The Next Generation of SAGE Journals Online: Migration Schedule Announced

Los Angeles, CA (June 23, 2010) — SAGE today confirmed that the planned upgrade of the SAGE Journals Online platform will be complete by July 30, 2010. All 560+ journals will be migrated onto SAGE's next generation platform, supported by HighWire's H2O platform and accompanying services and infrastructure.

To ensure that the transition causes minimal disruption to access, the final stages of the upgrade have been scheduled to coincide with academic summer recess, with the bulk of publications planned to migrate from mid-June to mid-July. SAGE and HighWire do not anticipate downtime of the entire platform at any time during the migration.

Access control for institutions and individuals will not affected by the migration. Administrative features and access to usage reports will also remain the same. URLs of journal sites will not change therefore no changes will need to be made to OPACs.

The new platform is a sign of transformation towards user-centric information architecture. A major goal of the platform upgrade is to keep readers in context and to streamline research. The new three-column user interface is designed to highlight features available without taking attention away from the substantive article content. Features most closely associated with the manuscript pages are placed closest to it. As web research increasingly brings users right to the article page, this page needs to carry elements of the homepage and table of contents, providing intelligent choices to the reader as soon as they arrive.

Several individual sites have already been migrated in 2009 and early 2010, including the journals of the Association for Psychological Science: Psychological Science; Current Directions in Psychological Science; Psychological Science in the Public Interest; and Perspectives on Psychological Science. These sites show how the new design assists readers with:

• Browse, advanced search and alerting features - expanded discipline functionality across 50+ disciplines.
• Abstract preview - mouse-over entries available from tables of contents and search results provide instant pop-up previews of abstracts, without leaving the page.
• Tag-along navigation - content feature options follow alongside as you scroll down the article page.
• Feature hideaway - author affiliations, related links, and other optional functions can be expanded or hidden from view; these preferences are retained throughout a session.
• Popular-articles list - Most Viewed and Most Cited articles lists are readily available from all journal-site pages.
• Journal and society branding - home page designs will include greater prominence of journal titles and association logos, names and links to society sites.

"SAGE is acutely aware of the implications a platform upgrade can have for librarians and users, and we are keen to ensure as little disruption as possible to their access," said Jayne Marks, SAGE Vice President and Editorial Director, Library Information Group.

"The move to the next generation platform will give users an enormous improvement in their ability to search and browse in context. There will also be a much more useful portal home page that will provide targeted options for all types of visitors and a more prominent search placement."

The new platform utilizes all current web standards, which poises SAGE to integrate new technologies and services, including web 2.0 features and output through mobile channels.

For further information about the next generation of SAGE Journals Online visit www.sagepublications.com/nextgensjo.

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SAGE is a leading international publisher of journals, books, and electronic media for academic, educational, and professional markets. Since 1965, SAGE has helped inform and educate a global community of scholars, practitioners, researchers, and students spanning a wide range of subject areas including business, humanities, social sciences, and science, technology, and medicine. An independent company, SAGE has principal offices in Los Angeles, London, New Delhi, Singapore and Washington DC. www.sagepublications.com

 HighWire Press, a division of the Stanford University Libraries, provides online site development and hosting solutions to the scholarly publishing community. HighWire produces the definitive online versions of high-impact, peer-reviewed journals and other scholarly content in many disciplines. Since 1995, HighWire has partnered with influential societies, university presses, and other publishers to create a vast database of the finest, fully searchable research, medical, and social science literature available on the Internet. The HighWire community shares ideas and innovations in publishing through regular meetings, discussion forums, and through the service of its unique blend of highly qualified staff highwire.stanford.edu

Press Release Contact:
Mary Kay Jezzini
SAGE Publicist
212-352-1404
publicity@sagepub.com