Wiley and American Neurological Association partner to launch new OA journal

August 1, 2013

John Wiley & Sons, Inc. and the American Neurological Association (ANA) announced today a partnership to launchAnnals of Clinical and Translational Neurology, a new online-only, open access journal.

Annals of Clinical and Translational Neurology will publish original research and scholarly reviews focused on the mechanisms and treatments of diseases of the nervous system; high-impact topics in neurologic education; and other topics of interest to the clinical neuroscience community.

The journal is supported by Annals of Neurology, which is owned by the ANA; co-sponsored by the Child Neurology Society; and published by Wiley. With a 2013 Impact Factor of 11.193, Annals of Neurology is among the most prestigious peer-reviewed clinical neurology journals worldwide. The high selectivity of Annals of Neurology will support the development of Annals of Clinical and Translational Neurology and provide global community of researchers and clinicians with a dynamic outlet for scientific and clinical content.

“We are extremely excited to offer a journal that taps into the extraordinary clinical and translational science that is being conducted in our neurology departments across the world,” said ANA President Eva L. Feldman, MD, PhD, the Russell N. DeJong Professor of Neurology at the University of Michigan. “By offering an open access journal, the ANA can provide another publishing platform for investigators committed to understanding and treating disorders of the nervous system. Ultimately that benefits both the fields of neuroscience and neurology and will lead to the development of new and much needed therapies.”

John “Jack” Kessler, MD, has been appointed Editor-in-Chief of Annals of Clinical and Translational Neurology. Dr. Kessler is the Ken and Ruth Davee Professor of Stem Cell Biology at Northwestern University.

“I am honored and excited to have been chosen to be the editor of this new journal,” Kessler said. “Open access publication of clinical and scientific advances is becoming more common for biomedical research. The creation of Annals of Clinical and Translational Neurology as a partner journal to the Annals of Neurology is a timely and exciting new venture that should greatly enhance the rapid dissemination of high quality research.”

“Wiley has published Annals of Neurology since 2001 and we greatly value our long-standing and highly successful partnership with the ANA,” said Shawn Morton, Journal Publishing Director for Medicine at Wiley. “We are highly optimistic that Annals of Clinical and Translational Neurology will provide a timely means to further extend and develop this much-valued relationship.”

The journal will publish articles under a Creative Commons License enabling authors to be fully compliant with open access requirements of funding organizations where they apply. All articles will be published open access on Wiley Online Library and deposited in PubMed Central immediately upon publication.

A publication fee will be payable by authors on acceptance of their articles. Authors affiliated with, or funded by, an organization that has a Wiley Open Access Account can publish without directly paying any publication charges.

Annals of Clinical and Translational Neurology is available at www.annalsctn.org.

SAGE & Independent Scientific Committee on Drugs launch new journal Drug Science, Policy and Law

August 1, 2013

While most people prefer Novo RX Detox Los Angeles to get rid off drug addiction.SAGE and the Independent Scientific Committee on Drugs (ICSD) today announced the launch of Drug Science, Policy and Law, an online journal supporting the ICSD’s goals of providing accessible information on drugs to the public and professionals.

The ISCD was founded to investigate and review the scientific evidence relating to drugs, free from political concerns. Chaired by Professor David Nutt, Head of Department of Neuropsychopharmacology and Molecular Imaging at Imperial College London, the committee represents leading experts on drug science, legislation and policy.

Drug Science, Policy and Law will be peer-reviewed, international in scope and grounded in a rigorous evidence base. It aims to be the definitive source of evidence-based information and comment for academics, scientists, policymakers, frontline workers and the general public on drugs and related issues. Each research article will be accompanied by a blog post, written by the author, supporting the Committee’s goals of making jargon-free and easy to read content available to a general reader.

“Drug policy continues to be a hotly debated topic amongst policy makers, the public and the media: there is a strong need for unbiased, easy to understand information in this area,” said Karen Phillips, Editorial Director, SAGE. “The approach the ICSD is taking with their organization and this new publishing venture fits strongly with SAGE’s vision that access to research creates healthy minds and healthy cultures. We see this journal as a major focal point for the international community researching on, or with an interest in, drug policy.”

