Emerald Insight: platform update tracker
In July 2019 Emerald launched a completely new digital research platform
Designed to make social sciences research easy and enjoyable to discover, the new platform has been built from the ground up in collaboration with leading international academic institutions to ensure that every decision is carefully considered and validated by our users.
The forward-thinking design offers an engaging and rewarding user experience; showcasing researchers’ work, paving the way for rapid evolution and meeting future research needs.
Track our progress with development highlights by month
Cases teaching notes
Direct links to case study teaching notes have been added to the search results page allowing all users to see that teaching notes are available. It also includes instructions on how the user can access teaching notes.
Federated access fix
Users authenticating using Shibboleth or OpenAthens can now login to a profile and take advantage of profile benefits.
Account Management Portal (AMP)
The Account Management Portal (AMP) allows the administrator at an institution to manage all their Emerald resources in one place, using their own user profile login. Within the AMP you can:
- check your institution’s account details
- view current institution holdings
- access usage data and reports
- check authentication details
Accessibility
Emerald Insight has been updated to advance our commitment to conform to level AA of the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 2.1 and Section 508 Standards of the U.S. Federal Accessibility Standard.
Search relevancy
We’ve improved the "relevance" criteria that returns results when you search on Emerald Insight. Other sorting methods include "oldest to newest" and "newest to oldest".
Expert Briefings on TrendMD
Expert Briefings cotnent has now been added to the TrendMD widget.
Feedback Link
We’ve now facilitated the ability to submit feedback anonymously via the 'share your general feedback'.
Table of Content Alerts (TOC)
A user can now 'subscribe to Table of Content Alerts' for a particular journal. The user will receive an email of new articles when a new Issue is published.
Search within a journal
When a user navigates to a journal landing page, there is a search feature below the journal name which allows a user to search for all content within a particular journal.
Predictive search
On the main search function, if a user starts to search for a Journal or eBook title, the search will recommend results whilst the user is typing.
Trend MD widget added to the right-hand sidebar
When viewing an article or book chapter, this widget will recommend 6 pieces of related content to the reader, 3 pieces of content from emerald.com/insight and 3 from other publishers.
Improved sitemap to boost Google discoverability
Updated the sitemap XML to ensure the content is grouped in the most efficient way to ensure Google crawlers can work more effectively and our content is more discoverable.
PDF and HTML links
A link to both the HTML and PDF has been added to the results page, this mirrors what was on the previous platform and helps facilitate content download.
Altmetric Badges are now displayed on individual journal article pages.
Altmetrics provide qualitative data at article level that is complementary to traditional, citation-based metrics for journals and support Emerald's commitment to a more inclusive approach to research evaluation and impact.
New platform feature – ‘Explore Our Content’
A new ‘Explore Our Content’ drop-down on the top navigation bar allowing users to browse content by journals, books, case studies, Expert Briefings and Open Access.
Enhanced navigation and discovery for journal Special Issues
Changes to the journal homepages, for improved special issue visibility and details.
Free access to over 50,000 content items
An archive of over 50,000 pieces of non-article content such as editorials, reviews, interviews and news items are now freely available without subscription.
COUNTER 5 (August) and COUNTER 4 two year archive
- COUNTER 5 data for August 2019
- 2 years' archive of COUNTER 4 compliant statistics dating from January 2017-March 2019
Direct access to eCases teaching notes
This allows customers to request direct access to teaching notes via the platform.
A new Case Studies Homepage on www.emerald.com/insight
Currently accessed via a separate URL: https://www.emerald.com/insight/content/case-studies
Through this page, users can browse content from Emerald’s case collections: Emerging Markets Case Studies and The CASE Journal. In addition, the page will also provide quick access to all content from our global publishing partners. Subscribers to the eCase Collection will benefit from having all content available in one place.
CrossRef
The updating of our DOIs with CrossRef has led to an improvement in our metadata and therefore improved discoverability of content for end users helping them surface the content they want. This development also allows us to update the metadata held by CrossRef much more easily.
