OFT clears OUP’s Nelson Thornes acquisition

May 28, 2013

The Office of Fair Trading today cleared Oxford University Press (OUP)’s acquisition of Nelson Thornes.

OUP, which is a department of the University of Oxford, acquired the educational publisher from Infinitas Learning in January 2013 for an undisclosed sum.

Following a four month review, the OFT today gave the green light for the purchase, saying that it has decided on the information currently available to it not to refer it to the Competition Commission under the provisions of the Enterprise Act 2002.

Nelson Thornes has built a reputation as one of the UK’s leading providers of curriculum resources from primary to further education level and of innovative digital products and platforms. Since January it has operated as a stand-alone subsidiary of OUP, with Richard Hodson—formerly a director at OUP—as Managing Director. For the immediate future Richard will continue in that role, and OUP will maintain the Cheltenham office, organization structure, and current staff.

Nigel Portwood, Chief Executive of Oxford University Press, said: “The OFT announcement marks the beginning of an exciting future for us, where the combination of OUP’s and Nelson Thornes’ expertise and resources enables us to provide teachers and students with an even greater choice of high-quality materials.”

IEEE Now Provides Open-Access Option for All Peer-Reviewed Journals

May 28, 2013

IEEE, the world’s largest technical professional organization, today announced that all IEEE-owned peer-reviewed journals now offer open-access (OA) publishing options, the latest sign of OA’s growth as it continues to transform the scholarly research publishing industry.

Open access allows all technologists and the general public to access research articles online for free, as opposed to the traditional scholarly publishing model that requires paid subscriptions. By removing these access barriers, OA publishing can help gain more exposure for new concepts that can advance research and scientific applications. Additionally, studies have shown that OA publishing may increase article citations.

As of June 2012, there were more than 7,600 OA journals published in 117 countries, according to a report from the UK-based Working Group on Expanding Access to Published Research Findings. IEEE joins the open-access ranks in a big way by adding to the total figure more than 100 journals capable of accepting open-access content. Each of IEEE’s journals is written by technologists for technologists, and many of those journals are considered among the most prestigious in their respective fields. For example, IEEE publishes 17 of the top 20 most cited journals in electrical and electronic engineering, according to a 2011 report from ISI Journal Citation Reports.

“More authors, organizations, and institutions want open-access options, but many authors still find it critically important to publish in peer-reviewed journals that offer prestige through proven track records,” said Robert E. Hebner, the Vice President for Technical Activities for IEEE and Director of the Center for Electromechanics at the University of Texas at Austin. “IEEE’s journals are some of the technology industry’s most prestigious, and offering open access through these journals gives authors very flexible, visible, and credible options for publishing their research and reaching established technical communities.”

Under its “hybrid” journal model, IEEE’s existing, subscription-based journals give authors the choice to publish either via the traditional model or pay an article-processing charge to publish open access. This approach allows authors to take advantage of the many IEEE journals that carry established Impact Factors, a measure of average citations per recent article in a journal. The large number of journals also provides wide topic options, which means authors should be able to find the right publications for their articles.

In addition to these hybrid journals, IEEE also offers four fully open-access topical journals: IEEE Journal of the Electron Devices Society, IEEE Transactions on Emerging Topics in Computing, IEEE Photonics Journal, and IEEE Journal of Translational Engineering in Health and Medicine. IEEE also publishes a newly launched, fully open access mega-journal entitled IEEE Access, which publishes articles that are at the boundaries of traditional engineering fields or that cross multiple disciplines of engineering and thus don’t easily fit into more targeted journals.

All of IEEE’s open-access articles are available through its Xplore Digital Library database of articles.

SAGE announces winner of early researcher bursary for EERA International Conference 2013

May 28, 2013

SAGE is delighted to announce the winner of the European Educational Research Association (EERA)/SAGE conference travel award, which sponsors an early career researcher to attend the Emerging Researchers Conference , taking place this year between 9 and 10 September and the annual ECER 2013 conference , taking place this year between 10 to 13 September). The conferences take place this year in Istanbul, Turkey.

Karen Phillips, Editorial Director SAGE, said of the sponsorship, “The EERA conference is a pivotal conference for helping to contribute to both education policy and practice.We are delighted to be supporting an early career researcher in attending this conference and aiding EERA in facilitating these conversations.”

Professor Lejf Moors, President of EERA, further commented, “We are delighted that SAGE has once again offered their SAGE Conference bursary to an early career researcher. This bursary enables both us and SAGE to support promising young scholars in educational research, enabling them to attend our annual conference, to start networking with professional s within the sector, and to provide them with content to further stimulate their academic work and career”.

