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Web of Science, an Enabling Architecture -Reply 

Regarding Peter Boyce's comment, "It is much more than a searchable
database of abstracts, and much more than a database of references and
citations.  It actually provides an underlying mechanism by which a reader
can click on a reference in an article she might be reading, and jump to
the abstract of the reference.  And if that seems interesting, the
mechanism can be built (as has been done for astronomy) to link directly
to the full text of the referenced article:" 

Earlier this week, at the International Online 97 meeting in London, ISI
and the American Institute of Physics announced that links to the full
text of articles from AIP journals will be added to the Web of Science in
1998.  I believe that other publishers also were included in the ISI
announcement. 

I agree with Peter that the WOS is not just a repackaging of previously
existing content.  By its ability to link to/from newly published papers
that reference a previously published paper, it is clearly a living,
changing database that tracks the progress of scientific research.  It is
for this reason that AIP was interested in participating in this service. 

I also share Peter's concerns about pricing.  AIP has a well-deserved
reputation of being concerned about the effects of high prices on library
subscriptions. However, as a representative of a publisher for the broad
and diverse physics community (i.e., not just for a relatively small,
homogeneous community such as astronomy and astrophysics), I am not
optimistic that we will soon achieve for all of physics (much less all of
science or all of scholarly research) what the astronomy community has
developed through the ADS.  AIP has in fact developed a reference linking
capability from the references in papers on our Online Journal Service to
SPIN and INSPEC bibliographic records describing the cited papers and to
the full text of articles for which we have the article available in
digital form.  Thus, we understand the costs involved in developing a
database of citations structured to easily permit links to bibliographic
databases and/or the full text of the cited article.  Having visited the
ISI production facility and observed their investment in a very efficient
production process, I hope the library community can work together with
ISI to resolve pricing concerns. 

Tim Ingoldsby
Director of Product Development
American Institute of Physics

Visit the AIP Online Journal Service at
www.aip.org/ojs/service.html


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