Springer Nature is offering a new feature on its Linked Open Data (LOD) platform. It allows users to check if their conference papers published in proceedings are indexed in Scopus. Conference organizers, authors or the research community in general can access Springer’s LOD platform free of charge and do a search by filling in an ISBN, DOI, conference acronym or the volume number of the book series.
“This machine-aided check is a tremendous help for the Abstracting & Indexing service department as we will have a better view of our indexing success and can set a clear indexing strategy together with the colleagues in publishing,” says Tamara Welschot, Director Research Integrity and Publishing Services at Springer Nature. “In addition, the machine-automated process will help offer a superior service to authors.”
Conference proceedings volumes bundle all papers presented at a given conference. Springer Nature publishes about 1,200 volumes every year, which represents a significant percentage of all such works published in technical fields worldwide. In computer science and engineering, proceedings are considered to be the preferred publication format due to the speedy publishing time.
“By introducing this feature, we address the demands of our authors who want to make sure that their proceedings papers are indexed. There is a special concern among authors in emerging markets which needs to be taken seriously,” explains Aliaksandr Birukou, Senior Editor Computer Science at Springer Nature. “These authors need documentation that their work has been indexed, in particular, to secure further funding from research agencies or their institutes.”
The release of the feature and systematic checks for indexing in Scopus have increased the indexing rate in Scopus, and Springer Nature is working continuously on optimizing this trend. The development of this new feature is a joint effort with Net Wise and is supported by Elsevier’s Scopus API.
The term Linked Open Data (LOD) refers to structured, machine-readable data. Since Springer opened the metadata about their conference proceedings in early 2015, the publisher belongs to the vanguard of LOD providers. It has assumed a leading role among those publishers offering semantically searchable data. The portal currently involves open data on roughly 9,000 proceedings volumes from around 1,400 conference series. The content is in computer science, including Springer’s Lecture Notes in Computer Science (LNCS). The data can be downloaded free of charge. More details on the platform can be found at http://lod.springer.com.