The winner of this year’s travel grant, Ana Inés Renta Davids, selected by EERA for her paper on “Transfer of learning: Effects of Motivation, Training Coherence and Workplace Features” said of the award win, “I am gratified to know that members of EERA and SAGE considered my work to be good enough for such recognition. The beginnings of any research career are difficult in terms of budgets and job stability, so this bursary is of great help in enabling me to continue to be an active part of the research community, supporting my early career development and exposure.”

For more information about the conference please visit http://www.eera-ecer.de/ecer2013/

Springer partners with the Italian Society of Gerontology and Geriatrics

May 28, 2013

Starting in 2013, Springer and the Italian Society of Gerontology and Geriatrics (SIGG) are collaborating to publish Aging Clinical and Experimental Research, the official journal of the society. It was previously published by the Italian publisher Editrice Kurtis. The journal will be available on Springer’s online platform SpringerLink (link.springer.com).

Appearing six times a year, Aging Clinical and Experimental Research publishes review articles, original papers and case reports, offering a multidisciplinary forum in the field of gerontology and geriatrics. The areas covered by the journal include biogerontology, neurosciences, epidemiology, clinical gerontology, geriatric assessment, and social, economical and behavioral gerontology. The journal offers novel data on basic science, and clinical, epidemiological and health services research in the field of aging. It targets clinical practitioners and professionals working in the area of aging.

Stefania Maggi, Editor-in-Chief, said: “As we begin the 25^th volume of Aging Clinical and Experimental Research, it is my pleasure to welcome our new collaboration with Springer. The science publisher and SIGG have agreed on a five-year partnership to publish the official journal of the society. I am very grateful to the president, Prof. Giuseppe Paolisso, and to the board of directors of SIGG for their efforts in supporting the journal, not only economically at a time of financial constraints, but also through excellent scientific contributions. We value their excellent suggestions and interactions with the editorial office.”

Carlotta d’Imporzano, Executive Editor Medical Journals at Springer, said, “We are delighted to start the cooperation with the Italian Society of Gerontology and Geriatrics to publish one of the oldest geriatric journals in Italy. We look forward to supporting SIGG in its mission and working with the society to increase the international visibility of the journal. We welcome receiving even more valuable submissions from international authors.”

Sarah Porter to step down as Head of innovation at Jisc

May 24, 2013

After much deliberation, Sarah Porter head of innovation has chosen to leave Jisc in order to pursue her research innovation interests in higher education and work with higher education institutions on developing their digital strategies.

Sarah has brought tremendous commitment and passion to Jisc over the last twelve years. She initially joined from the University of Oxford where she led a team of e-learning developers and directed Jisc’s work onmanaged learning environments.

It was 2004 when Sarah was appointed to lead the Jisc innovation group. The group’s agenda focused upon identifying opportunities for the UK to maximise the potential of technology to support better learning, teaching and research. Sarah has encouraged experimentation and new and innovative approaches to technological development, including most recently the Summer of Innovation project, which is inviting students to submit innovative ideas on how the student experience can be improved through technology.

Under Sarah’s leadership, and with support from Jisc’s funders, the UK and countries from overseas have benefited from programmes in:

• E-learning
• Leading work in digital libraries
• The creation of many millions of digital content assets
• The creation of new virtual research environments
• National services to support research management.

Some of her key successes have been the Sustaining Digital Resources series carried out jointly with Ithaka; work on supporting technical standards with CETIS and UKOLN; taking forward the UK’s engagement with open educations resources (OERs); promotion of the service oriented architecture and the e-framework with Australia, New Zealand, the Netherlands and Canada.

Professor Martyn Harrow, chief executive of Jisc said: “We will all greatly miss Sarah’s leadership and vision. Jisc has made tremendous progress through its innovation programmes that has put the UK in a leading position with its use of technology in education and research. We will build on this precious legacy as we move to Jisc’s new future.”

SAGE and AERA to Launch Open Access Journal

May 24, 2013

SAGE and the American Educational Research Association (AERA) announced today that they will launch AERA Open, an online, peer-reviewed journal that will be freely available to all readers on the web. AERA Open is expected to begin publishing articles in early 2014.

“The launch of this innovative effort continues AERA’s leadership in exploring open access publishing,” said AERA Executive Director Felice J. Levine. “Scientific societies are rethinking how to widen access to knowledge. AERA is one of the first societies in the social sciences to introduce an open access journal. We are eager to experiment with change that is valuable and sustainable.”

Currently publishing AERA’s full suite of journals on the association’s behalf, this will be the seventh AERA journal published by SAGE.

“SAGE is committed to the broad dissemination of research and is delighted to be partnering with AERA to publish an openly-available journal that will be of major significance to the education research community,” said Bob Howard, vice president of journals at SAGE. “With rapid online publication of rigorously peer-reviewed articles, this new journal will disseminate quality, innovative education research in new ways.”

