IEEE Workflow
Management System
STM E-Production Seminar
3 December 2009
London, UK
Dawn Melley
Director, Periodicals Editorial Services
IEEE
Move to Electronic Publishing Has
Transformed Publishing Process
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Volume of articles published has grown
steadily
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Web-based peer review = increased submissions
E-first publication allows for faster dissemination
Primary delivery model and “copy of record”
have shifted from print to electronic
Focus of periodical process has become
article-by-article electronic publication
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DOIs for citation
Online issues can reduce frequency of print
Build issues in IEEE Xplore one article at a time
Working to Improve the Journal
E-Article Environment
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Processing and publishing single articles is faster
than waiting for all articles for an issue to be
completed – speed of publication improves
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IEEE uses two models for single article delivery:
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Print schedule:
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Pre-print model (accepted, unedited version)
Rapid Post model (final copy-edited version)
These models are similar to those used by other
publishers
Issue production time reduced by almost 20%
IEEE Workflow Management System (WMS)
launched at the end of 2007 to support an alldigital journal workflow
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Extract author-supplied source files directly from
Manuscript Central upon acceptance
Now able to track text, graphics and ancillary files
in our processing queue
WMS Improves Efficiency of Journal
Production Process
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WMS is used by the IEEE Publishing
Operations Department to:
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Streamline and automate the editorial/production
process
Provide the ability to quickly adapt to changing
business conditions
Worked with consultants to build IEEE
customizations into third-party software
Built in phases, beginning with vendor
proposals in 2004 and ending with launch in
late 2007
Rolled out in 2008
Vendor Selection Process Was Detailed &
Comprehensive
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Did site visits to see existing journal
production CMSs
Looked at a number of proposals, based on
all leading CMS available at the time
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Documentum
Other proprietary systems
Reviewed detailed written proposals
Invited leading contenders in for
presentations
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Evaluated vendors using an evaluation
matrix
Matrix Captured Elements Most
Important to IEEE
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Vendor criteria
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Quality of the SOW
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References
Prior experience
Directly related experience (work on other publishing projects)
Financial stability
Technological stability of proposed platform
Resources (amount & quality)
Shows understanding of project
Proposed development process
Point of contact
Cost of project
Proposed schedule--realistic?
Presentation
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Well-organized
Responsive
Demonstrates an understanding of IEEE’s business
Selected a Documentum-Based System
Building on Existing Solution
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Worked with Flatirons Solutions to customize
PubFusion, a system built for Wolters Kluwer
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Purchased base code and customized extensively to
fit IEEE needs
Worked in phases, using an iterative design
process
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Phase 1: Functional specs, solution design
Phase 2: Core functionality
Phase 3: Automation
Phase 4: Integrations
Defining Requirements, Developing
Workflows & Designing UIs Took Time
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Core team identified to work with Flatirons to
review process in detail
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Started in 2004, system went live at end 2007
Called in larger groups of stakeholders for
review & input as portions of system were being
developed
First step was to review existing workflows
Workflow development in process while UI
prototypes were built, reviewed, refined, and
then reviewed and refined again
Reviewing as the system was being developed
was critical to success
WMS Is Based on an End-to-End
Digital Workflow
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All articles and other materials for publication
are imported directly from external systems
(i.e., online peer review systems)
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Articles move through the production process
based on pre-defined workflows, milestones
trigger the update of schedule information
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The ability to import manually exists
Important not to over-engineer—need flexibility
to react to changing business needs
Contact with authors, EICs, IEEE staff, and
others is done through system portals
WMS Provides All Involved With Real-Time
Information About Content in Our Queue
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Through web-based portals, WMS gives
authors, editors-in-chief, and society staff the
ability to
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Check the status of an article
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What has happened, what will happen and when
Update personal information (bio, photo, contact
information)
Review article proof and submit alterations
Contact IEEE editorial staff
Review the queue of articles available for publication
(EIC/society)
Create issue line-ups (EIC/society)
View information about page budget and pages
published (EIC/society)
Other Benefits of WMS Include
Component-Level Content Management &
Enhanced Reporting
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WMS is designed to manage our content at
the component level
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Figures, photos, multimedia, text
This will prepare us to act on opportunities for
component-based publishing
Better, more automated tracking through the
production process allows for more detailed
reporting
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Audit trails, milestones, and system events can all
be used to create meaningful, targeted reports
Training End Users Is a Critical Part of
the Process
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Staff training was done using
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Demos
FAQs
User guide
Weekly open user group meetings
Expert Users on the floor
Blog site
Centralized help desk
Despite best efforts, training & documentation
were challenging
Training of authors and IEEE volunteers done
using FAQs and user guides, along with
webinars for editorial offices
What Does WMS Look Like?
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Screen shots illustrate some system
highlights
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Inbox view: editorial staff interact with WMS
through the inbox
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Metadata
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Highly customized to provide ability to organize work in
different ways
Tasks sortable by columns
Additional filters to screen visible tasks by type,
publication, issue
Used to automate the production process, for reporting,
and to track performance to schedule
Detailed tracking of process/system events
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Easily identify bottlenecks
Analyze where time is lost/gained
Measure staff productivity
Extensive use
of metadata to
drive
automation and
reporting
Detailed
tracking of
process is
possible
Review and edit issue line up:
change order of articles;
add/delete articles through
drag & drop
Specify appropriate journals;
provide expiration date
Track pages used as % of annual budget;
view page count details for each issue
Update contact information as often
as needed, in one place—
new information will be used by all
editorial staff
The Author Gateway- an Author Connection
to the IEEE
Landing Page
Create & maintain profile;
biography to be used as needed by
IEEE staff
Author Profile
Tracking Articles Through Production With
the Article Tracker
View status of each article in progress:
What stage of production?
Is proof available for review?
What happens next?
Milestones & Status
Article Tracker