01 March, 2013

Sneak Peek: BULLETIN Offers 'Ahead of Print'

wwwUpdate

 

The AAPG BULLETIN has expanded its online presence to include a preview of upcoming BULLETIN articles.

The AAPG BULLETIN has expanded its online presence to include a preview of upcoming BULLETIN articles.

The feature is called “Ahead of Print,” and by accessing the site you will see an altered layout designed to get science into your hands more quickly than ever before.

AAPG Editor Stephen Laubach said that “among the new services and processes that can be considered as best practices of association and commercial publishers, ‘Ahead of Print’ is on the top of the list.

“It not only makes manuscripts available earlier, but is a huge step toward keeping the AAPG BULLETIN a journal of choice for authors,” he said.

According to Jim Blankenship, AAPG director of geosciences, this isn’t just a new webpage but a site where “there is something new inside.”

This collection of papers includes manuscripts that have been peer reviewed and approved for publication, but have not been sent to final production or copy editing.

These articles are available online only and are part of the BULLETIN article collection. They are provided in the same formats as other BULLETIN articles – HTML and PDF – however, the PDF version “will not have the final polished look of a typical BULLETIN article,” according to Blankenship.

This early online availability keeps the BULLETIN competing with other scientific publishers’ practices.

“It allows manuscripts to be used, searched and cited three to five months in advance of actually showing up in the final edition of the monthly release,” Blankenship said.

What to Look For

As usual, a log in by AAPG members or BULLETIN subscribers is required to read more than just the abstract. Without the login, articles will be available on a “pay-per-view” basis.

Here are a couple of scenarios to help the AAPG member or BULLETIN subscriber take advantage of these new articles successfully; scenario one depicts logging in and then browsing the pre-print articles, while scenario two depicts browsing the pre-print articles and then logging in.

♦ Scenario One – Before clicking on “Ahead of Print,” pay attention to the welcome message up and to the right, which will say either “Welcome Guest” or “Welcome Member.”

“Welcome Guest” indicates you are not logged in.

“Welcome Member” indicates you are logged in and you should have full access.

In the event you are not logged in, locate and click on “Members Only Login.” It will be text to your right.

Upon successfully logging in through Members Only, locate and click on “Bulletin Online” – first item found in the top green bar – and you will return to this new BULLETIN landing page.

♦ Scenario Two – For this scenario, I’m assuming your curiosity got the best of you. You forgot about logging in and simply wanted to see the articles provided.

However, something has caught your attention, and now you want to actually read the article and view more than the abstract. (see tip below)

Look to the top right of the article page: Does it say “Welcome Guest?” Then to see further detail, you must click on “Login as a different user” found just under the welcome line.

Alternatively, if you are at the end of the abstract look for “AAPG Member” and locate the text, “Please login with your Members Only username and password.”

Both links provide the same dialog box.

So, DO NOT fill in the fields of this dialog box if you are a member of the AAPG. These fields are not for AAPG Members but for Datapages customers with Datapages accounts paying for each article viewed.

Instead, find in the dialog box the text “Members Only login” and click that link.

Complete your log in through Members Only. Find the “Bulletin Online” link and continue your browsing.

Usage Tip – Copy Before You Click

During Scenario Two, I noticed that I was not returned to the article I had originally selected.

Instead, once I completed my log in I was returned to the BULLETIN landing page. I had to browse through the articles and make my selection again.

To avoid this, copy the URL of your article before you log in. Then you will be able to paste this into your browser once you have successfully logged into Members Only.

Good browsing!