Nature Publishing Group (NPG) is pleased to announce mobile-optimization for a number of its journals on nature.com. Nature, Nature Climate Change, Nature Communications and Scientific Reports now offer complete mobile-optimized versions of their websites, designed for use in web browsers on “small screen” devices like smartphones and tablets. All other Nature research journals have also introduced mobile-optimized pages for all articles and news content. Site license access, COUNTER compliant usage statistics, and personal subscriptions are supported.
The mobile-optimized presentation has been designed to provide an improved reading and navigation experience in web browsers on smartphones and tablets. By employing Cascading Style Sheets 3 (CSS3) media queries the pages are reformatted on the fly based on the screen size of the device. On a smart phone the content is presented in a single column with dropdown menus, whereas on a tablet the journal’s homepage is either two or three columns depending on the orientation of the device.
The mobile versions support personal subscriptions and site license authentication for institutional customers. Site license authentication can be accessed through Shibboleth (UK Only), IP access via VPNs, Athens, Token-based access, proxies and over campus Wi-Fi networks, as supported by the institution. Access from mobile-optimized pages on nature.com is included in the COUNTER Compliant usage statistics reports provided to institutional customers.
“Our library customers have told us that they are keen to offer their patrons access to NPG journals on mobile devices,” says Tom Scott, Head of Platform at NPG. “Our small-screen optimization will improve the experience for mobile users accessing nature.com. We are committed to providing nature.com access that best meets our users evolving needs, and look forward to rolling out small-screen optimization across additional products on nature.com.”
Users are automatically directed to the mobile-optimized view when they access nature.com in their smartphone or tablet web browser. Users are also able to switch back to the full site version using the toggle button at the bottom of the screen. The new mobile site supports iPads, iPhones, and Android devices using browsers including: Safari, Firefox, Opera Mobile, Opera Mini, S40, S60. Mobile-optimized nature.com pages will also support Blackberry Web-Kit (available on Blackberry OS4.7.1 and above), available on most Blackberrys less than 18 months old. More information on supported browsers and FAQs are available on nature.com.
The mobile-optimized pages are the latest in a number of mobile offerings from NPG. Scientific American launched the Journey to the Exoplanets iPad app in September 2011, and introduced mobile-optimization on scientificamerican.com in November 2011. In January 2011 NPG launched a nature.com Reader for the iPad, following the February 2010 release of the nature.com iPhone app.
