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                                                                          FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

HighWire launches re-designed PNAS site on new H2O platform
March 25, 2008 (Washington, DC and Stanford, CA)
HighWire Press and the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) are pleased to
announce the public beta of the first journal to be launched on HighWire's new platform, H2O. The new
site, at beta.pnas.org, represents a major re-design of PNAS Online.

"We are thrilled with the way that the new site meets the needs of PNAS researchers, those navigating the
internet in novel ways," said Diane Sullenberger, Executive Editor of PNAS. "As one of HighWire's
first customers, we've come to rely on the constant innovation that HighWire provides. The new H2O
version puts our site at the forefront of online publishing."

"H2O represents a rebuild of the HighWire electronic publishing platform from the foundation up,"
explained John Sack, Director of Stanford University's HighWire Press. "This new platform ensures our
publishers' content will work with a wide variety of Web 2.0 applications, feeds, widgets, and web
services and be ready to handle new technologies as they emerge."

A major feature of the new interface is to keep readers in context as they conduct their research,
minimizing "pogo-sticking" in and out of pages, to find all the information and services they need without
opening a new window.

Features that keep users in context include:
· Abstract Preview: Mouse-over the table of contents (TOC) and search results page and get an instant
   pop-up preview of the article abstract ­ without leaving the page.
· Figure expansion in place: Figures' and tables' thumbnails can be enlarged from within the article.
· Tag-along navigation: The navigation box follows alongside as the reader scrolls down the article
   page.
· Popular-articles list: Links to the Most Viewed and Most Cited articles are readily available.
· Easier scanning and reading: Better positioning of the title and abstract, improved text fonts and
   formatting, plus quick previous/next links to scan by article section make it fast to scan an article
   online.

PNAS and HighWire worked together extensively to create the new PNAS Online interface. This new
look and layout is the result of many months of research, analysis and testing on usability, including
professional design review by iFactory and a usability-heuristics evaluation from Nielsen/Norman Group.

All personalization settings, bookmarks or stored URL's that users have established will remain in place
and be updated whether they make changes in the beta site or on the standard PNAS site (www.pnas.org).
PNAS grants free access to content after 6 months. For those accessing the site without a subscription,
full text articles published prior to September 2007 are available for free.

H2O is designed to empower publishers and their readers. The platform infrastructure is highly
permeable, flexible and modular so that it can easily be built upon using standards-based internet
technologies, now and into the future.
For more information about H2O see:
http://highwire.stanford.edu/inthepress/stories/H2OPlatform.pdf or view a video of John Sack
speaking of HighWire's vision for H2O: http://highwire.stanford.edu/publishers/H2O.dtl.

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About PNAS
PNAS (Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America) is one of the
world's most-cited multidisciplinary scientific serials. Since its establishment in 1914, it continues to
publish cutting-edge research reports, commentaries, reviews, perspectives, colloquium papers, and
actions of the Academy. Coverage in PNAS spans the biological, physical, and social sciences. PNAS is
published weekly in print, and daily online in PNAS Early Edition. The PNAS impact factor is 9.64 for
2006.

PNAS Online launched in January 1997 and now receives over 11.6 million hits per month. The site
contains the full text, figures, tables, equations, and references of all articles in PNAS dating back to
1915. PNAS articles are also published online before print in a feature called PNAS Early Edition as soon
as they are accepted and final author changes are made.

PNAS Online provides free access to:
      Summaries of the latest papers in This Week in Early Edition
      Special Features
      E-mail alerts: daily, weekly, or by-issue Tables of Contents (eTOCs), as well as custom Cite
      Track research profile alerting
      Colloquia and From the Academy papers
      Classic Papers
      Supporting Information
      All papers just 6 months after publication

Contact:
Dana M. Compton, PNAS
dmcompton@nas.edu


About HighWire Press
HighWire Press, a division of the Stanford University Libraries, provides online site development and
hosting solutions to the scholarly publishing community. HighWire produces the definitive online
versions of high-impact, peer-reviewed journals and other scholarly content in many disciplines. Since
1995, HighWire has partnered with influential societies, university presses and other publishers to create a
vast database of the finest, fully searchable research, medical and social science literature available on the
Internet. The HighWire community shares ideas and innovations in publishing through regular meetings,
discussion forum and through the service of its unique blend of highly qualified staff.
http://highwire.stanford.edu

Contact:
Bonnie Zavon, Public Relations
HighWire Press, Stanford University
bzavon@stanford.edu