As set forth in its mission statement, AERA Open aims to advance knowledge related to education and learning, cumulatively and incrementally. It also seeks to serve as a venue for innovation, novel inquiry and ideas, interdisciplinary bridge building, and research that fosters the connection of research to practice.

Approved by AERA Council at the end of April, the new publication will also use its unbounded space to promote access to data; research instruments, protocols and guides; and other supplemental sources of information that will enhance the value of articles as well as encourage others to pursue research or its application.

As an online journal, AERA Open offers a publishing venue for works in innovative formats, such as video, interactive data tables, and audio recordings that a print format precludes.

“With content freely available and rapid peer review, AERA will reach new readers and audiences worldwide,” said William Cope, who served as chair of the AERA Journal Publications Committee during the development of AERA Open. “Article metrics will be carefully monitored to identify the most valuable research articles.”

In June 2013, AERA will issue a call for the inaugural editor and commence implementation steps for the new journal.

RSC and the Chinese Chemical Society announce unique publishing partnership

May 24, 2013

A unique not-for-profit society partnership signed today between the Chinese Chemical Society (CCS) and the RSC will launch a collection of journals that combine high quality content and fast publication with trusted values of society publishing.

Dr Robert Parker, RSC chief executive, said after today’s signing in China: “These journals, known as the Frontiers journals, aim to publish the very best research from China, Asia and the rest of the world to an international audience.

“This collaboration between CCS and RSC celebrates a new phase in scientific growth, and will provide researchers with unparalleled opportunities for global visibility and international collaboration.”

An integral part of the development of each journal within the collection is collaboration with a top Chinese institute in the relevant field. These partner institutes will strengthen the prestige and scientific knowledge of the initiative. The first two journals and their partner institutes are:

Inorganic Chemistry Frontiers, Peking University, College of Chemistry and Molecular Engineering
Organic Chemistry Frontiers, Shanghai Institute of Organic Chemistry

Each Frontiers journal will be jointly owned by CCS, RSC and the relevant partner institute, with each owner bringing their expertise to the project.

The two journals will publish their first issues in 2014.

Other journals from core chemistry areas will be launched as part of this initiative over the next few months and years.

The long-term aim is for the Frontiers portfolio to become a leading international journal series for the chemical sciences community.

Professor Jiannian Yao, president of the Chinese Chemical Society, said: “As the central science, chemistry will continue its expedition of discovery and creation, providing powerful and reliable support for mankind’s efforts in sustainable development and improving the quality of life.

“China has the largest number of highly educated chemists and is now ranked among the top countries in the world in chemistry research. The number of manuscripts originated in China has sharply increased over the last decade.

“The new Frontiers journals owned by Chinese Chemical Society and our partners will benefit the chemistry community. We are looking forward to kind support from our colleagues.”

Peking University’s Professor Song Gao, Editor-in-Chief, Inorganic Chemistry Frontiers, said:

“It is my great honour and pleasure to be invited to work with RSC and the CCS on the launch of the new inorganic journal.

“This is an important event for our College of Chemistry and Molecular Engineering at Peking University, our aim is to be the outstanding chemistry institute through addressing important challenges, and carrying out research beyond the state-of-the art. Inorganic Chemistry Frontiers will present a global platform on frontiers of inorganic molecule and solid-state chemistry and their biology, materials, and energy applications.”

Professor Shengming Ma, of Shanghai Institute of Organic Chemistry, Editor-in-Chief, Organic Chemistry Frontiers, said:

“Starting from the summer of 2011, we have been looking for a partner to launch a new journal in the field of organic chemistry. Due to the rapid development of organic chemistry in China, it is time for us to do something in scientific publishing in return.

“Now the dream has come true: Chinese Chemical Society and Shanghai Institute of Organic Chemistry will work with RSC Publishing to provide excellent service to the international organic community. As the appointed Editor-in-Chief of Organic Chemistry Frontiers I will do my best to build a top journal.”

EBSCO Publishing and EBSCO Information Services Merge

May 23, 2013

EBSCO Industries, Inc. announces the EBSCO Information Services (EIS) and EBSCO Publishing (EP) businesses will merge on July 1, 2013 and will operate as a single business under the name EBSCO Information Services (EBSCO). Tim Collins, a 26-year EBSCO veteran and previously President of EBSCO Publishing, will serve as President of the combined entity.

Dixon Brooke, EBSCO Industries, Inc. CEO commented, “While the two businesses have worked closely together for the past three decades, they have been pulled even closer together in recent years due to our customers’ desire for more integrated solutions. For example, we are in the process of integrating our popular A-to-Z with LinkSource service, previously operated by EIS, with our industry leading EBSCOhost and EBSCO Discovery Service solutions, operated by EP, for the benefit of librarians and their end users. We believe this merger of divisions will bring many future tangible benefits to our customers.”

