CHEST journal launches free iPhone/iPad app; home page gets facelift

ACCP and CHEST, in partnership with HighWire Press, launched a universal, full text app for the iPad and iPhone devices. The CHEST Journal app is distinctive not only because it allows access to full text content within the app, but also contains most of the features of the website.

Unlike most iPhone and iPad apps released in scholarly publishing to date, this app handles all the content within the app (rather than referring users to the website for full text).

In addition to the clean smartphone interface, the iPad version was crafted specifically for the tablet device, with an attractive two-column design.

The CHEST Journal native iPhone/iPad app is feature rich:

• Access the most recent issues, plus CHEST Papers in Press
• Articles are optimized for the iOS, as well as available in PDF
• Full-screen images, and figure/table only viewing options
• Dynamic side navigation and internal hyperlinks allow users to jump within article sections, images, and references
• Viewing history is tracked automatically, sorted by date viewed
• E-mail article links to colleagues or self from any page
• Mark and store favorite articles for later reference
• Control article font size from any page

The app supports existing institutional and individual CHEST online subscriptions thru automatic IP authentication or username and password entry. The ACCP has made full-text access on the CHEST app free for users of these devices during an extended trial period.

Early reviews on the iTunes store are very positive.

Download from iTunes here: http://bit.ly/HWChest

CHEST Home Page Facelift:

The home page of the CHEST journal has just gotten a bit of a facelift. Check it out here:
http://chestjournal.chestpubs.org

A survey of the ACCP membership done earlier this year indicated that the journal and our guidelines ranked highest among the most valuable benefits of membership in the College. This facelift is part of our ongoing efforts to make key aspects of the journal and ACCP content and services -- especially Guidelines -- front and center. We will continue to make improvements and changes to the site as we implement additional tactics of CHEST Journal strategic plan. The upcoming editorial by CHEST Editor In Chief Richard S. Irwin, MD, Master FCCP, to be published in the January 2011 issue of CHEST, will discuss the strategic plan in more detail.

New CHEST Home Page features include:

1. GUIDELINES COLLECTION:

A link to a new collection of all ACCP Guidelines is available from menu bar at the top of the page. Readers will now find a consolidated location for all ACCP Guidelines and Consensus Statements (http://chestjournal.chestpubs.org/site/misc/Guidelines_CS.xhtml).

2. ANNOUNCEMENTS WITH IMAGES:

We can now post an announcement with a graphic image in the middle of the page -- at this time we are highlighting the new CHEST iPhone/iPad/iPod app with a link to download it from iTunes, but we will rotate this on a regular basis to highlight important articles, sections, and multimedia offerings like video and interactive animations.

3. CLEANER NAVIGATION:

We have cleaned up the center links to make them more easy to view and navigate our archive (full content back to the first issue of Diseases of the Chest in 1935), our collections, our top-cited and most-read articles, and more.

COMING SOON:

CHEST will be launching mobile browser optimization in early 2011. When users on mobile devices access the CHEST Journal web site, it will detect their mobile browser and reformat the site appropriately for easier reading and navigation.

Phase 1 of this project will provide detection and optimization for Android and Apple device browsers. Subsequent phases will include detection for Blackberry and Nokia devices.

We hope these changes will enhance the user experience of our online readers! As always, your feedback is welcome and appreciated.

About the Author

Stephen Welch

Senior Vice President, Communications
Executive Editor, CHEST

This blog, "It Ain't Rocket Surgery" is intended to help busy health-care professionals find useful online and mobile resources that will enhance their self-education and professional research efforts, or point out important topics of discussion related to online information and content. The blog's title is a Yogi Berra style mash-up of two common phrases, "it ain't brain surgery" and "it ain't rocket science". I hope it will be casual, fun, insightful, and -- most of all -- educational.

You can follow me on Twitter. 

I currently serve ACCP as the Senior Vice President of Communications, as well as the Executive Editor of CHEST, the ACCP’s flagship journal. During my 15 years here, ACCP has focused on growing and developing the editorial, technological, and business aspects of the College. We are constantly striving to make the journal and other ACCP educational content as accessible and useful to clinicians as possible.

When not at work, I like to spend time scuba diving with sharks, collecting original comic book artwork, exploring the digital world, and searching for good BBQ.

Your feedback about the blog is always appreciated. So are tips on good BBQ joints.