What is EESI-View?

Screen components
Special features

EESI-View^* is a completely new and innovative way to read journal articles on screen developed by Portland Press.

EESI-View does not require any special software or plug-ins. Any modern browser will display this format.

Enhanced electronic serials interface (EESI)-View was developed to address the shortcomings of existing HTML articles which were traditionally flat, linear representations of the printed version with the entire article, including figures and tables, constituting one HTML "page". Several attempts have been made to get away from this linear aspect in the past and improve the readability of HTML articles but they still fall short of the practical advantages of having the paper copy in your hands.

We wanted to make the idea of reading journal articles on screen acceptable to more users and offer those who are already avid on-screen readers a more practical and efficient experience by taking advantage of the advanced navigation capabilities that modern web pages are able to incorporate.

This page will explain some of the main features of EESI-View and we welcome any ideas or feedback you may have. By far the best way to discover how EESI-View can make viewing online articles a whole new experience though, is to use it!

See a sample paper in EESI-View.

^*UK Patent No GB2416468

Screen components

The EESI-View screen is divided into three main areas: the Title frame, the Text frame and the Figures and Tables frame. This means that if you are reading a section of text that refers to a particular figure or table, you can click a link in the text and that figure or table will appear in the figures frame, adjacent to the text that refers to it. Thus you are able to read the text and see the figure at the same time. Our unique three-frames approach also means that the bibliographic information of the article is always visible no matter what section of the text you are viewing. Each frame can be resized by dragging the borders of the frame to suit your requirements. Reloading or refreshing the page will reset the frames back to their default size.

The Title frame

The title frame contains the bibliographic information for this article and links to other versions of the paper including the Medline citation and PDF file. Authors' affiliations appear as pop-up boxes when you move your mouse cursor over the author's name. The pop-up also contains a link to a Medline search for other papers by this author and, if they are the corresponding author, a link to their email address. The pop-up stays visible as long as your mouse cursor is over either the link or the pop-up box itself. You can also click the pop-up box to make it disappear. If you find these pop-ups annoying, you can turn them off by clicking the 'Disable pop-ups' button.

The Text frame

The text for the article has been broken up into sections and is displayed in the text frame. There are two main ways that you can navigate through the text. You can use the browse buttons on the right-hand side of the text frame to scroll through the sections or you can use the drop-down menu underneath the 'Article' button at the top of the text frame to go to a specific section.
If a figure or table is referred to in the text, there is a link that, when clicked, displays the appropriate figure or table in the figures and tables frame. Thus you are able to read the text and see the figure at the same time.
Citations in the text are links to the relevant reference in the list but where EESI-View differs from other online journals is that the reference will appear as a pop-up box when you move your mouse cursor over the reference link. The pop-up box shows the bibliographic information for the article cited as well as links to the abstract of the article, where available. The pop-up stays visible as long as your mouse cursor is over either the link or the pop-up box itself. You can also click the pop-up box to make it disappear. If you find these pop-ups annoying, you can turn them off by clicking the 'Disable pop-ups' button.

The Figures and Tables frame

The figures and tables frame displays the figures, tables and any other non-text items of the article and will show the low-resolution version of figure 1 by default. The other figures and tables can be viewed by selecting the relevant item from the drop-down menus at the top of this frame, by clicking the links that can be found in the text frame or by using the browse buttons . There is also an option in the menus to display all of the figures or tables in one page.
If the figure is too wide to fit into the frame it will automatically resize itself to the width of the frame. The figure will also resize itself when you drag the border of the frame. If you move the border to the left so that the figures and tables frame is bigger than the text frame, the high-resolution version of the figure will be downloaded and resized to fit the width of the frame. This unique feature means that you will always see the whole figure no matter what size you have set the frame to.

Features

View text and figures at the same time

When you click on the link to a figure, scheme or table in the text of an article, that item will appear in the figures and tables frame on the right-hand side, while keeping the text in the text frame on the left-hand side. Thus you are able to read the text and refer to the figure or table without having to switch windows or scroll around the page.

Dynamically resizable figures

The figures and tables frame will be the same size as the text frame by default and initially you will see a low-resolution version of figure 1. If the figure is too wide to fit in this frame, it will automatically resize itself so you don't have to scroll to the left to see all the image. If you change the size of the frame by dragging the frame border the figure will resize itself to fit the width of the frame automatically. If the frame is dragged to the left so that it is bigger than the text frame, the frame will automatically load the high-resolution version of the figure.

Pop-up boxes for references and author affiliations

When you move your mouse cursor over a reference link or author's name a pop-up box will appear with the reference or the author's affiliation. The pop-up box will remain visible as long as your mouse cursor is either over the link or over the pop-up box itself. If the pop-up box stays active after you have moved your mouse away, clicking in a non-active area of the page will hide the pop-up box.
You can turn the pop-up feature off using the button in the title frame or the menu item underneath the 'Options' button in the text frame.

Easy navigation

Navigation through the different components of an article is made very easy by the use of drop-down menus, browse buttons, links and pop-ups.
The different sections of text can be found by using the drop-down menus or the browse buttons

.
Figures and tables can be viewed by using the drop-down menus, the browse buttons or by clicking on the links in the text. You can also choose to view all the figures or tables by choosing this item in the drop-down menu.
Reference details can be seen by simply moving your mouse cursor over the link for that reference, or a complete list of references can be seen by choosing 'References' in the drop-down menu.

External linking

There are many links to external resources from the article.

The authors' pop-up includes a link to a Medline search on the author's name as well as email links to the corresponding author.
The title frame contains links to the Medline citation, related papers in Medline and a link to download this article to a citation matcher as well as the PDF version of the article.
Where available the reference pop-ups and reference list contain links to the Medline citation and the online version of the paper being cited via Crossref.

User control

All frames are resizable so you can adjust the screen to suit the way you want to view the article.
Mouseover pop-ups are an extremely useful way of saving screen real estate by hiding information behind the text, but they can be annoying if you don't mean for them to come up. You can temporarily disable the pop-ups using the button in the title frame or the menu item underneath the 'Options' button in the text frame.

If you have any problems with EESI-View or if you would like to make any comments you can contact us via the feedback form or email us at support@portlandpress.com