Scientific Publishing: Disruption and Semantic Build-Up

A new technology paired with a viable business model will have disruptive impact on incumbent companies in a specific market, if they do not reevaluate and update their business models accordingly. As the Internet matures, Semantic Web technologies enable applications for meaning-based and dynamic filtering and processing of information, which has a disruptive impact on scientific publishing. This article calls for publishers to adopt semantic technologies and emphasises the "need to include a semantic strategy in their business models" (Hawkins 2009). With a focus on journals as the 'cash cow' of scientific publishers, it assembles debates about disruption and general tendencies in scientific publishing. An introduction to Semantic Web, Text Mining and Semantic Publishing is given as well as various examples of product developments, company partnerships and acquisitions related to semantic technologies. Finally, different ways of acquiring semantic annotation data and financial aspects of semantic enhancements are discussed.