\documentclass[11pt,twoside]{article} 
\usepackage{adassconf}

%\documentstyle[11pt,twoside,adassconf]{article}


\begin{document} 

\paperID{P2-35}
%%%% ID=P2-35

\title{Electronic Journals as Databases}
    
\titlemark{Electronic Journals as Databases}

\author{Andr\'as Holl}
\affil{Konkoly Observatory, Budapest, Hungary}
    
\contact{Andr\'as Holl}
\email{holl@konkoly.hu}

\paindex{Holl, A.}

\authormark{Holl}

\keywords{electronic journals}


\begin{abstract}  
The Information Bulletin on Variable Stars is a bulletin fully 
available in electronic form. We are working on converting the text, 
tables and figures of the papers published into a database, and, at the 
same time, making them accessible and addressable. IBVS Data Service 
will provide information on variable stars --- like finding charts, light 
curves --- and will be VO compatible. Other services could link to 
individual figures, data files, etc. this way.
\end{abstract}



The Information Bulletin on Variable Stars is a small 
journal publishing papers in the field of stellar variability
research. It is now available electronically, from the first issue 
of 1961, in ASCII text or \LaTeX \ source format as well
as PostScript (Holl 1988).


\section{Searching for information}

Users of IBVS can either find papers by looking at the tables of contents,
by using the simple string search facilities offered by the IBVS
website or using ADS and SIMBAD.

Although locating papers using bibliographic metainfo (author,
publication year, journal, etc.) works well, finding 
specific pieces of information -- like an identification chart for a 
variable, recent ephemeris for another, or all the published 
minima (info in the paper body) is a problem.
Experience / experiments show that simple search facilities
are not good at this. Using key combinations like:

\begin{center}  
               ``TZ Ari" + ``finding chart"
\end{center}  

\noindent will either return a number of other articles or it may 
miss the paper containing the chart altogether. Popular search engine
image finding results are similar.

To get better results we must be able to find
specific information in the body of a paper. Though software
with more intelligence built in might help, we think the
solution is to store the papers in a structural/semantic format 
(O'Donnell, 1993), achieved by
metainfo and mark-up. While marking up archival material
is a tedious job, it can be done with small journals, like IBVS.
We have started working on building a figure metainfo 
database. For the future, a carefully constructed \LaTeX \ style file
is the solution (IBVSephemeris, IBVSfigKey, IBVSdataKey macros).
Using this metainfo better search forms can be built.


\section{Structural and semantic parts of a paper}

It is often desirable that parts of a paper should be
accessible and addressable. As the case of Agosti (2003) shows,
figures should be re-usable, one should be able to compile
a catalog using figures from published papers, linking
to the source.

IBVS intends to make specific parts of its papers addressable
and accessible. So, for example, GCVS can refer to a
finding chart, or ephemeris, using a link to the given
piece of information. The chart will reside on the
journal's server, the figure can appear on a GCVS result
page, together with proper reference to the source. 
For addressing, standards should be established
based on existing ones like the ASU (Albrecht et al., 1996) 
and the bibcode (Schmitz et al., 1995).


\section{IBVS as a database}

IBVS has accumulated large amounts of information.
From a different viewpoint, it can be considered as a database.
Carrying further the example used above, IBVS has a large
collection of finding charts -- and light curves, ephemerides,
observed minima times, observational data files, etc.
These fitted with metainfo and marked up, we can
compile an atlas of finding charts, or lightcurves.
And, by using IBVS facilities, one might collect all minima
published in the journal on a given eclipsing binary (Holl, 2002).

The quantity of such information in IBVS is not always
large enough to make a useful catalog, and the material
is certainly not homogeneous. We will provide
such a catalog for the users of IBVS, but it is really
intended to be used by other services. Catalogs might pick
and use charts or other pieces of information they want, 
and omit those not relevant (or good enough) for them.
On the other hand, other services might put together
information from different sources -- like IBVS and AAVSO.
So services like Aladin, OASIS (Good, 2003) or SIMBAD, might 
give flags to variable objects with further external info, 
like light curves. The problem of name resolution has to be be 
solved, for which we intend to use Sesame provided by CDS.

The more metainfo is needed -- while papers have to be 
prepared by the authors -- the more difficult the task of the authors 
will be. A possible solution for this problem would be to provide 
tools for the authors to prepare and/or check their manuscripts. 
An experimental tool is described in Holl, 2003.


\section{Journals and observational data}

Data on which IBVS papers are based often come from small
observatories. Such data are usually not 
available like data from big surveys. This data
is mostly photometry -- small tables in the form of
text files (but might be spectra, etc. occasionally.)
It is desirable to make those data available along with
the papers. IBVS does allow electronic-only publication
of such data files. Though the number of such files is
small yet, it is expected to grow. It might reach the size of
a database used on its own merit. A more probable scenario,
though, is that it will be used through the Virtual Observatory.
There are many variability surveys, offering photometry.
The future user would like to gather data from all available
sources, using VO techniques. So IBVS will present observational
data in VOTable format.

