Document publishing systems: a review of current issues

Document publishing systems are systems that support the creation, storage and subsequent retrieval and dissemination of documents and/or document representations or metadata. They are widely used in information retrieval applications, and, in particular, are important in supporting the publication of documents on CD-ROM or the Web. The publication process involves the following stages: identify content, database set-up, populate database, publish, process search requests and view/download original. Document publishing systems fall into two categories: those that have developed from text management systems, and those that had their origins in document creation; this gives rise to systems with different ranges of facilities in areas such as data entry and document creation, information retrieval and security. Special issues associated, respectively, with publication on CD-ROM and through the Web are considered. Future issues for document publishing systems include work-group publishing, hybrid publication, globalisation, integration and seamless document publishing and management, and further integration with Web server technology