The project of Research Institute for Soil Science and Agrochemistry of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences, ’Start of the Agrochemistry and Soil Science Online (ATON) journal’ (TÁMOP-4.2.3-08/1/KMR-2008-0008) was got support by New Hungary Development Plan, Social Renewal Operational Programme, Appreciation and dissemination of the scientific results in May of 2010.

The main goal of the project is a full automated, modern service system building for the editing, searching and browsing, designing and online trading of the ATON. As part of the implementation a website is created: www.aton.hu. Through this webpage every potential reader could reach the newest and archive articles in a modern environment, with the related information under a interactive surface.

The actuality of this system is that researches in the filed of soil science, agrochemistry, plant nutrition, soil microbiology and agroecology in basic agricultural tasks, such as food- and bio-energy production, conservation of the soil fertility and functions will be even more important in the future. Access to scientific results is one of the keystones of European research development, since science stimulates economic growth. Rapid development of telecommunication technologies, such as the internet seemed clear that we need to make Agrochemistry and Soil Science journal easy to reach for everybody. The emergence of electronic journals is undoubtedly a great opportunity for successful transmission and dissemination of scientific information.

Direct target group is Hungarian field scientists and teachers, PhD and university students, agricultural officers and decision-makers, farmers and foreign scientists. Publishing both in English and in Hungarian enables even wider use for Hungarian and foreign field specialists as well.

Indirect target group non-field scientists and teachers, PhD and university students, decision-makers, foreign non-field scientists

The professional content and objectives of the project

• Online publishing of Agrichemistry and Soil Science Hungarian-language peer-reviewed journal
• Designing an online editorial system which provides an interface to upload, revision, editing and later for commercial marketing of articles. The system eliminates difficult delivery of articles intended for publication, time and paper saving, thus environmentally friendly as well.
• Designing a complex searching interface
• Uploading data to the complete online system, which is a two-way process: on the one hand a new, online volume publishing, and on the other hand archiving and publishing of the previous 59 printed volumes.
• Publishing of the new, online volume precedes a trial version for testing the online editorial system and on the basis of experiances finalizing the system.
• Digitalization of archive volumes is under process.
• English specialist translation and/or revision also run parallel to the digitalization. Articles selected by Editorial Board will be translate into English – both articles selected from the newly publishing and archive volumes. Publishing in English-language – beside in Hungarian – is expected to increase the reputation and recognition of the publications, which results in an efficient transfer and dissemination of scientific results and knowledge.
• Preparations of special comments are for updating the articles of archive volumes. Special comments of archive articles selected by Editorial Board will be prepared by experts of the following fields: soil physic, soil chemistry, soil biology, soil classification, soil mapping (soil geography), soil mineralogy, soil degradation, soil amelioration, soil conservation, soil-water relationships, agrochemistry, plant nutrition, fertilization, nutrient state-nutrition cycling , soil-, fertilizer- and plant analytical methods, soil pollution-remediation, land use, agricultural technology. Such processing will have a significant impact in science, and may assist higher education faculty.
• Creating a forum – questions and comments forum of students, teachers, enquirers (e.g. farmers). This forum will provide the connection of science and everyday life, a life-long learning opportunity.
• In 2011 in order to broad familiarization of ATON marketing activities are performed with roadshows, which will hold in three of the most important agricultural universities of the country. Planed locations: Mosonmagyaróvár, Gödöllő and Debrecen, with which east, west and central regions of Hungary are also addressed. With cross-border location of Mosonmagyaróvár and Debrecen participation of transborder Hungarian scientists is also allowed.

Expected results of the projects

• Easier accessibility (even abroad) is expected to increase recognition and number of publications.
• A searchable catalogue system allows users to easy find articles of interest.
• Since the online system is less expensive than the printed journal, thus larger scale, colourful publications can become possible.
• Promotion of the Hungarian terminology is given a new opportunity.
• Due to the opportunities of the Internet using any searching engine everybody can easily find any publications.
• Indirectly, the project has a positive impact to the social adaptation of the science, facilitating the utilization of the scientific results for the relevant sectors of the society.