The initiative of the digital platform integrating leading Polish scientific periodicals was launched in 2009 by Professor Gregorz Racki, Director of the Institute of Paleobiology, Polish Academy of Sciences. In the first version, it focused on titles from different science areas. However, participation of the project "Polish Scientific Library" in the contest called "Exterius_09" of the Polish Science Foundation ended in failure. Similarly, the participation in the 2010 "Index Plus" competition, organized by the Ministry of Science and Higher Education, specially oriented to modernization and internationalization of the Polish scientific journals, did not bring success either.
Finally, as a result of the second edition of the "Index Plus" contest in June 2012, it was possible to get funding for the project "Digital Platform of Polish Geological Journals". The two-year project, amounting to EUR 148 000, officially affiliated with the Polish Geological Institute and headed by Professor Tadeusz Peryt, aims to create a "virtual geological library" (integrated platform with a multi-editorial system) that groups five leading Polish geo-journals, published in an open formula. In the second stage, it is planned to increase the number of titles.
The basic novelty is to unify the editorial procedures, including the process of obtaining and reviewing papers, as well as to significantly widen information on websites towards global standards of electronic scholarly periodicals. This type of upgrading is essential to raising the attractiveness of Polish journals in severe competition on the international science market, and includes the following elements:
- Full digitalization of editorial procedure, from the submission of manuscript, through the reviewing procedure to the decision of the editor and the revision process.
- Providing DOI names for published articles.
- Notifications indicating the release of the next issue.
- Open access to papers accepted and prepared for publishing.
- Creating a digital archive, with open access to the articles previously published by scanning of the journal annals in a paper version.