Foreword

The goal of barrier-free access to scholarly information online has preoccupied academic researchers for more than two decades. The debates have focused principally on how to liberate research papers from the constraints of journal subscriptions. But in more recent years, as more and more journals have become open access, the spotlight has shifted to books, including textbooks, and the challenge of making their content freely available to readers while retaining financial viability. Amid the arguments about paths forward, the 20-year success of Essentials of Glycobiology in achieving the goal is less well-known than it should be. That success is attributable to a unique partnership between two not-for-profit institutions and a consortium of scientist–editors led by the book's executive editor, the indefatigable Ajit Varki.

The first edition of Essentials of Glycobiology was published in 1999, in the same year that the Director of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), Harold Varmus, proposed creating a freely available archive of all new research manuscripts. The radical “Ebiomed” scheme did not gain traction but, pushed by Ajit, then its Editor-in-Chief, The Journal of Clinical Investigation was already making all its articles freely available online at publication. This bold gambit had greatly expanded the readership of the journal's content. Inspired by this success, and as an energetic proselyte for the emerging, cross-disciplinary field of glycobiology, Ajit was eager to give his field the widest possible audience. So, on publication of the textbook, discussion began with its publisher, Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press, about ways of making its content freely available. The idea of an open-access book was intriguing to an institution with a 100-year history of innovation in the communication of science.

The National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI), a division of the National Library of Medicine at NIH, was led by another entrepreneurial scientist interested in breaking barriers to information flow, David Lipman. Among NCBI's innovations was the creation of Bookshelf, a platform for open distribution of book content. Brokered by Ajit and his colleagues, the Consortium of Glycobiology Editors, who collectively owned the copyright of Essentials in Glycobiology, an agreement was forged between the Laboratory and NCBI that enabled the full text of the book to be discovered, searched, and read online on the Bookshelf, while the print edition remained available for sale through the Press. The risk, seemingly significant at the time, was that the availability of a free, high-quality rendition of the book's content online would limit print sales and prevent the Press from recovering the investment required to create the book.

The online edition of Essentials appeared in 2003 and its usage was substantial, with hundreds of people each week from all over the world continuing to consult it even five years later. The content was discoverable through indexing by major search engines, citations in Wikipedia, listing and linking by libraries, and entries in PubMed. And gratifyingly, interest in the print edition did not appear to waver. So, in 2008, when a second edition of Essentials was ready for publication, another bold decision was taken, to release both the print and Bookshelf editions simultaneously, the first time this had been done with a major textbook. And once again, the gambit paid off, as sales of the print book prospered while usage of the online content was brisk. The same approach was adopted for the third edition in 2017. And now, for this fourth edition, the project continues to evolve, as the freely accessible Bookshelf edition is released simultaneously with both a print edition and an e-book downloadable exclusively from the Press website that can be read easily on a variety of portable devices.

Nearly two decades after the editors, NCBI, and the Press embarked on this joint venture, devotees of glycobiology have more choices than ever in how they consult and use the content of the latest Essentials. Tastes and information habits have changed greatly during that time—a print edition of such a large book now has much less appeal to readers, despite the elegance of its design and illustrations by Consortium member Rick Cummings and its high production values. But the mission of Essentials has not changed. The Consortium of Glycobiology Editors remains substantially intact but has also recruited a new generation of younger authors who can carry the torch forward in the future. With each edition, they collectively strive to create an up-to-date knowledge resource that will satisfy established investigators but also entice new recruits to the study of the important, diverse, and expanding biology of the glycans. CSHL Press and successive leaders at NCBI remain committed to ensuring that the information the editors have curated reaches the widest possible audience, however and wherever those individuals want to use it. On behalf of our organizations, we congratulate The Consortium of Glycobiology Editors on creating another remarkable, important, and pioneering contribution to the literature of Glycoscience.

John Inglis

Executive Director and Publisher

Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press

Rita Sarkar

Program Officer National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI)

National Institutes of Health

Stephen T. Sherry

Acting DirectorNational Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI)

National Library of Medicine