Information dissemination with ePublishing
Electronic publishing disseminates news and information via virtual media such as digital reference works or net publications. All works in ePublishing have in common that can be accessed only with computers or other digital reading devices. In most cases, films on DVD, music on CD or digital radio programs are distinguished from ePublishing.
Important advantages of ePublishing
ePublishing is now used in a wide variety of fields, including science, for example. Scientific articles are published more and more in electronic journals and other regularly published online media. Also included in this category are various computer games and educational software, as well as general software and digital reference works. Publications that are distributed via the Internet are grouped together under the term “online publishing”. The advantages that ePublishing offers both in the production process and for the end user are obvious. There is no need for costly printing and subsequent storage of the printed works, and the publications can be passed on as required in just a few steps via CD, DVD or even download. For the customer, rapid availability is just as relevant as the comprehensive options for using search functions and cross-references or for marking individual sections of the publication. The option of adding multimedia elements to the e-publication further enhances the work and creates significant added value for the reader or user.
Digital Object Identifier – Identification in ePublishing
Books and other publications (also in ePublishing) are uniquely identified by ISBN or ISSN, and the link to the international article numbers EAN enables uncomplicated inclusion in merchandise management systems worldwide. Based on this system, DOI (Digital Object Identifier) was developed as a digital identification number in the area of online and net publications (currently mainly in the area of scientific online articles). Using this identifier, digital products can be identified regardless of their location on the Net and thus easily located on the WWW, even if, for example, the website on which the article is published is renamed or moved. The use of DOI thus primarily serves to make scientific publications easier to find on the Web.
ePublishing in online marketing
The formats in ePublishing also include the distribution of scientific articles and information via newsletters or e-mail marketing. For the publisher, the main advantages here are the wide and, in the best case, viral distribution of the publication. Furthermore, the content can be updated and changed at any time. The provision itself does not generate any additional costs. All in all, ePublishing has a steadily increasing potential. The shift from information and also entertainment publications to digital media is clearly on the upswing and will increase significantly in the coming years.
