custom client-server interface. Strictly speaking, a web-delivered service is one that passes information to the user via http (hypertext transfer protocol). In practice, a simpler definition is a service that uses a standard web browser (MS Internet Explorer, Netscape Navigator, etc) as the client. This interface offers significant advantages for both the consumer and the producer. Consumers need not purchase or load any additional software on to their computers. Users are likely to be quite comfortable and familiar with the operation of the browser, and will likely need no additional training to begin working with a new service. However, such users will likely expect web-based services to conform to common practices on the web.