Online Publishing: Tax Law
An open access publication platform is shaking up the world of tax. zsis.ch has been online since 2019 - with a solid business case and a sustainable strategy for the future!
Strategic realignment
In 2018, "zsis" stood for the "Zeitschrift für Schweizerisches und Internationales Steuerrecht" (Journal of Swiss and International Tax Law). The journal was only available via Swisslex and was rarely consulted. There was an increasing lack of authors and content, which also led to a decline in readership.
A vicious circle with a downward spiral.
The publisher of the journal, the Institute for Swiss and International Tax Law, decided in favour of a strategic reorientation. HeadStarterz was able to support this project from the very beginning. The first step was to develop a modern concept with a solid business case. The goals:
- Greater reach for content
- Modern formats and high (digital) accessibility
- Attractive offer for authors
- Utilisation of synergies with other services offered by the publisher (especially seminars)
As part of this strategy process, the magazine became a "centre" for tax law content.
The publication platform
In an ambitious project, zsis.ch created a comprehensive platform for the publication of tax law content in various text and image formats within three months. zsis.ch has been online since 1 April 2019.
The decision to invest in the development of its own publication platform and to operate it as a self-publishing company was crucial. This enables the publisher to achieve the defined project goals.
The structure of zsis.ch
Content is at the heart of the business model of a publication platform. This is published on zsis.ch in various formats. At the centre are the scientific articles, the news articles and the fee-based PDF documents of the ISIS seminars. The latter allows the publisher to continue to utilise the high-quality and popular documents after the seminar. This has created an additional source of income.
Regardless of their format, all content is categorised into 1-2 tax law topics. The platform is divided into nine topics, which serve as a menu for users to navigate the platform. This allows experts to quickly find the content relevant to their area of specialisation (e.g. VAT).
Visibility for content and authors
A key element of the strategy for zsis.ch was to make it more attractive to authors. After all, publishing a scientific article is a lot of work. Today, only those who know that the medium also conveys the corresponding reputation will make this effort.
- Open Source: The articles are freely accessible on zsis.ch. Interested users can register free of charge. This guarantees a large readership and thus corresponding visibility for content and authors.
- Profiles: All authors receive their own profile on zsis.ch. The profile guarantees high visibility and is easy to find on Google.
- High-quality PDF: The articles are not only available on the platform. An attractive PDF is also laid out for the articles.
- Presentation: The authors take centre stage. Authorship is widely communicated - for example to the more than 2,100 newsletter subscribers or on social media.
- SEO: The platform is optimised for search engine access. This means that the articles can be found quickly via a Google search on the relevant topic.
Trust in scientific online publications
The content on zsis.ch is purely an online publication. There are a few points to consider compared to printed journals.
- Publication guidelines: The content on zsis.ch is edited according to scientific rules. This includes, for example, the inclusion of footnotes with proper citation of sources.
- Marginal numbers and citation suggestions: An online journal has no page numbers. The articles are therefore automatically provided with margin numbers. The citation suggestion given at the beginning is also generated automatically.
- PDF version: The PDF layout developed specifically for the articles improves readability, supports storage in knowledge management systems and enables users to print out the articles themselves.
- Quarterly issues: The articles are summarised in quarterly issues and are available as such. This allows issues and articles to be neatly numbered.
Ongoing project and successes
HeadStarterz assisted zsis.ch with its reorganisation and supports the publisher in the strategic development of the platform. We continue to provide technical support for zsis.ch and are responsible for editing and marketing the content on an ongoing basis. As part of the editorial team, we work with an editorial board consisting of Prof Dr Luzius Cavelti, Fabienne Limacher and Kathrin Egli Arginelli.
zsis.ch is a project that we have grown very fond of.
The success of the platform shows that the product is on the right track. Here are a few figures (July 2024):
- 2,140 registered platform subscribers
- up to 20 published scientific articles per year with a total of approx. 300 PDF pages
- Over 1,800 page views per year for the most-read article
- Annual increase in sales
