American Chemical Society announces a new iPhone application delivering fast-breaking science news

March 15th, 2010

The American Chemical Society (ACS) today introduced a new mobile software application for users of Apple's iPhone and iPod Touch devices.

The new information delivery service, ACS Mobile, provides readers with an up-to-the-minute live stream of peer-reviewed research content published across the Society's preeminent portfolio of scholarly research journals, and is augmented by "Latest News" from Chemical and Engineering News (C&EN) -- the Society's industry-leading magazine and preferred source of online news for its more than 161,000 member professionals.

"In keeping with our mission as a provider of indispensable information to chemistry professionals worldwide, I am delighted that the ACS Publications Division and our Society's IT experts are able to present ACS Mobile as a new information access option for our global audience of authors, reviewers, editors, customers and readers" said Dr. Brian Crawford, President of ACS Publications. "ACS Journals have a well-deserved reputation for high-quality, high-impact content as a result of rigorous scientific peer review and technical editing standards. Our XML-based publishing via an end-to-end digital workflow from submission to publication enables online publication times that are unrivalled, and this mobile capability now complements the Society's award-winning Web delivery platform for the benefit of the scientists we serve."

The introduction of the new ACS application comes at a time when the use of the Internet on mobile devices is soaring. For example, a 2009 Morgan Stanley research study reported a 50-fold increase in traffic on AT&T's mobile data network between 2006 and 2009, much of which was attributed to the rapid adoption of Apple's iPhone and iPod Touch devices in the consumer market. "At ACS, we have made a deliberate decision to deliver a dynamic real-time index of published journal article content to mobile devices," said Brandon Nordin, Vice President of Sales, Marketing, and Web Strategy for ACS Publications. "ACS Mobile is informed by our knowledge of current user behavior and preferences, and our understanding of the needs of today's time-pressed research scientist."

Nordin added that "the majority of our Web users are between the ages of 20-40, and we find that one-third of those readers now use mobile devices to access the Internet. As ACS continues to move beyond the print format, our focus is on timely access to research and alternatives that help individuals to discover, filter, read and share information."

Readers of ACS Journals will benefit from the following features of ACS Mobile:

• Up-to-the minute access to ACS ASAP ArticlesSM published online, personalized from across the entire portfolio of 38 peer-reviewed ACS Journals. Tailored "on the fly" filtering options for viewing content from selected ACS titles.

• Dynamic delivery of an indexed list of more than 35,000 research articles published annually, and easy pathways for free reader access to the graphical and text abstracts of those articles.

• A "Latest News" feed from C&EN Online.

• Saving of favorites within the application in a "My ASAPs" folder designed for convenient offline reading.

• Interface to full-text article access and display (via wireless or Virtual Private Networks) for authorized users at institutions that license ACS Journals content. Alternative of ACS ID and password-based access for individuals who elect to subscribe to the web editions of ACS journals as part of their suite of ACS member benefits.

• Quick Search across the more than 850,000+ scientific research articles and book chapters archived on the ACS Web Editions Platform - discoverable by author, keyword, title, abstract, DOI or bibliographic citation.

• Sharing of links and snippets to alert friends and colleagues to new ACS ASAP ArticlesSM via e-mail and social networking sites (Facebook and Twitter).

"This iPhone application is a logical extension of our award-winning ACS Web Editions Platform, as there are significant differences in user behavior between performing scholarly information discovery in a laptop/desktop setting, versus consuming information on a mobile device while on the go," said Jonathan Morgan, Assistant Director, Web Strategy & Innovation. "We don't anticipate that researchers will engage in hours-long sessions on ACS Mobile; rather, we want to help them use 5-10 minute opportune windows of time to stay abreast of new discoveries that ACS pushes live to the Web. ACS Mobile was built with traditional reader habits in mind -- such as browsing -- and the goal also of reinforcing the value of serendipity in information discovery. ACS Mobile can make a scientist's daily commute, business travel, or time away from the desk or laboratory a more rewarding and productive experience. Our team at ACS Publications is already working on next stage development efforts that will extend the availability of this initial iPhone application to the recently announced Apple iPad, as well as to additional mobile operating systems and devices."

Provided by American Chemical Society