The Hidden Costs

of Scientific Literature
Management and Distribution

Contents
1. Introduction

Page 3

2. Technology Challenges

Page 4

3. Potential Costs and Risks

Page 5

4. Share Scientific Literature

More Easily with Quosa

Page 6

5. Overview of QUOSA Literature

Management Workflow

Page 7

For more information, please contact

sales@quosa.com

Page 2

1. The Hidden Costs of Scientific Literature

Management and Distribution
It is not an exaggeration to say
that many life science companies
are spending millions of dollars
every year on scientific literature,
including journal articles, conference
abstracts, patent information
and other information.
Nor is hard to see why life science companies that

This paper outlines and discusses:

The technology challenges that copyrighted
scientific content present to information
and technology professionals who want to
deliver content effectively and efficiently
across their organizations

The potential costs and risks associated with

inefficient scientific literature management

How QUOSA addresses these problems with

do not have an efficient solution for indexing,

ONE scalable and modular solution that can be

managing and sharing scientific information

configured to meet the requirements of and

in a copyright observant manner can end up

integrate with the current CMS and collaboration

spending more each year due to:

platforms of any life science company

Unnecessary article purchases from

document delivery services

Thousands of hours of lost productivity

The risk of downstream copyright violations,
however inadvertent, that can cost companies
even more in penalties or potential lawsuits
With the rise of company intranets, to manage
and distribute content, as well as the increasing
demand for mobile content delivery, companies
now have the added challenge of enabling efficient
and compliant use of copyrighted scientific literature,
across the enterprise.
Forward-looking organizations, including more
than half of the top 25 life science companies, have
embraced QUOSAs unique, patented technology,
which indexes and archives scientific content and
provides copyright compliant, full text searchability
and access to end users.

Page 3

2. Technology Challenges
Scientific sources

Full text articles and metadata

The multiplicity of scientific sources, including

Conducting comprehensive research is often limited

publishers, aggregators and commercial and

by the fact that most commercial platforms make it

open source platforms, complicates

difficult to retrieve multiple full-text articles efficiently

comprehensive searches.

from searches. Many platforms make it equally difficult

The most commonly used scientific content

types include journals articles and abstracts,
conference proceedings, patent information
and internal documents

There is no single source that contains

everything; most users rely on multiple sources

Each source has its own unique interface;

interface functionality can vary substantially
from one source to the next

Most content is available on subscription,

pay-per-use, embargoed or open-access basis

Some content is available through multiple

to organize retrieved documents so that other users

can easily find, view and share the full-text articles,
including citation fields.

Saving and sharing articles

In many cases, saving and sharing copyrighted
materials to shared company resources, such as
networks and intranets violates publisher agreements
and copyright laws. In general this applies to any
documents acquired through commercial platforms,
by subscription or via document delivery services.

Rights management
Not all users have the same rights to the same

sources and there is considerable overlap among

information. Providing access to licensed content

them. Companies may have access through more

can be quite complicated. Managing user entitlements

than one source; rights and rates may vary

can vary greatly among commercial platforms,

Managing alerts

publisher subscriptions and other sources.

Most platforms and publishers provide helpful alerts

Document delivery

that users can configure to notify them when new

Without a searchable centralized document delivery

content is published on a given topic, product or

keyword. Unfortunately, due to the multiplicity
of sources, alerts can easily be redundant and
overwhelm users. Managing alerts effectively can
be a very complicated and labor intensive process.
Consequently, many users simply dont try.

PDF format
Much scientific literature, especially scholarly
journal, is published as PDFs. PDFs present
numerous challenges for users and companies
alike that want to, save, manage or share these
documents. Such challenges include full text
search, archiving and complex copyright issues
associated with article sharing.

Page 4

system, it is virtually impossible for users to know

what documents have already been purchased by
their company. It can be equally difficult to search
purchased articles and determine if they can be
shared or need to be reordered.

3. Potential Costs and Risks

The multiplicity of scientific literature sources often
creates substantial confusion among users about
where to look for content, what subscriptions or
rights they may have to it, or the most cost effective
way to acquire it. Without a centralized process in
place to assist users, the likelihood of unnecessary
orders is considerable.

Article purchases
Without a searchable way for users to tell what
articles have been purchased from document delivery
services, companies cannot effectively manage article
purchases. Just one popular article could easily cost
a company thousands of dollars in document delivery
charges, not to mention all the wasted time and effort
to acquire it repeatedly.

Duplicative content
Many content licenses are not enterprise-wide; that
would be prohibitively expensive and most users do
not need it. Instead content is purchased by various
groups, departments and locations to meet their
individual needs. Content may purchased on a site
license basis, often with named users, each with their
own accounts. Frequently this precludes effective
knowledge and resource sharing, ultimately costing
companies much more time, money and resources.

Lost productivity
In all of these scenarios, what is missing is a
searchable, shared knowledge platform that
allows users to find the full text they want, when
they want it and then pay for it in the most
appropriate and cost effective fashion. Aside from
potentially losing thousands of dollars
per year to inefficient purchasing, just imagine
the loss in productivity on a per user basis.
Finally, there are also untold opportunity costs
associated with thousands of abandoned and
failed searches, incomplete or wrong answers
and missed opportunities.

Copyright and licenses

As mentioned, copyright and license violations,
however inadvertent, can cost companies
considerable sums. Many users are only
vaguely aware of copyright implications and
IT and information professionals have little
control over them.

What is scientific literature really

costing your company?
Chances are good that inefficient, decentralized
distribution of scientific literature is costing your
company much more than you think. And misuse
of copyrighted content, could cost it even more.

Page 5

4. Share Scientific Literature

More Easily with QUOSA
QUOSA empowers your enterprise to share full-text
scientific information faster and more efficiently, as
well as help drive information usage all with ONE
easy-to-use copyright compliant solution.

QUOSA Overview
QUOSA products are built with the singular
objective of improving efficiencies of your

QUOSA offers the ONE information

management solution that can:
Boost workflow efficiency relating to full-text
articles, conference abstracts, patents, and
associated documents for you and those
you support

Support your specific needs without expensive

scientific literature workflows including journal

customization -- including meta-data

articles, conference abstracts, patents and related

configuration, import of legacy documents,

documents. Unlike generic enterprise software,

and supported document types

QUOSA is designed by information professionals

for information professionals. QUOSA provides the
specific connections to your priority sources and
databases, automated full-text retrieval and alerts
to streamline curation, the specific meta-data and
tagging capabilities required for your mission-critical
information types, the ability to be fully integrated
with your document delivery infrastructure
covering the full literature lifecycle.

Page 6

Integrate with document delivery, utilize

current journal subscriptions and open
access journals fully, and help avoid
unnecessary document ordering

Provide and promote copyright compliance

within the organization

5. Overview of QUOSA Literature

Management Workflow
Embase Scopus
PubMed OvidSP

ProQuest

etc...

Articles

Patents

Conference
abstracts

Internal
documents

Inbound
RSS feeds

Information Professional,
assisting with curation and
collection of content and alerts

Document
Delivery
QUOSA
Virtual Library

Search /
Browse

Folders

RSS feeds &

Dynamic Links

Custom
Reports

Email reports
(alerts)

Page 7

For more information, please contact

sales@quosa.com

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