Pressroom

Fresh Meadows, NY – April 9, 2009: Data Conversion Laboratory, Inc. (DCL), providing conversion services and software to publishers, industry, government, libraries and documentation developers, has introduced DCL Composer, an XSLT script which enables a two-column rendering of manuscripts and journal articles from NLM XML. Developed by the National Institutes of Health (NIH), NLM XML is fast becoming the de facto XML standard for scientific journals.

The standard NLM XML composer produces a one-column format. Since most STM journal publishers prefer a two-column format, its utility has been limited.  DCL Composer’s low-cost option allows STM article producers to create a PDF with two-column output directly from the NLM XML files. In cases where only articles and not full journals are produced, DCL Composer eliminates the need for composition software prior to XML conversion.

In addition to providing DCL Composer as a product, DCL will render files for publishers who wish to submit their XML files directly to DCL. For those not producing NLM XML natively DCL can convert author manuscripts or journal articles from Microsoft Word™, PDF, or paper to NLM XML.

Mark Gross, DCL President and CEO, explained: “Basically, we took the NIH composer script and enhanced it significantly to produce something much closer to an STM journal page, saving the work of doing composition by hand. Our audience is the small society journals who don’t necessarily even print on paper any more, but do want a way to produce article off-prints.”

Beth Friedman, DCL Senior Project Manager for STM Publishing and member of the NLM XML Interchange Structure Advisory Board, noted, "STM content producers looking to cut expenditures will benefit greatly from this simplified low-cost approach to traditional and electronic publishing by eliminating the need for composition software. Turnaround time to web publish will be greatly reduced, as well."