[Eril-l] New Highwire Press sites

Fri Nov 4 09:51:44 PDT 2016

We are getting quite a few issue reports of pdfs on titles hosted by Highwire Press not loading. The below discussion seems to be the explanation as to why. But I am curious if anyone had come up with an effective solution for helping patrons get around the problem. In my own browser installations, I do not seem to even have any ad-blocking extensions enabled in the first place.

Monica Ihli, M.S.
ORCID: 0000-0001-6907-6167<http://orcid.org/0000-0001-6907-6167>
Enterprise Systems
Hodges Library, University of Tennessee
United States of America
Office Phone: 1+ 865.974.2885
Email: mihli1 at utk.edu

From: Eril-l [mailto:eril-l-bounces at lists.eril-l.org] On Behalf Of Nikki DeMoville
Sent: Wednesday, October 05, 2016 12:54 PM
To: eril-l at lists.eril-l.org
Subject: Re: [Eril-l] New Highwire Press sites

Hi all,

Just to clarify my question here, at Cal Poly we don't have ad blockers installed on our library computers.  However, we expect that a very high percentage of our users DO use ad blocking software on their personal devices.  We have also had at least one faculty member report site elements from Science (another Highwire site) being automatically blocked by Safari.  Which comes back to my original question ... is anyone noticing/troubleshooting/effectively dealing with the issue of Highwire's new site elements being blocked by AdBlockPlus, Safari, etc.?  If our users were having problems with this, would we know or recognize it?  The problem is often hard to detect--perhaps our users just go on to another article or send a generic broken link report.

Highwire usage stats may be interesting next year--I don't know if our usage is high or consistent enough to reflect dips from the blocking problem though I am expecting some usage inflation on certain titles from the landing page problem.

Nikki
--
Nikki DeMoville
Electronic Resources Coordinator
Robert E. Kennedy Library
California Polytechnic State University
San Luis Obispo, California

Direct 805-756-5780
Fax 805-756-7711
ndemovil at calpoly.edu<mailto:ndemovil at calpoly.edu>

On 10/4/2016 1:45 PM, Nikki DeMoville wrote:
Hi all,

I curious about what folks on here think of the new version of Highwire Press that some journals are rolling out.  I've seen two major issues crop up recently:

1.  Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America PNAS:
  From the abstract screen (where our link resolver drops users, naturally), AdBlockPlus blocks the tabs that display access to the full text, PDF, etc., rendering the site essentially unusable; the blocking is so seamless that it isn't even possible to tell where the tabs should have been.  Unfortunately, Highwire is actually using the PNAS site as an example for their new features (http://highwire.stanford.edu/publishers/h2o.dtl).

I've encountered issues with AdBlockPlus blocking important elements in databases (e.g. Engineering Village/Compendex), where I can at least put a notice in the A-Z list entry, but having to put notices on individual journal titles is an entirely new level of micromanagement.  Assuming our users are not about to abandon ad blockers, how are other libraries dealing with this issue?

2.  Journal of Cell Biology and other Rockefeller University Press journals
    RUP's new journal site drops users directly into the HTML full text article from the TOC, from our link resolver, and from the DOI.  There is no agnostic "abstract" landing page from which a user can evaluate whether they really want the article and choose the appropriate format.  This will have the effect of dramatically inflating usage (every view will be counted even if the user doesn't go beyond the abstract, and every PDF use will be a duplicate count).  It had seemed for the last few years as though publishers were getting away from these usage-inflating designs, so I'm sorry to see this issue come back on a new platform.

It seems like Highwire has gone all-in on features and branding for publishers, with less emphasis on the needs of their library users.  Perhaps this is something to do with their acquisition by a private equity firm in 2014.  Anyway, it seems like people have been quiet about these changes, which are subtle but problematic.  Thoughts?  Opinions?

Thanks,
--
Nikki DeMoville
Electronic Resources Coordinator
Robert E. Kennedy Library
California Polytechnic State University
San Luis Obispo, California

Direct 805-756-5780
Fax 805-756-7711
ndemovil at calpoly.edu<mailto:ndemovil at calpoly.edu>

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