Semantic publishing: the coming revolution in scientific journal publishing

Recent developments in Web technology can be used for semantic enhancement of scholarly journal articles, by aiding publication of data and metadata and providing ‘lively’ interactive access to content. Such semantic enhancements are already being undertaken by leading STM publishers, and automated text processing will help these enhancements become affordable and routine. Publisher, editor and author all have primary roles in that process; an incremental approach is needed. Publication of data and metadata to the Web make possible added-value ‘ecosystem services’; semantic publishing will bring substantial benefits to scholarly communication.