General
Information
How the E-print Network Works
General Information
What are e-prints?
E-prints are scholarly and professional works electronically produced and
shared by researchers with the intent of communicating research findings to
colleagues. They may include preprints, reprints, technical reports, conference
publications or other means of electronic communication. Preprints, those
selectively-shared pre-published documents or articles going through the
publication process, have long been recognized and utilized by peer groups
throughout the scientific community. Recent technological advances, however,
have incorporated preprints with other forms of peer communications to
establish an information genre in its own right. Therefore, the more
inclusive term e-prints is more appropriate to use currently in
describing this rich and valuable source of scientific and technical
information that now reaches beyond the scope of pre-published information.
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Are e-prints and preprints the same
thing?
Not necessarily. Generally, preprints are manuscripts intended for publication
that have not yet been published but may have been reviewed and accepted for
publication; or they may be in the process of being circulated for comment
prior to publication. Preprints generated and circulated in electronic forms
make up part of the genre of communication that has come to be known as
"e-prints". Many e-prints are electronic versions of research papers that have
been submitted for dissemination and review among peers; for publication in
journals; or prior to presentation at conferences. Some e-print servers may now
define preprints as any electronic work circulated by the author outside of the
traditional publishing environment, as the traditional definitions between
preprints and e-prints continue to blur. In summary, from an E-print
Network perspective, preprints are always e-prints, but e-prints are not
necessarily preprints.
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What is the E-print Network: Research
Communications for Scientists and Engineers?
The E-print Network is a set of powerful tools that facilitate access to
and use of scientific and technical e-prints communicating the results of a
wide range of research activities of interest to the Department of
Energy. These e-prints reside on thousands of Web sites and data bases,
both large and small, at remote locations worldwide, employing a wide variety
of technologies, architectures, platforms, formats, software, and search
engines to manage and retrieve data. The E-print Network pulls
these vast and widely dispersed data together through a Deep Web search
capability that allows the patron to search across and into full text as it
resides at the various hosting sites and, using the technical capabilities
available at each site, returns results that can be combined, assimilated, and
used in support of scientific research. In addition, access is provided
to a vast store of e-print information available on the Web through a browse
capability across more than ten thousand sites.
The E-print Network, however, is more than a source for scientists
and engineers to find, assimilate, and use scientific and technical e-prints in
their fields of interest. Also central to research efforts are the
interpersonal activities which occur on a one-to-one basis, in small groups, in
classrooms and seminars, and at large or small conferences. These interpersonal
activities are in fact research communications, too, and it is frequently
through these research communications that much of the strategically important
activities in which researchers engage are shared. The E-print
Network: Research Communications for Scientists and Engineers aims
to facilitate and encourage the exchange of these strategically important
research communications to help the user fully understand the content of the
e-prints on the Network, to assist contributors in gaining wide circulation of
their documents and in forging new contacts with colleagues, and to support
research sponsoring agencies' interests in seeing that the greatest possible
good results from their research investment.
The E-print Network then is about the professional communications
that are fundamental to the way science progresses. Counted among these
communications are those among colleagues pursuing common research objectives,
between experimental and theoretical scientists, between those in the basic and
those in the applied sciences, between scientists and engineers, and between
established investigators and those in academic programs. These communications
may be formal, as publications, and less formal in ways described above. The
E-print Network plans to employ advances in information technology to
facilitate advances in science, to aid the workers in the sciences to better
achieve their objectives, and to enhance the federal government's return on the
R&D investment.
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Who uses the E-print Network?
As the name implies, the target users for the E-print Network are
professional researchers in basic and applied sciences. These users will find
e-prints useful in comparing and validating research results with those of
peers, keeping abreast of the activities of other investigators whose efforts
are likely to impact their research, learning about researchers with whose work
they may not be familiar, and identifying areas of common interest with other
researchers.
The E-print Network can also be of great value to students in
scientific and technical studies at the graduate level for locating and using a
broad range of information in support of their fields of interest. It can
also help them discover behind-the-scenes interactions between the principals
involved in their chosen research areas. Undergraduate science students
contemplating graduate studies can find information about graduate programs and
gain a better understanding of what pursuing these studies would entail.
Of interest to those at or approaching the post-graduate level is that many
established investigators announce the availability of post-doctoral positions
on their Web pages. Post-doctoral investigators can become aware of such
opportunities and compare how available opportunities align with their own
career goals.