The first article in the journal focuses on a review of khat harm, arguing that the UK government‘s recent classification decisions was unjustified. Further articles will launch on a monthly basis, with the lay summary available as a blog post on the ICSD website.

“Through our flagship journal Drug Science, Policy and Law, knowledge and analysis will be exchanged not only between academics but also with professionals, policymakers and public” said founding editor Professor David Nutt. You can find information about the case more here, he adds “By contributing to the development of consensus across these groups on what is known, what we have yet to establish and what will always be debatable, this venture will support ever more fruitful cooperation towards wiser choices, better treatments and effectual policy. We are delighted to be partnering SAGE in this endeavour, they are a publisher whose vision is aligned with ours.”

For further information about the ICSD’s work, follow on Twitter at @ProfDavidNutt or Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/professordavidnutt.

Springer’s SpringerLink mobile app now available on Android

August 1, 2013

Springer is pleased to announce that it has released an Android version of its SpringerLink mobile application, allowing for wider access to its content. The app’s user interface has also been improved, making navigation easier and faster.

In January 2012 Springer released its first version of the app on Apple iTunes, which gave scientists, researchers and students anytime/anywhere access to Springer’s content from their iPhones and iPads. Now that the application is available for Android phones and tablets for the first time, Springer is further satisfying the demands of increasingly mobile researchers. Given the growth in popularity of Android devices, making the SpringerLink app available for these users via Google Play was a natural next step.

In addition to the Android release, Springer has made a number of adjustments and additions to bring new and improved functionality to users. This latest version includes an update to the user interface that makes searching and using articles faster, easier and more intuitive than on the previous iteration.

“The new and improved SpringerLink app demonstrates Springer’s commitment to providing researchers, students and professionals with the latest and greatest in mobile apps,” said Patricia Cleary, eProduct Manager at Springer. “Springer has an obligation to provide our customers, users and the research community with the very best in mobile technology across devices. This not only makes Springer content more convenient to access, but helps fuel scientific progress where it is happening – everywhere.”

Jisc welcomes the Department for Business Innovation & Skills’ publication of the UK’s international education strategy

July 31, 2013

Jisc welcomes the publication today of the Department for Business Innovation and Skills’ international education strategy outlining the UK’s role in contributing to worldwide innovation within schools, colleges and universities.

We are looking forward to being able to offer our expertise, while working with the Government and partners, in delivering this new strategy in particular in ‘leading the world in education technology’ and ‘building a new relationship with emerging powers’.

Our mission is to enable people in UK higher education, further education and skills to perform at the forefront of international practice by exploiting fully the possibilities of modern digital empowerment, content and connectivity.

The UK boasts one of the best digital infrastructures in the form of the Jisc research and education network Janet, delivering unparalleled connectivity and access to resources, while being safe and secure.

Martyn Harrow, Jisc chief executive says:

“We are already investing in Janet6, which will be the premier network of its type in the world, to ensure the continuing success of UK research and education, and the economic value it generates, now and over the next ten years.

“We hope our help on reaching out with online learning, connecting through social media to set up international student hubs, collaborating internationally for teaching, learning and research, enabling international collaboration and ensuring global secure access to institutions’ services and resources, will be a good basis for enabling this strategy to progress quickly.”

Jisc works in partnership across UK education and research to explore and provide cutting edge technologies in education, creating high-value-added products and services that have been built by the UK’s education sectors for the UK’s education sectors.

Choice Reviews Online Launches on HighWire

July 31, 2013

HighWire Press and CHOICE, a publishing unit of the Association of College & Research Libraries, are pleased to announce the launch of Choice Reviews Online: Version 3.0 on the HighWire Open Platform. The newest and most sophisticated version of CHOICE’s popular discovery and reference tool, CRO3 (www.cro3.org) includes a comprehensive collection of reviews and other timely editorial content from the CHOICE editors.

Choice Reviews Online is the go-to resource for thousands of collection development librarians who rely on CHOICE’s experienced, expert reviewers when making buying decisions from among the vast list of new scholarly works published each year. Highly selective, CHOICE publishes concise, critical, and authoritative reviews of more than 7,000 new titles a year, spanning the entire liberal arts and sciences curriculum. CHOICE reviews are widely recognized by publishers, librarians, and authors as a benchmark of quality.

