With the start of the online Journal of Archaeology in the Low Countries, the desire grew immediately to make use of the extra possibilities offered by online publishing. Therefore, Amsterdam University Press, Leiden University, DANS-KNAW and the Digital Production Centre (DPC) of the University of Amsterdam joined forces to explore the opportunities and challenges of enhanced publications. Enhanced publications may be defined as online articles that are directly connected to research data in a repository, which enables both the author as well as the reader to share more information than in traditional publications. Figures, photos, geographical maps, artifact catalogues may all be directly linked to an article, thus providing more insight in the line of reasoning and evidence for conclusions.
The SURF Foundation granted a SURFshare tender project, especially focused on JALC, to make this financially possible. Three goals were set: 1. To increase insight into archaeological research through the integrated presentation of publications and research data; 2. To gain experience with the organization and technique of assembling and making available enriched publications; and 3. To stimulate interest for this type of publication and lay a foundation for long term involvement of researchers.
In this issue the result of the second goal is visible: some of the articles are ‘enhanced’, displaying a variety of possibilities. In issue 1-1 the article of Smits and Van der Plicht has also been enhanced retrospectively. For now the applications may be rather modest, but in the future we hope to facilitate more options, depending on wishes from both authors as well as readers.
Please click here for more information about the project.