IOP Journals - Adding Value with Links

We believe that open linking between information resources should be a key feature of online data services. That's why we make it easy for you to set up links directly to IOP Journals from your Web site, database or OPAC. IOP Journal abstracts are freely available to all, so anyone can access the bibliographic citation and abstract of any article available in our Electronic Journals service.

We also offer a wide range of links from references cited in IOP articles to original full text articles, preprints, abstracts and document delivery services. IOP is a key member of the publishers' CrossRef initiative that promotes cross-publisher linking at the article level.

Linking in to IOP Journals

You can link to any level of the IOP Electronic Journals service - to a journal, volume, issue or even a specific article.

STACKS^TM

Our STACKS link management system and hyperlink protocol, launched in 1999, allows librarians, publishers, database services and online gateways to integrate links to IOP Journals into their services.

You can create your own links to IOP Journals using the STACKS hyperlink protocol. A simple, consistent URL syntax enables you to link to a journal, volume, issue or article, or to the latest issue or next accelerated issue of any IOP Journal.

If you wish to receive regular updates of links to IOP Journals, you may subscribe to the STACKS alerting service. As new articles are published, data will be sent to you automatically by e-mail. To subscribe please contact Judith Barnsby at judith.barnsby@iop.org.

Open Archives Initiative

The key standard of the Open Archives Initiative (OAI) mandates that content providers make metadata available for harvesting in a common format (Dublin Core). Our Electronic Journals service is compliant with the OAI technical framework, and metadata and abstracts are available for harvesting. IOP data is currently available in version 1.1 and 2.0 of the OAI Protocol for Metadata Harvesting (OAI-PMH).

As IOP abstracts are freely available, harvested metadata can be hosted locally in an OPAC or similar service. Please contact custserv@iop.org if you interested in harvesting our OAI metadata.

OpenURL

The OpenURL standard is being widely adopted by libraries to permit context-sensitive linking and resolve the "appropriate copy" problem. IOP supports OpenURL and is pleased to work with consortia and academic sites, as well as organizations such as Ex Libris and Serials Solutions, in the implementation of various OpenURL initiatives.

To activate SFX or a similar OpenURL link resolver at the IOP Electronic Journals service, please contact custserv@iop.org.

Linking out to other online services

Our Electronic Journals feature extensive linking to other online services. We developed HyperCite® linking technology to enable users to link to abstracts, preprints or the full text of many articles listed on our reference pages.

Reference linking

We have established links to a wide variety of services, so that subscribers to our Electronic Journals may view an abstract or a preprint of an article cited in the reference list of one of our online articles, or access the full text of the original article at the publisher's Web site (subject to subscription status).

Links to full text articles are shown where possible. Major publishers with whom we have linking agreements include the American Institute of Physics, American Physical Society (APS), SIAM and Springer-Verlag. Links to many other publishers' online content are facilitated through CrossRef, for example Elsevier, John Wiley and IEEE.

We also offer links to preprints held at arXiv.org and SPIRES. Abstracts are also available from the Inspec® database, or via services such as ChemPort and MathSciNet.

Forward citing

A useful feature of the IOP Electronic Journals service is the ability to track articles through subsequent articles that cite them. This is known as forward citing.

We provide forward citing links where the citing articles are found within our own online service, in journals published by APS, or in NASA's Astrophysics Data System. The "Articles Citing this Article" page displays a list of these articles that cite the currently viewed article amongst their references.

Future developments will extend the forward citing facility to include citing information from other CrossRef publishers.