When journals were published only in print, there were limits on what articles could include due to the cost of printing pages. Supporting information such as data sets, complex images, or multimedia could not be published along with articles. One of the many advantages of online publication has been the opportunity to include content that simply did not fit into a 2D print publication. There are, however, no recognized practices to guide publishers. The issues which are particularly important given funding agencies’ requirements for data sharing and management are discovery and preservation of supplemental materials associated with published articles.
The National Information Standards Organization (NISO) and National Federation of Advanced Information Services (NFAIS) have released for public comment their draft: Recommended Practices for Online Supplemental Journal Article Materials, Part B: Technical Recommendations. Included in this document are recommendations for metadata, persistent identifiers (e.g., DOIs), and preservation of supplemental materials.
- document and online comment form (public comment period ends September 15, 2012)
- background information on the Supplemental Journal Article Materials Project
