From The Editor

The term portal in science fiction generally refers to a technological gateway allowing one who enters to be transported often to worlds beyond imagination. While not suggesting that when you access the IJMC in the digital or online form and click-on features like Crossmark that such a journey will ensue, what you may discover is a remarkable electronic resource at your fingertips.

Most of you have observed this logo in the upper right corner of the first page of articles published in this journal, not realizing that this icon is more than just a circle with a ribbon. Actually, Crossmark is a gateway making the IJMC your digital information portal.

This portal gives readers quick and easy access to additional content, metadata, and current status (e.g., if an article has been updated, corrected or retracted and access to additional data, charts, research, etc.). It may also contain an item called SciGraph which is a Springer Nature Open Data offering which aggregates data sources from our publisher and key partners from the scholarly domain. The Linked Open Data platform collates information from across the research landscape, for example funders, research projects, conferences, affiliations and publications.

These electronic links don’t end with the Crossmark, as both the online and digital pdf versions contain many other active links that will lead you to numerous related articles, for example clicking on a highlighted active reference in a paper will take you directly to that reference, like the one below, and will include a cross-reference and Google Scholar link.

Example of active referencing of an online paper:

CrossRef https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007%2FBF03355438.

Google Scholar https://scholar.google.com/scholar_lookup?author=DA.%20Caulk&journal=Int.%20J.%20Metalcast.&volume=3&pages=7-25&publication_year=2009.

It may also take you to TDM (Text and Data Mining) which is the automated process of selecting and analyzing large amounts of text or data resources for purposes such as searching, finding patterns, discovering relationships, semantic analysis and learning how content relates to ideas and needs in a way that can provide valuable information. Even the pdf version, as viewed on an electronic device, has similar gateways. If you haven’t explored the opportunities where these portals may take you, click on one and find that the IJMC will transport you on a remarkable technological journey of discovery.

“…the IJMC will transport you on a remarkable technological journey of discovery.”