“HighWire has proved to be an ideal partner for the latest version of Choice Reviews Online,” said Mark Cummings, CHOICE Editor and Publisher. “At CHOICE, our goal has always been to provide the academic library community with the highest quality content. Designed in response to the rapidly changing online environment, our users will find CRO3 on HighWire to be a helpful, flexible, and powerful tool.”

Choice Reviews Online 3.0 takes advantage of the flexibility, discovery and advanced search options of HighWire’s Open Platform to offer:

Integrated search options, allowing users to discover content in both the reviews and features sections;
Rich linking capabilities, both to external book content, and to internal related reviews, features and comments;
“Browse the Book” links in the Publisher’s Choice Online program, allowing readers to view full book content;
Full compliance with academic web standards such as COUNTER, OpenURL and DOI’s;
Expanded social media sharing options, and moderated user commenting.

“There is a natural synergy in the fit of this well-respected reference source being hosted by HighWire,” noted Tom Rump, HighWire’s Managing Director. “Choice Reviews Online, alongside our expanded eBooks offering, demonstrates the ongoing evolution of the HighWire Open Platform in delivering the best quality content in multiple display formats to support the scholarly community.”

BMJ announces new international appointments

July 30, 2013

Healthcare knowledge provider BMJ has announced that the company has created two new Managing Director posts in India and the US, ahead of planned growth in these two important territories.

Anand Ekambaram joins as MD, India, from Educomp (one of the country’s largest education business) where he was President of Smartclass. Prior to Educomp, Anand had a distinguished career in the technology industry. Most recently he was Senior Vice President and Head of the Learning Business at Indian technology giant HCL Infosystems. Before HCL he was a VP for SAP India, specialising in education and other public sector business.

The BMJ board agreed earlier this year that in order to maintain the momentum of growth outside its home market, it was essential to recruit local senior management in these vital territories. According to BMJ CEO Tim Brooks, Anand brings very strong experience of dealing with the public sector and a deep understanding of the application of technology to knowledge businesses.

Anand will start his new role on 2nd September 2013 and will be based at BMJ’s new offices in Noida in the National Capital Region. The appointment of his counterpart in the US will be announced shortly.

RCN Publishing to end agreement with ProQuest

July 30, 2013

RCN Publishing announced today that it will be ending its relationship with ProQuest for aggregated distribution of their online journals. The current agreement will end in September 2013.

Speaking of the agreement, Tony O’Rourke, Commercial Director, said “Over the last year RCN Publishing has been committed to providing a more robust approach to support our customers. This will begin by moving our content to Atypon’s Literatum platform to provide the features libraries and their patrons need in mid-August, such as COUNTER-compliant usage statistics, Shibboleth compliance, article-level DOIs, reference linking and more. Given this investment, it makes sense for RCN Publishing to approach the market directly and allow institutions to decide which of our journals to subscribe to based on their need.”

RCN Publishing publishes leading nursing journals such as Nursing Standard, Nursing Management, Mental Health Practice, Nurse Researcher and Nursing Children and Young People. Currently, these titles are included in ProQuest Hospital Collection, British Nursing Index and ProQuest Nursing & Allied Health Source. The agreement will come to an end in September 2013 from which time no new content will be added to these databases. However, ProQuest customers who retain their subscription will continue to have access to the archive of RCN Publishing journals articles. O’Rourke further commented, “We hope that we can continue to serve ProQuest customers by providing access to the archive for the duration of their subscription. If institutions have any queries about this and would like to discuss further, please contact us. Equally, for institutions that wish to continue to access our current journal content we welcome the opportunity to speak directly.”

Oxford University Press to publish BioScience journal from 2014

July 30, 2013

Oxford University Press (OUP) is delighted to announce that beginning in January 2014 it will be publishing the renowned journal BioScience, from the American Institute of Biological Sciences (AIBS).

Since 1964, BioScience has presented readers with timely and authoritative overviews of current research in biology, accompanied by essays and discussion sections on education, public policy, history, and the conceptual underpinnings of the biological sciences.

