17. Does BioMed Central support access from mobile devices?
BioMed Central journal websites have been updated so that users on mobile devices, such as smartphones or tablet computers, have an enhanced experience when viewing full text articles, and navigating and searching content, making better use of small screen sizes and touch-screen functionality.
How do I access the mobile-friendly version of articles
BioMed Central uses a 'responsive' web design. This means that the website automatically responds to the capabilities of the device that is being used. On a desktop computer, the user will normally see the standard version. On a smartphone, the user will automatically default to the mobile-optimized appearance.
If you are viewing the mobile-optimised version of an article, but would like to view the standard desktop version, you can use the link displayed at the bottom of every mobile-optimized page.
Conversely, when browsing on a desktop PC, if you make the browser window very small, you will see the mobile-optimized version of the article.
Figures
To improve the mobile reading experience, figures are displayed inline rather than as popups.
On all mobile operating systems, clicking a figure will load the high resolution version.
On iOS, the high resolution version of a figure can also be viewed simply by using ‘pinch and stretch’ to zoom in, which will cause the high resolution version to be automatically loaded when needed.
Viewing additional files
The following ‘apps’ may be useful for viewing additional files.
- Google Earth (iOS, Android), for KML files (e.g. geographic data)
- Molecules (iOS) for viewing MOL files (e.g. chemical structures)
- DropBox (iOS, Android) for storing copies of PDFs or additional files for later desktop access
Support for viewing of videos attached as additional files is planned for a future release.
Search
To enhance searching, mobile-optimized search and search results are available:
- Search within a specific journal, or across the site
- View your query, or search terms
- See all matching results
- Refine your query or broaden your search area
- Choose how many results are displayed per page
Contact us
There is a mobile-optimized 'Contact us' page, for getting in touch or sending feedback.
Menu
The navigation menu is accessible from the top of the screen. Clicking on the icon opens the menu as easy-to-use options.
Can I save articles to read offline?
A convenient way to save articles for offline viewing is to save the PDF to a reader such as iBooks, or to a bibliographic management app such as Papers.
Additional support for offline reading is planned for a future release.
What about the rest of the site – do you plan to make that mobile friendly?
Yes we will be rolling out further mobile optimizations in the coming months.
BioMed Central's blog network is already optimized for mobile.
- What is the relationship between BioMed Central, PubMed Central and PubMed?
- Why publish in a BioMed Central journal?
- How is continued open access availability of my articles guaranteed?
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- What is BioMed Central's editorial structure?
- Is BioMed Central a pre-print server?
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- What journals does BioMed Central publish and what sorts of papers do they contain?
- What does it cost to publish in a BioMed Central journal?
- How does BioMed Central make money?
- Are articles published in BioMed Central journals available in printed form?
- How can users find the most relevant articles and the most important articles published in BioMed Central journals?
- Are all articles published by BioMed Central journals open access?
- How can I ensure that I receive BioMed Central's emails?
- Does BioMed Central support access from mobile devices?