Data files will be supplied with metainfo, including
%keywords (IBVSdataKey). We will try to standardize
keywords. We will try to standardize
formats to a certain level -- but still we will require 
authors to submit plain text files. These will be
converted to VOTable format automatically. Manuscript
submission tools will have VOTable output too.


\section{Summary}

We will introduce the IBVS Data Service, which will be 
intended primarily for other service providers, making IBVS 
data accessible to/through their facilities. Though it will be usable 
locally, and based on the same metainfo/markup, better local search
facilities could be built.

With the new IBVS Data Service we might channel observational
data from small observatories to the VO. We think that some of 
the ideas described here might be applicable to other electronic 
journals in astronomy.

% Figure
\begin{figure}
\begin{center}\small
\begin{tabular}{|p{6em}p{26em}|} \hline
               &                                                        \\
1.) SOURCE     &                                                        \\
               &                                                        \\
    - Text :   & $\dag$ were scanned and OCR-ed, stored in ASCII text files; \\
               & $\ast$ are in \LaTeX \ source.                                 \\
               &                                                        \\
    - Figures: & $\dag$ were scanned, stored in PS and JPEG;                 \\
               & $\ast$ are stored in PS and JPEG.                           \\
               &                                                        \\
    - Data:    & stored in simple ASCII text format.                    \\
               &                                                        \\
\hline
\end{tabular}\\
$\downarrow$\\
\begin{tabular}{|p{6em}p{26em}|} \hline
               &                                                        \\
\multicolumn{2}{|l|}{2.) MARKUP \& METAINFO}                                           \\ 

               &                                                        \\
    - Figures: & $\dag$ metainfo (including figure keywords) added and       
                 stored in auxiliary files together with captions.      \\
               & $\ast$ metainfo is stored in the \LaTeX \ text of the          
                 paper \break (IBVSfigKey)                              \\
               &                                                        \\
    - Text info:&$\dag$ information from the paper body text (like           
                 ephemerides) are extracted to auxiliary files,         
                 tables restructured and \break outfitted with metainfo, 
                 stored in text files.                                  \\
               & $\ast$ marked up with \LaTeX \ macros                         \\
               &                                                        \\
    - Data:    & are converted to a standard text format, with          
                 metainfo \break (including data keywords) in the header.\\
               &                                                        \\
    - Biblio:  & Bibliographic metainfo is available for all issues     
                 in ADS tagged format.                                  \\
               &                                                        \\
\hline
\end{tabular}\\
$\downarrow$\\
\begin{tabular}{|p{33.1em}|} \hline
                                                                        \\
3.) IBVS DATA SERVICE - LOW LEVEL                                       \\
                                                                        \\
     Scripts will serve individual figures, tables, data and other pieces of
     information (ephemerides) together with metainfo and links to the original
     paper. Bibliographic metainfo of the paper will be added here. Data and
     tables will be converted to VOTable format on-the-fly. The input
     parameter is the IBVS standard filename.                           \\
                                                                        \\
\hline
\end{tabular}\\
$\downarrow$\\
\begin{tabular}{|p{33.1em}|} \hline
                                                                        \\
4.) IBVS DATA SERVICE - HIGH LEVEL                                      \\
                                                                        \\
     Stars are identified with standard GCVS names (if there is one),
     and a hash table is created with all the files available on a 
     given object. Scripts will serve information on stars, object
     names will be resolved using the Sesame service of CDS.            \\
                                                                        \\
\hline
\end{tabular}
\caption{Construction of the IBVS Data Service
        ($\dag$ denotes archive issues, $\ast$ modern issues).}
\end{center}
\end{figure}
% 

\begin{references}

\reference Agosti, D., 2003, Nature, 424, 727

\reference Albrecht, M., Barylak, M., Durand, D., Fernique, P., Micol, A.,
Ochsenbein, F., Pasian, F., Pirenne, B., Ponz, D., Wenger, M., 
1996, \hfill\break {\tt http://vizier.u-strasbg.fr/doc/asu.html}

\reference Good, J.C., Kong, M., Berriman, G.B., 2003, \adassxii, 89

\reference Holl, A., 1998, \adassvii, 474

\reference Holl, A., 2002, iAstro/IDHA workshop, Strasbourg \hfill\break
{\tt http://journals.eecs.qub.ac.uk/tc13/iAstroWebPage/ \break
Strasbourg02/Holl.pdf}

\reference Holl, A., 2003, \adassxii, 321

\reference O'Donnell, M.J., 1993, \hfill\break
{\tt http://people.cs.uchicago.edu/\~{}odonnell/Scholar/ \break
 Technical\_papers/Electronic\_Journal/description.html}

\reference Schmitz, M., Helou, G., Lague, C., Madore, B., Corwin, G.G.Jr., 
Dubois, P., Lesteven, S., 1995, Vistas in Astronomy, 39, 272

\end{references}


\end{document}