The E-print network will also be useful to those involved in research
administration and management. Not only should the enhanced level of
communication facilitate funded research, but reviewers should be able to gain
an understanding of the dynamics of funded research programs.
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How does the E-print Network help the
user?
The E-print Network system brings together a variety of e-print servers
and resources into one location. By eliminating the need to locate e-print
sites through Web searching, researchers can find more information while saving
time. In addition, the Alerts capability allows users to set up profiles
matching their specific interests. As new information is indexed or added to
databases, users are notified automatically, thus eliminating the need to
manually check for recent additions.
As with other Internet sites, the e-prints sites and resources may be
transient in nature and may be modified or removed at the discretion of the
site owners with or without prior notification. The e-prints themselves are
also dynamic. Many of them have not yet been peer reviewed, or are currently
undergoing peer review. Substantial changes may occur prior to formal
publication, and it is possible that the preprint may not be formally published
at all.
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How the E-print Network Works
What's in the E-print
Network?
The E-print Network does not "house"
information on a centralized site. Instead, it uses information residing
at remote sites on disparate databases and Web sites to create and compile
real-time search results on demand for each user. Therefore, it is
important to remember that the Network's interface is a tool, not a
repository for information. Its content is determined by what is
available on the sites we have chosen to include in the search mechanisms we
make available to users. The deep Web search offers full-text searching within and
across database collections. This provides users the capability to pulse the search
engines of selected e-print databases with a single query. A compiled search
results list is returned. If a description is needed for a database, please refer
to the Collection Description page.
With that caveat in mind, the E-print
Network provides one-stop browse/search access to over 29,500
scientific Web
sites containing e-prints. Full-text searching is available for more than
5 million eprints from Web sites and scientific databases.
More than 3,000 professional scientific societies can be browsed by
discipline and/or language.
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What are the criteria for inclusion in the
E-print Network?
In order for a Web site, database, or e-print document to be considered for
inclusion in the E-print Network, it must meet the following
criteria:
The content must be applicable to the Department of Energy's research and
development (R&D) programs, projects, activities, or interests. The
Disciplines page includes many of the categories of R&D considered within
scope for the E-print Network.
- The E-print Network seeks to support researchers with electronic
e-print information primarily in physical sciences, but also including other
areas of basic and applied science, research engineering, and various aspects
of mathematics and computer science. Content and selection criteria are
governed by the research information needs of the U.S. Department of Energy's
(DOE) research and development missions, programs, projects, activities and
interests. DOE is a major federal science agency that sponsors a
far-reaching, diverse variety of research conducted at national laboratories,
project sites, universities, smaller dedicated research institutions, other
government agencies, and private research entities.
Content must meet DOE's definition for scientific and
technical information as defined in Order DOE 241.1 (Section 8a):
- Useful information products, in any format or medium, that are derived
from scientific and technical studies, work, or investigations that relate to
research, development, demonstration, and other specialized areas, such as
environmental and health protection and waste management.
Content for the E-print Network must meet the criteria of being
e-print information as defined in the What are
e-prints section above.
- Note: E-print coverage of different DOE-related science and technology
areas is quite uneven as a result of disparities in e-print use among the
various scientific disciplines. Some areas, like high energy physics, are
e-print pioneers and are very well represented. Other areas, such as clean
coal technology, have so far provided very limited e-print capability.
Patrons are encouraged to nominate Web sites, databases and individual
documents for addition to our E-print Network collections.
Content must be in reusable electronic format that allows access to all
users.
- Access limitations, such as password controls or registration
requirements, are not conducive to the operation of certain functions of the
E-print Network. For inclusion in E-prints on the Web,
documents much be in a format retrievable by the E-print Network.
At present, .pdf, .ps, and .dvi documents are the only format indexed for this feature. For Deep Web searching,
databases must have a readily accessible search engine operating on a set of
freely available information.
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How Does the E-print Network
function?
The E-print Network uses a unique concept and a set of innovative
features to allow patrons to perform a variety of Deep Web search operations
that take advantage of the strengths of the individual sites where information
resides and leverages those strengths to enable cross-searching of disparate
data sources, assimilation and discovery of information, and reuse in advancing
science.
The resources available via the E-print Network are located on a wide
range of sources residing at academic institutions, government research
laboratories, scientific societies, private research organizations, and the Web
sites of individual scientists and researchers. The Network facilitates access
to these resources. It does not change the content or data provided by the
originating site or author in any way. When a document is displayed or
downloaded, the patron actually downloads the e-print directly from the
web-site where the document resides. The document is not stored or maintained
by the E-print Network.
