Hamad Bin Khalifa University Press has launched its re-designed academic publishing platform, QScience.com, with improved discoverability features and the latest in Open Access academic publishing options.
The bilingual user interface supports the publication of scholarly content in both Arabic and English. The platform boasts a modern interface and a responsive site design for optimised display which is intuitive to use. It provides users with a streamlined experience as a result of more navigation options and powerful search and discovery tools. It also features article recommending tools, like TrendMD, which leads to the increased discoverability of published content.
In alignment with HBKU Press’s aim to include our journals in recognised indexing bodies, the new publishing platform feeds into ingestion tools like Google Scholar, Scopus, PubMed Central, and Scimago to include proper citation of all Open Access articles published on QScience.com.
“HBKU Press has always sought to be a trailblazer in the region when it comes to online, academic publishing. With this new site, we have developed a state-of-the-art platform that meet the needs of authors from the region while attracting readers and scholars from all around the globe,” explains Dr Rima Isaifan, head of Academic and Journals Publishing at HBKU Press. “Most importantly, this site is compatible with both Arabic and English content while meeting the benchmarks of the industry’s best practices for online academic publishing platforms.”
Another feature of intrinsic value to researchers and authors that has been incorporated on QScience.com is the provision of several altmetrics related to article views and downloads that is updated in real time to reflect traffic from around the world.
Traffic on the site from all over the world has greatly increased as a result of the site’s updated discoverability features and its user friendliness. A marked increase of 53% in the number of viewers and users has been noted over the past year, with a majority of users accessing the site from the United States of America and the Gulf region.
There has also been a noted increase in communications with potential authors and institutes alike, with discussions focused on the potential stakeholders’ interest in publishing their scholarly content on QScience.com.
The first phase of the QScience.com re-design was launched in April 2019 and the fully re-designed site went live in December 2019. Future plans for the QScience.com include the development of a bank of peer reviewers where professionals from all over the world can register to provide scholarly peer review to articles submitted for publishing in QScience journals in different fields. This will include disciplines such as medical, engineering, environmental, sustainability, health, and law research.
For the re-design, HBKU Press partnered with one of the world’s leading provider of content solutions for progressive publishers, Ingenta.
“Through our collaborative efforts with HBKU Press, QScience.com can offer such a wide range of tools alongside a rich abundance of open access scholarly content in multiple languages,” added, Scott Winner, CEO of Ingenta.