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In the continued growth of electronic publishing, the need for usable and efficient interfaces that successfully facilitates the editorial and publication process for scholarly content is an important challenge for scholarly publishing providers.

The purpose of this presentation is to provide an evaluation and comparative analysis of front-end display features that users experience when working with currently available electronic publishing systems. The study will commence with the compilation of a list of open-source as well as commercial publishing systems that will be examined. The study may also include tools and services that provide content upload and review processes that are akin to those found in electronic publishing systems. Thus, the variety of systems and services investigated will serve as a basis for surveying features, workflows, page layouts, and overall design elements that provide an optimal user experience during the electronic publishing process. Strengths and weaknesses of the user interface for each system will be captured. As well, overall patterns of available features, interaction patterns, or display mechanisms will be analyzed to provide a snapshot of the general landscape for editorial review and content publishing displays. This snapshot will serve as important contextual research that will inform further user experience evaluation of Public Knowledge Project’s Open Journal System.

survey; environmental scan; comparative analysis; user experience; publishing systems; interface