The implementation of the electronic publication model based on XML in Redalyc/AmeliCA offers many advantages and gives added value in every stage of the editorial workflow carried out by the scientific journals.

As the first diagram of the image shows, traditionally and still nowadays, the editorial teams of the scientific journals focus on the creation of a printed version for every number. Maybe some of them, due to budgetary reasons, have moved to digital web publication but without making changes in the formats, design or workflow, that is, once the article is accepted and in its final version, they send it to the layout with the aim of obtaining the PDF or HTML files that are used to be published on the website of the journal. Then, they make the tagging to obtain the XML file in order to comply with the requirements solicited from the platforms or the indexing systems, this is not even a task they perform because they understand the advantages that this format offers. This way of work can take between 11 to 13 hours per article with a charge that can be between 60 and 70 dollars (50-60 euros).

Journals can design another workflow that is more efficient and cost-effective, for example, by using the technological infrastructure developed by Redalyc/AmeliCA based on the XML JATS: after the article is accepted and in its final version, the tagging is done to obtain the XML JATS file and, from this, create the printed version and other reading formats such as PDF, HTML, ePub, XHTML, etc. Working like this, the editorial production of an article can take between 2 to 2.5 hours per article with a charge that goes from 7 to 9 dollars (6-7 euros).

Besides the advantages in the reduction of time of the processing and  in the optimization of the budget, this workflow allows: 

  • to have cutting-edge technology
  • to improve the interoperability
  • to ensure the digital preservation
  • to reduce the necessity of the technical specialization of journal’s editorial team
  • to give more visibility to every article on the web 
  • to have many output formats (HTML, PDF, ePub, among others)
  • the printing following the journal’s design 
  • to make information available for intelligent recovering