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When Springer Science+Business Media launched its eBook program in June 2006, the STM publisher hoped to breathe new life into a format that had not garnered a large audience. Like its eBook program, the electronic reference work content is housed on Springer's online platform, SpringerLink. Having SpringerLink already in place also helped this initiative progress and ensured that Springer would have one main entry point for all of its electronic content. Springer is also working to make the reference collection affordable for customers. The price of the print product is identical to the electronic version. Springer plans to continually improve the features and functionality of its online references.

When Springer Science+Business Media launched its eBook program in June 2006, the STM publisher hoped to breathe new life into a format that hadn't garnered a large audience.

Apparently, the publisher had a solid model to follow. It had already accomplished that goal with its reference work program. In the past 2.5 years, Springer has increased the prominence of stodgy reference works with the creation of the Springer References program, which consists of print and electronic titles published simultaneously. The program has been so well received that the company is set to release its 100th electronic title at any moment.

Thomas Mager, Springer's director of product development, said the idea to build a multimedia platform around the company's reference works began in 2004 when Springer was merging with Kluwer Academic Publishers.

"The newly merged company management decided that the major reference works are an attractive product line to the end user and came up with a plan of expanding the product line, building the product according to a unified and customoriented editorial strategy as well as an aggressive expansion plan. And this is what happened," said Mager. "We are building a strong list in all fields of science. We are acquiring, commissioning, and developing titles in all fields of science, ranging from astrophysics to radiology."

Strong Electronic Product Line

The main component of the expansion was to offer the entire slate of reference works in all media formats, from print to online, and to make them more accessible to customers who might otherwise not have been drawn to this content. "The strategy embraces all media types: print, electronic, and a combination product," said Mager. "This was new in a way to this product line in [that] there was a strong electronic component to it."

Like its eBook program, the electronic reference work content is housed on Springer's online platform, SpringerLink. Having SpringerLink already in place also helped this initiative progress and ensured that Springer would have one main entry point for all of its electronic content. "We worked hard to integrate the media all under one roof," said Mager. "If you conduct a search, you will get hits from all document types."

SpringerLink, which launched 10 years ago as a home for Springer's online journals, currently contains more than 3 million documents from more than 21,000 publications (including journals, books, book series, and reference works). The reference collection contains encyclopedias, handbooks, dictionaries, bibliographies, data collections, and atlases.

The eReferences are available in both PDF and HTML formats. The PDF version is more printer-friendly for users who want a hard copy of the documents, while the HTML is geared toward those who just want to read the content onscreen. The HTML format also more easily enables Springer to add hyperlinks between reference works and allows for a quicker download time than PDF. The hyperlinks enable users to quickly find the additional information they seek. As a bonus, eReferences also have more robust content than their print counterparts. For instance, the electronic references have zoomable illustrations as well as audio files and video that users can access in a streaming mode; all increase the value of the traditional text. Users can access any content purchased by their institutions. "We don't have restrictive DRM," said Mager. "There is no technological barrier of any kind for ... a validated user of our content."

Like all content on Springer-Link, reference works can be searched by keyword or other criteria, including date (in the last month; in the last year), subject (such as chemistry, life sciences), copyright year, publication, author, editor, or book type. Users can also search within all content or within one particular reference work.

Focusing on Three Content Types

In terms of editorial, Mager said he doesn't necessarily see three different media types: journals, books, and reference works. Instead, he sees three types of content: primary, secondary, and tertiary literature. According to Mager, primary literature is a typical research article on a niche topic, while secondary literature is a review article written for a specialist. It summarizes trends on a niche topic. "We want to distinguish those two from the tertiary literature," said Mager. "Reference works are neither research literature or review articles. We have articles that are written with a certain language level in mind. There is a rule that says a Springer entry has to be written in such a way that a graduate student can benefit if it's not from their area of expertise. They need to be written for the university graduate student."

Mager said interest in authoring the reference works has increased since the introduction of the electronic platform. "When a university buys a Springer Reference title, all students and all faculty ofthat university have simultaneous access to that product," said Mager. "This means the visibility for a given piece of content is so much higher than it used to be. Exposure is so much larger and it's easy to convey this message to prospective editors in chief and authors. Their work is better invested."

The Ease of Updating

Springer is also working to make the reference collection affordable for customers. The price of the print product is identical to the electronic version. "So 10,000 students can look at it at the same time," said Mager. "You can't do that with the print book." Mager added that the electronic version allows for more frequent updates; online content is revised at least once a year. "With content that is sensitive to its sell-by date, we are looking at more frequent updating than the usual edition cycle," said Mager.

Springer has found that most customers purchase a bundled product: a combination of print and online that costs only 25 percent more than the print or electronic alone. Mager noted that while Springer's eBooks are available for purchase in packages only, the reference works can be purchased individually. "We want to give libraries the choice to add high-priced products to their collections," said Mager. So, for example, if a customer has purchased a clinical medical package (which includes eBooks and reference works), that institution can also purchase a biomedical reference work to complement its collection. It doesn't have to buy the entire biomedical package.

While Springer's reference collection is already robust-it includes works covering 25 disciplines, from architecture and design to physics and statistics-Mager said Springer is focused on continuing its strong coverage across these multiple subject areas. However, biomedicai, medical, life sciences, engineering, environment, and computer science are the most prominent areas for expansion. According to Mager, Springer References will publish 30 to 35 new titles this year and an additional 30 to 35 titles in 2008. The publisher expects the annual output of Springer References titles to be 50,000 documents. In comparison, the journals part of the business publishes 120,000 documents annually.

Springer plans to continually improve the features and functionality of its online references. One initiative the company is currently investigating, Premium Journals, involves the integration of journal content and reference work content. "It's an extremely interesting concept where journal articles are enriched by hyperlinks to reference material," said Mager. "If you read an article and don't understand the concept, you can get directly-without even launching Google-with one click to a document that answers your question." Like the journals and eBooks available on SpringerLink, the reference works also include a list of references at the end of each article that feature hyperlinks to the abstract of the cited article using CrossRef, PubMed, or other abstracting services.

The main goal is to enable users to find answers to their questions regardless of their specific research needs. "The users have different motivation when they research a Web tool," said Mager. "Primary, secondary, and tertiary literature caters to different research needs, and we want to cater to them simultaneously. For instance, when a user enters "hemoglobin" into a search query, we have no idea which mode they are now operating. We need a tool that offers answers on all three levels. That's what highly integrated content does."