A peer-reviewed, heavily cited, monthly publication with content written and edited for accessibility to researchers, educators, and students alike, BioScience is subscribed to online and in print by libraries around the world and provided to all AIBS members as a part of regular AIBS dues.

With the stated goal of serving as a “Forum for Integrating the Life Sciences,” BioScience includes articles about research findings and techniques, advances in biology education, professionally written feature articles about the latest frontiers in biology, discussions of professional issues, book reviews, a policy column, and an education column. Roundtables, forums, and viewpoint articles offer the perspectives of opinion leaders and invite further commentary.

Occasional special sections in BioScience provide an in-depth look at important topics. Recent special sections have addressed animal migration, protected areas, acid rain, science and public policy, the US Long Term Ecological Research network, and conservation-reliant species.

Tim Beardsley, AIBS Editorial Director and Editor in Chief of BioScience, said: “the American Institute of Biological Sciences is immensely pleased that BioScience will be published through Oxford University Press, one of the world’s leading scientific publishers. This partnership will bring BioScience to more readers globally and advance our mission of helping to integrate the life sciences.”

The President of Oxford University Press USA, Niko Pfund, said: “we are thrilled by the opportunity to work with such a leading organization in the life sciences, and look forward to putting this vital research into the hands of a wider global audience.”

SpringerPlus journal passes 1,000 article submissions

July 30, 2013

Springer announced today that its SpringerPlus journal has passed an important milestone – more than 1,000 submissions by authors wishing to be published in the journal. SpringerPlus is published under the SpringerOpen brand, and is an interdisciplinary, fully open access (OA) publication.

SpringerPlus was first launched in January of 2012 and is a peer-reviewed, open access journal with a broad interdisciplinary approach covering all areas of science, technology, engineering, medicine, the humanities and social sciences. The submissions for the journal are handled by an esteemed international board of academic editors.

Earlier this year Springer announced that SpringerPlus is now indexed by PubMed Central and Scopus®. This provides authors publishing in the journal maximum exposure for their research. And furthermore, as an OA journal published under the liberal Creative Commons Attribution (CC-BY) license, SpringerPlus allows for authors to easily comply with their funders’ open access mandates.

Finally, SpringerPlus counts a fast and transparent publication process among its many outstanding qualities. All submissions are peer-reviewed with a singular focus on the scientific quality of the manuscript, rather than its fit with any one discipline, journal or editorial direction. Authors whose papers are accepted can count on a very short time between acceptance and publication.

Peter Hendriks, Springer’s President of STM Publishing said, “All of us are proud of what the SpringerPlus team has accomplished in a short time. For many authors SpringerPlus is the perfect place to publish, and underscores Springer’s commitment to providing researchers with the right journal, at the right time, for the right body of work, through a number of different models.”

“We aim to make SpringerPlus an attractive place for our authors to publish,” said Dr. Max Haring, the journal’s Executive Editor. “This important milestone, alongside the fact that we are now indexed by PubMed Central and Scopus®, only serves to show that SpringerPlus is developing into an important journal for manuscripts that are difficult to publish elsewhere. The whole team looks forward to growing this unique journal in the years to come.”

LCA submits statement on the role of copyright in innovation to the House Committee

July 30, 2013

Yesterday, the Library Copyright Alliance (LCA) submitted astatement on the role of copyright in innovation (PDF) to the US House of Representatives Committee on the Judiciary. The committee has been conducting a series of hearings on copyright issues as a way to educate members and prepare for reform. Today, the committee is holding a hearing on innovation and copyright. Next week there will be a hearing on technology and copyright.

In the statement, LCA discusses the diminishing role of copyright in incentivizing activity in one of the most important sources of innovation in the US economy: scholarly communications. LCA then discusses the economic importance of collaborative activities such as open source software and Wikipedia, which do not rely on the incentive provided by copyright. Finally, with respect to sectors that do appear to rely on copyright, LCA points out that many of the leading firms in those sectors are foreign owned. This suggests that the importance of copyright to maintaining US leadership in the global economy may be overstated.

