The reference-linking service is scheduled to launch in the first quarter of next year. The new service will let researchers viewing electronic articles on one Web site move easily from a reference or footnote to an article appearing on another publisher s Web site.
Some issues remain unsettled for the new service.
In particular, the list includes opening the service to secondary publishers abstracting services, authentication technicalities, and, of course, pricing and access options. They hope to expand the program to other primary publishers. Rarely have services used open system, HTML architecture. SilverPlatter Information s SilverLinker service does link from citations to full-text articles on publisher Web sites, as does the National Library of Medicine s PubMed service. However, the systems that use Web-based links have not offered access at the footnote or endnote connecting level.