Nederlands Tijdschrift voor Geneeskunde (NTvG)

Recently, with COVID in mind, it has (once again) become apparent how important it is that scientific papers and medical knowledge is shared and published by an independent platform. Nederlands Tijdschrift voor Geneeskunde (NTvG) has done no differently, for over 160 years. SWIS built the foundation for their new digital publishing platform.

Case description

Recently, with COVID in mind, it has (once again) become apparent how important it is that scientific papers and medical knowledge is shared and published by an independent platform. Nederlands Tijdschrift voor Geneeskunde (NTvG) has done no differently, for over 160 years. SWIS built the foundation for their new digital publishing platform. This allows the NTvG to innovate in a fast changing market.

NTvG has been publishing medical articles since 1857. First hardcopy (printed) and since 2001 magazines, papers and medical articles are published on their digital platform. Until this day almost 300.000 articles are published and daily medical articles are added.

NTvG also wanted to upgrade their academy. The NTvG Academy is the lifelong learning platform (e-learning) for medical students, specialists and general practitioners. NTvG offers refresher courses to both paid and non-paid subscribers.

With the EOL of Drupal 7 NTvG turned to SWIS: “How can we migrate smoothly from Drupal 7 to Drupal 9 without the loss of any data such as articles, magazines, authors, sections, dossiers etc? And how can we showcase our content in a more attractive way to our readers?”.

Case goals and results

Our answer was to build a total new information/publishing architecture in Drupal 9.
The goal was to migrate all of their “old” content without any loss of content-data, including figures, tables and metadata. We also had to find a way to easily add and edit new content and, at the same time, add and introduce new content-types.

For the NTvG Academy we needed to up our game with a module (the quiz module, Quiz ). This (the module) was used for the NTvG academy, where subscribers can participate in refersher courses. The Quiz module lets NTvG create graded assessments in Drupal 8/9. A Quiz is given as a series of questions. Answers are then stored in the database. Scores and results are displayed during or after the quiz. Administrators can provide automatic or manual feedback. See community contributions.

Results
NTvG operates in a fast changing market, so we made sure that their platform is futureproof and flexible, so we can rapidly implement new features;

- Better contracts with institutions, so that NTvG can make a healthier return on subscriptions.
- We made (almost) everything measurable on www.ntvg.nl and presented data and the user statistics in easy to understand and readable dashboards;
-User-friendly design

Since we launched the new NTvG publishing platform about 700.000 articles are read every month by over a half million readers.

Challenges

How do we ensure that all content (almost 300,000 articles) and all relationships involved are.

Which authors have contributed to articles (to what extent and order)?

In which (sub)section(s) does this article belong? Do those sections still exist?

Because the magazine has been published since 1857 (and has had a website since 2001), the magazine's sections have changed quite a bit, as well as the type of articles that have been published. In addition, the properties of articles have also changed over the years and certainly also since the magazine has rebuilt its website several times since 2005.

To create the new information architecture, in which all existing articles fit - with all their content such as figures and tables, metadata and relationships - and form a flexible foundation for future articles and their presentation form, was the biggest challenge.

At the same time, we worked together on a more modern look-and-feel and user experience for the target groups, without having to completely revise the website and without compromising the scientific level and the authority of the magazine .

Community contributions

SWIS updated the QUIZ module, as used in the NTvG Academy, for Drupal 8/9.

Categories

Publishing/Media

Date when website went live

2 years ago