TMS introduces DOC with open house in October

TMS provided Internet users with the chance peruse the TMS Document Ordering Center (DOC) free of charge in October during an introductory open house that allowed users access to all electronic files on the site. Traffic at the site during the month was considerable.

DOC (doc.tms.org) is an Internet-based service that allows users to view the tables of contents from TMS-published volumes as well as tables of contents and abstracts from JOM, Journal of Electronic Materials (JEM), and Metallurgical and Materials Transactions A and B. Electronic subscriptions to IOM or JEM are also available through the site. Additionally, registered users can download portable document format(PDF) files of any editorial item published in JOM or JEM since 1997 for a fee.

From October 15 to October 31, TMS members and nonmembers alike who were not registered users were given a temporary user name and password to access the site and all of its files at no charge. Users already registered also gained free access. As a result, 6,448 PDF files were downloaded for the month, a substantial increase from 588 in September. The PDF most downloaded in October was "Modeling of Inclusion Removal in a Tundish," from the August issue of Metallurgical and Materials Transactions B.

The total files downloaded for the month was 623,383, a large increase from 232,034 in September. Total pages viewed also jumped considerably to 268,925 pages in October from 89,452 in September. The top ten DOC pages for October are shown in Table 1.

DOC was conceptualized in 1995, when an ad hoc committee of information professionals from the staffs of the American Institute of Mining, Metallurgical, and Petroleum Engineers's (AIME's) constituent societies (TMS; the Iron and Steel Society; The Society for Mining, Metallurgy, and Exploration; and the Society of Petroleum Engineers) identified document delivery systems as an area where the institute could contribute to all four societies. DOC was approved by the TMS board of directors in 1998 and base funding for the $100,000 project was accepted from AIME.