Line of Departure: A month in review

In the month since launched, Line of Departure reviews have been overwhelmingly positive and readers have found the site. Your 80 reviews yielded a median review of 5 (out of 5) and a mean of 4.75. LD had tens of thousands of page views with about one-thousand page views per day. To put these numbers in context, Infantry averaged 229 views per month in 2023 and Army Chemical Review had 68 views per month since their last issue published in 2022. Given that LD aggregates all of the Army’s journals, we anticipate views will continue to rise with promotion.

LD will also grow the steady publication pace as its editorial team comes online. Army University Press is currently growing and training the small team. We anticipate increasing the publication rate from about one article per day now to two articles per day by February and 3-5 articles per day in the spring.  

But no one is resting. Below, I describe the various improvements we’re working to implement. These are broad. They include developing a simple app with push notifications, citation tool integration, author profiles, and much more.

Read through them—and leave a comment below!

Immediate updates

Reviewers helpfully noted a few minor issues the team can fix quickly. We’ll improve site anchors for both the listening controls and references to ensure you can easily jump the right place. We will also fix a small number of broken links and have already updated confusing descriptions of a few of the Army’s journals.

Mid-term updates

Over the mid-term, we’ll ensure all articles have the information necessary to cite and also improving the journal selection menu, while considering different options to “push” new articles. On citation, we’ll ensure each article has the author, title, publication, date, link, and the digital object identifier. We’re working with our partners at DTIC to ensure that each article has this identifier that will simplify search and research.

The journal menu also requires some work, especially on scrolling as you switch screen sizes. In the interim, we’ll make “Journals”, “Writer’s Compass”, “Special Features”, and “About” all clickable to create an alternative to scrolling headaches. 

Pushing content to readers is also important to accessibility. We’ll investigate email pushes when new articles release from all or selected journals, developing a simple app with push notifications, and curating sound files into podcast channels.

Longer-term updates

Over the next six months, we’ll look to improve the mobile experience, research features, and the print function. Improving the mobile experience means maximizing the use of your screen. We’ll likely make graphics smaller and change the featured article feature to fit more onto the smallest screens.

We’ll also improve research features by focusing on search, citation tool integration, and author profiles. While 40 respondents indicated they found information easily, ​​9 comments mentioned issues with the search functions. We’re looking into adding an advanced search option that better finds keywords, authors, and titles. Survey respondents reported that the search did not match the intended keywords or failed to find specific titles they sought. As web-crawlers do their work, search should improve, but we’ll continue to monitor this.

Citation tool integration will make it easier for students to cite articles—but integration currently is hit-or-miss. We’ll work to better expose each article’s metadata so tools like Zotero can get to work. We’re also considering a “Cite This” button that would show draft citation in standard formats like APA, MLA, and Chicago. Let us know in the comments which would be most helpful.

Finally, we’re also looking into adding author profiles. These are standard features at sites like the Modern War Institute or War on the Rocks, and allow interested readers to see what else has been written by specific authors.

Long-term

Over the long term, we’ll continue to improve listening options, look into ePub versions for download, and consider other opportunities or desired features. We’re happy with the current document reader, but there are a few areas for improvement. LD’s current AI reader does a good job, but fumbles with some acronyms and military specific words. Likewise, new tools like Google’s NotebookLM can convert articles into conversations between two AI agents. We also know that some people would like to read our articles on their Kindles or other e-readers. We’ll explore ePub version for those who want LD articles optimized for that format.

Way ahead

As we publish content and improve LD, we also continue to promote LD with the goal of encouraging people to check the site once a week. Our promotion approach is broad, but we need your help. Encourage others to check the site at least once a week—and look for our forthcoming competition for ideas on how to promote Line of Departure.