Reprints and permissions
The ‘reprints and permissions’ button has been added to the search results page allowing users to easily and quickly request permission to reuse the content.
COUNTER 5 usage data portal
- A new usage portal that captures COUNTER 5 data for www.emerald.com/insight. Powered by LibLynx, the portal is access via this link: https://connect.liblynx.com
- The new portal currently includes COUNTER 5 data for January to July 2019.
- Consortia reports: by selecting the ‘bulk download’ feature, individual institution reports will be combined in one zip file. Alternatively, administrators can access consortia reports via SUSHI.
- For step-by-step instructions on accessing usage reports, take a look at our simple guide created for library administrators.
User Profiles
Profiles give users control over their Emerald Insight access. Users can create and save searches to be run at a future date. Profiles also allow the use of an Organisation Access Number (OAN) for off-campus access. A user guide to help create a profile can be found here.
Organisation Access Numbers (OAN)
Organisation Access Numbers (OAN) allow users to be authenticated off-site with the use of a passcode/ unique number associated with an institution that can be linked to a personal profile providing an authentication option when out of an IP range. This development allows us to provide a cost-free off-campus access solution.
Advanced search capabilities
The first version of advanced search allows users to build complex searches and drill into their search by title, author, abstract, etc. Adding additional search terms and building a complex boolean search including limiting search to specific content types and data ranges ensures users can surface the most relevant results. There are tool tips available and the ability to refine their search further from their initial results.
EarlyCite
An EarlyCite tab has been created in the publication page, allowing users to quickly see all the content that is available via EarlyCite. This provides researchers with the ability to easily keep abreast of the most recent research within their field.
LOCKSS/CLOCKSS
All content is archived by LOCKSS/CLOCKSS; this ensures the digital preservation of all Emerald content for our customers.
Post-launch user feedback
Immediately after launch, the priority for the development team was to ensure the platform remained stable. It was also important that we captured initial user feedback and reacted quickly to any problems; prioritising anything linked to access and authentication.
Citation management
Users can download citations directly from the platform to be loaded into their citation management tool.
What did we deliver at launch?
- Access entitlements will not be affected by the transition to the new platform
- All Emerald content has been loaded onto the new platform, which includes over 300 journals, 3,000 books, 1,700 case studies and a growing collection of open access content
- Case study teaching notes are available on request from customer support: [email protected]
- Institutional accounts and their associated content licenses, authentication details (IP ranges, referring URLs, Shibboleth and OpenAthens) and Open URL Link Resolver links have been migrated
- There are multiple levels of redirect in place for domains, publications and DOI to ensure uninterrupted access
- Emerald continues to support the major authentication methods including IP, Shibboleth, Open Athens, Referring URL and EZ Proxy
- Indexed in all major discovery systems including Primo, Summon, OCLC and EBSCO
- The URL provided in the existing MARC records and KBART files will continue to work by implementing redirects – MARC records will continue to be available to download here.
- The new platform was built using MarkLogic’s powerful search technology to deliver faster and more accurate search functionality. Recent improvements have seen completion of some test searches reducing from 12 seconds to less than 1
- Based on ‘Google-style’ grammar the advanced search algorithms will return the most relevant results from your search terms
- With full control of the platform, Emerald now has the ability to improve and adapt search functionality in line with user feedback
- Search results are immediately ordered by relevance, not content type – no need to perform a separate search for journal, book and case study content, although the user can filter content type once a search has been performed.
Entirely based on user feedback, we have already implemented a number of enhancements to site navigation to increase usability of the platform, including:
- A persistent search and page navigation box to appear at the top of the screen to increase user productivity
- Improved visibility of search results with the use of content type indicators and the inclusion of partial abstract information to help users select the right content
- ‘Content format’ icon, a prominent ‘sort by’ option, open access filter and date limitations aid simple navigation around the content
- A cleaner interface with new borders and colour scheme improves the whole experience for users.
- The platform continues to be W3C AA and US section 501 compliant
- Emerald Insight has been optimised to work on both desktop and mobile devices. Built using responsive technologies, the platform automatically adapts depending on the device that it is opened on.