HighWire Press

HighWire Press. It is a pioneering digital publishing platform and technology provider founded in 1995 as a division of Stanford University Libraries. Established by John Sack and Michael A. Keller, its initial mission was to help scholarly societies and academic publishers transition their journals from print to the online environment. Over decades, it has grown into a major force in electronic publishing, hosting thousands of journals and millions of articles for hundreds of publishing partners worldwide, profoundly shaping the landscape of scientific communication.

History

HighWire Press was launched in 1995 by Stanford University librarian Michael A. Keller and the first director, John Sack, with initial funding from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. Its first published journal was the renowned Journal of Biological Chemistry, a move that signaled a major shift for prestigious societies into the digital realm. A landmark early achievement was hosting the full text of the journal Science online in 1996. Throughout the late 1990s and 2000s, it rapidly expanded its portfolio by partnering with influential organizations like the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the National Academy of Sciences, and the Royal Society of Chemistry. In 2017, HighWire was acquired by the technology and services firm Taylor & Francis, integrating its operations into a larger publishing services ecosystem while continuing its core mission.

Services and operations

The organization provides a comprehensive suite of services centered on its proprietary online platform and content management system. Core operations include hosting and delivering digital content, managing the entire peer review workflow through editorial systems, and ensuring robust digital preservation. It offers sophisticated tools for citation linking, CrossRef integration, and advanced search engine functionality to enhance discoverability. HighWire also provides extensive support for open access publishing models, handling article processing charges and implementing various licensing schemes like Creative Commons. Its platform supports rich multimedia content, data visualization, and interactive features, serving a diverse client base that includes the American Psychological Association, the British Medical Journal, and the Endocrine Society.

Business model and partnerships

HighWire operates primarily on a service-provider model, generating revenue through fees charged to its publishing partners for platform hosting, development, and support services. This model has allowed it to form long-term strategic partnerships with hundreds of non-profit scholarly societies, university presses, and commercial publishers. Key historical and ongoing partners include the American Society of Hematology, the Company of Biologists, and Oxford University Press. Following its acquisition by Taylor & Francis, it functions as a specialized unit within a larger publishing services division, offering its technology to both internal Taylor & Francis imprints and external clients. These partnerships often involve collaborative development of new features to address evolving needs in academic publishing, such as text and data mining capabilities and ORCID integration.

Impact on scholarly publishing

HighWire Press is widely credited with accelerating the digital transformation of scholarly journals and democratizing access to scientific research. By providing an affordable, scalable platform for societies, it helped smaller publishers compete in the online arena alongside giants like Elsevier and Springer Nature. It was an early advocate for and implementer of open access principles, hosting some of the first major open access journals and pioneering the "Free Back Issues" model that made older journal volumes freely available. Its development of standards for interoperability and metadata enriched the entire ecosystem of digital libraries and discovery services. The platform's emphasis on speed and reliability set a high bar for online availability of research, influencing the practices of subsequent platforms like PubMed Central and the Public Library of Science.

Technology and platform features

The technical infrastructure is built on a robust, scalable architecture designed to handle high-volume traffic and complex content types. A defining early feature was its implementation of Standard Generalized Markup Language for article markup, ensuring longevity and flexibility. The platform supports advanced semantic web technologies, enhancing discoverability through rich XML tagging and linked data. It offers powerful APIs for integration with institutional single sign-on systems, library catalogs, and third-party tools. Key user-facing features include personalized alerts, social media sharing, and tools for citation management software like EndNote and Zotero. Its continuous innovation has addressed challenges like mobile responsiveness, accessibility standards compliance, and support for emerging research data types, maintaining its position as a leading technology provider in the field.

Category:Academic publishing Category:Digital library projects Category:Stanford University