Medical Illustrator Wins Elsevier’s Netter Art Contest

July 30, 2013

Elsevier, a world-leading provider of scientific, technical and medical information products and services, today announced the winner of the firstNetter Atlas Medical Illustration Contest. Paul J. Kim, a professional medical illustrator based in Montclair, N.J., was selected by a distinguished panel of judges who chose 10 finalists, with Mr. Kim as the grand prize winner.

The announcement was made at the recent Annual Meeting of the American Association of Clinical Anatomists in Denver, CO, by officials from Elsevier, publisher of the best-selling Netter Atlas of Human Anatomy. Mr. Kim, who has an MS in Medical Illustration from the Georgia Health Sciences University, was among 37 contest entrants from nine countries and all walks of life. Mr. Kim will receive a cash prize of $5,000.

Contest participants were challenged to create an original illustration demonstrating the spatial relationships of the nerve root and the surrounding structure that could potentially replace the Netter Atlas plate 163-top in the new edition of the Atlas. The current image is a straight axial section.

“Our consulting editors thought an image showing a different perspective could be more instructive,” said Linda Belfus, Senior Vice President and General Manager for Content, Clinical Solutions at Elsevier. “We understand the importance of medical illustrators to the education of clinicians and the practice of medicine, and we want to be a part of highlighting the talented professionals who are following in the footsteps of Dr. Frank Netter.”

The contest was designed to identify emerging artists in the complex field of medical illustration. Blending scientific understanding with artistic technique, today’s medical illustrators use advanced computer technology to create illustrations, infographics and animations used in medical education, patient information, health news, law and pharmaceutical advertising.

The value of detailed images in illuminating medical content has been recognized for almost 100 years. However, it was Dr. Netter (1906-1991), with his unique combination of artistic training and a physician’s perspective, who took anatomical illustration from a simple quest for verisimilitude and raised it to an art. He brought the hand of a master medical illustrator, the brain of a physician, and the soul of an artist to portray the beauty and complexity of the human body in sickness and in health. His Atlas of Human Anatomy has been a core element in the education of generations of physicians in the U.S. and abroad and is recognized as the standard in the field.

In a 1986 article The New York Times hailed Dr. Netter as the “Michelangelo of Medicine.” Paul Kim joins the growing list of outstanding medical illustrators inspired by this master illustrator, physician and teacher.

For more information about the Netter Atlas Medical Illustration Contest, go to www.netterimages.com/artcontest

Wolters Kluwer Health Announces a Multimedia Enhancement to the OvidSP Medical Research Platform

July 25, 2013

Wolters Kluwer Health, a leading global provider of information, business intelligence and point-of-care solutions for the healthcare industry, announced today a multimedia enhancement to the OvidSP medical research platform to aid in clinical research, practice and learning. Now researchers and healthcare practitioners using Ovid will have improved functionality to discover, download and export more than two million assets, including video and images integrated with searching full-text and bibliographic content.

The enhancement is based on direct feedback from Ovid users including clinicians, nurses and students who indicated their use of multimedia resources for research, teaching and learning is increasing. The videos and images span a wide variety healthcare specialties including surgery, neurology, physical therapy, obstetrics and gynecology, cardiology and emergency medicine. Video topics include demonstrations on clinical procedures, diagnosis and treatment techniques; expert interviews; lectures; and article discussions. Images have been sourced from some of the leading journals and reference books in their fields.

“Increasingly, the healthcare community is employing video and images for use in clinical instruction and research. We’re very pleased to deliver this enhancement to OvidSP’s search and discovery technology in response to this global trend,” said Cathy Wolfe, President & CEO of Wolters Kluwer Health, Medical Research. “Whether a user wants to review procedures or techniques prior to a patient interaction or treatment, listen to expert commentary, or provide curriculum materials, OvidSP users now have a wealth of video and images to support their work.”

Multimedia on OvidSP is accessible using either Basic Search or Advanced Search modes. Search results of multimedia are ranked by relevance and marked prominently in results lists to help users identify them quickly. In addition, results lists now include an option to browse all related video and images while maintaining access to results of full-text content. Users can filter results by media type, duration of video, subject matter and other criteria. Print, export, download, and email features are also available.