The primary mechanisms that provide the functionality for the E-Print
Network are Distributed Explorit and Explorit Focused
Crawler. Developed by Deep Web
Technologies, Inc., these products are derived from Explorit, a
highly-configurable and easily customizable interface to commercially
available, off-the-shelf (COTS) full-text search engines from Lextek
International and Verity. Explorit provides the capability to deploy
small to large-scale collections of information on the web - fully searchable
and easily navigable - to a wide range of user communities. Large organizations
or information purveyors with many collections of heterogeneous information
benefit from the consistency and usability of the Explorit user
interface. Whether they deploy one collection or one hundred, users quickly
learn that all Explorit applications operate essentially the same way,
and variances are determined by content rather than inconsistent design.
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An overview of tools and
services
Search
The E-print Network offers a unique combination of search capabilities
to search two distinct areas where scientific and technical information resides
electronically, on Web sites and in databases. By focusing on access to the
full text of e-prints in each of these areas, the Network provides a degree of
specificity that greatly enhances the value of search results and allows
recovery, assimilation, and reuse of heretofore hard to find information to
facilitate scientific research. The three search capabilities are:
- Web Site Searching. Search full text of over 1.4 million e-prints indexed
directly from Web sites. At present, .pdf, .ps, and .dvi documents are searchable, but other
document forms will be included in the near future. These documents reside at
the originator's site, but have been indexed for inclusion in a virtual
collection for search and retrieval alone or in conjunction with a Deep Web
search.
- Database Searching. Perform a Deep Web search across the full text
of documents residing in selected databases
containing e-print material with a single query. This unique
federated
search pulses in real time a wide variety of databases and returns the most
current information available to a substantial level of depth within each
record of each database. A Web Site Search described above can be easily
incorporated into a Deep Web search.
- The DOE Science
Accelerator searches multiple science
resources, including the E-print Network. These resources,
developed by OSTI, reside in the
deep Web where
popular search engines cannot go. The DOE Science Accelerator
provides a "deeper" search that yields results ranked by relevancy.
This search may take a little longer, but returns more
comprehensive, higher quality science information.
See additional
information.
Browse by
Disciplines
This option offers patrons the ability to browse over 29,500 Web sites of
individual researchers, college and university departments,
academic/professional societies and associations, laboratory sites, and other
resources organized by Disciplines. It includes e-prints servers,
sites, and individual e-prints posted by scientists on their own sites. Users
may browse the list of sites in the discipline directories and readily access
research-oriented Web sites of interest.
Find Scientific Societies
To facilitate scholarly communication and expand access to additional
scientific information, we provide extensive lists of scientific societies and
associations. From these lists the user is one click away from the
homepage of over 3,000 professional societies in the sciences and
engineering. You may choose to see these organizations listed in one of
eleven languages or language groups. If you prefer you may craft a list
based upon the discipline or disciplines reflecting your interests limited by
the languages you choose.
Receive E-print
Alerts
Select this option to establish a routine search based on your specific
area(s) of interest and automatically receive a periodic alert via e-mail
notifying you whenever documents matching your search terms are indexed or
added to the Deep Web selected databases. This Alert Service can also be
utilized to automatically receive notification of new e-prints emanating from
particular laboratories.
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A Note to Site Owners
You may be interested in how the E-print Network accesses your site.
When a user does a search on the E-print Network and selects a paper for
his/her own use, the actual request for a copy of the e-print is directed back
to the Web source for this paper. For example, a user wishing to obtain a copy
of one of the papers at your site would select the paper from the E-print
Network, but would be directed to your site for the download. You maintain
full control of the distribution of your e-prints. Along with each e-print
retrieved by the search engine in this portion of the E-print Network is
also a link to the web-page associated with the document so that the user can
easily become familiar with the research program that generated the work. We
hope you will find that the E-print Network will help bring other
researchers to your site to discover your program and that some of these
scientists will become interested in your work.
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Meet the Messengers
Dr. Dennis Traylor is the Director of the E-print Network. He has
research experience in biochemistry and in toxicology of synthetic fuels and is
well versed in all aspects of scientific and technical information through his
extensive experience with the U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of
Scientific and Technical Information.
Comments or questions can be directed to them by specifically mentioning
either name in the text of a Contact Us message.
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