Allen Powell, President of the subscription services division of EIS, who will now report to Collins, shared: “Our customers realize that the subscription service business is much more than just processing an order and sending it to a publisher. It is about improving the end users’ experience by maximizing discovery and access, while at the same time reducing our customers’ internal administrative costs. We are excited about this merger, as it facilitates more comprehensive integration of EBSCO’s many access and management tools which we are confident will benefit our customers.” All of EBSCO’s subscription services offices and operations will continue to report to Powell, who has worked for EBSCO for 22 years.

EBSCO continues to grow through increased market share and a constantly expanding suite of products and services. By combining the businesses, the company is emphasizing the importance of tight integration of products and services in order to heighten the overall value and benefit for customers and end users. For example, later this year, EBSCO will be releasing Full Text Finder^™, the replacement to its existing A-to-Z with LinkSource product. While Full Text Finder will continue to be available as a standalone product, it will also be fully integrated into EBSCO’s popular EBSCOhost^® and EBSCO Discovery Service^™ (EDS) product line. As Full Text Finder will be a component of EDS, customers will receive Full Text Finder at no additional charge.

All EBSCOhost customers will be able to manage their holdings via EBSCOadmin’s management module. This same module will be used by Full Text Finder to drive its publication browse and link resolver functionality as well as the full text limiter for EBSCOhost and EDS. Customers who buy their e-journals and e-packages from EBSCO will have the information regarding these purchases automatically populated into the EBSCOadmin holdings module, eliminating administrative time and insuring that users have seamless access to the content. Articles in e-journals and e-packages purchased via EBSCO will automatically be accessible via a single click from EBSCOhost databases and EDS via EBSCO’s industry leading SmartLinks^™ technology.

“The initial integration highlights mentioned above are examples of how we expect this merger to better position us to provide comprehensive offerings to our customers,” commented Tim Collins. “The business will operate under the EBSCO Information Services name as this better describes our overall activities than the name EBSCO Publishing. However, we know that most of our customers know us and refer to us simply as ‘EBSCO’ and this is fine with us. We are still the same company our customers have worked with for more than seventy years.”

New physicsworld.com service helps to connect research with industry

May 23, 2013

Physics Connect, an online innovation service that aims to bridge the gap between academia and industry, has been launched on physicsworld.com.

The new service enables anyone planning a scientific or engineering project to source products, services and expertise from both commercial suppliers and research institutes. Users can search for relevant information, and can also make valuable connections with organizations from all over the world.

Physics Connect was launched after research by the Institute of Physics revealed that hi-tech companies struggle to find out about the services and experimental facilities offered by universities. “A recent report by the UK’s science and technology select committee found that small businesses lack access to large experimental facilities,” said John Brindley, the Institute’s director for membership and business. “We hope that Physics Connect will enhance knowledge exchange and create new partnerships and collaborations between the research and business communities.”

Physics Connect will list thousands of scientific companies, businesses, non-profit organizations, institutions and experts from around the world. Any company or research institution will be able to add their information free of charge.

For more information, go to connect.physicsworld.com

Elsevier Launches Genomics Data App in Collaboration with Illumina

May 23, 2013

Elsevier, a world-leading provider of scientific, medical and technical products and services, announces the launch of the Genomics Data app in collaboration with Illumina, a sequencing and array-based solutions provider for genetics research.

The app allows researchers to share large data sets in Illumina’s BaseSpace cloud, where they can easily be reviewed and included in Elsevier’s open access journal, Genomics Data. The BaseSpace app serves as a gateway, opening data stored in the cloud to the publishing environment for expert peer review and wide dissemination in the form of a professional publication.

“In genomic studies we often generate large data sets of tremendous value. Without a means to publish these data sets and get credit for them, they easily get lost,” said John Quackenbush, Co-Editor-in-Chief of Genomics Data. “By working together with Illumina to develop a reviewing pipeline from BaseSpace to Genomics Data, we’ve created a simple way for researchers to make genomic data accessible to publication in a journal.”

Through BaseSpace, authors and reviewers will also have additional access to analytical tools, further enhancing Genomics Data’s peer review process. This enhanced review option can give an article attached to the data set added credibility because reviewers are in the position to reproduce the analysis that the authors did.

“Uploading genomic data to BaseSpace has reached critical mass. The innovative development of the Genomics Data App demonstrates how Elsevier is able to create new and unique opportunities for researcher collaboration,” said Alex Dickinson, Senior Vice President, Cloud Genomics at Illumina.

To view the app, please register for free on:

https://basespace.illumina.com/apps/144144/Genomics-Data

The Summon Service Expands Global Reach with Content from IOS Press

May 23, 2013

The Summon service continues to expand its coverage of content from around the world through a new agreement with IOS Press. Headquartered in the Netherlands, IOS Press has satellite offices in the USA, Germany and China and joint ventures with publishers in Germany, China and Japan. Serials Solutions will index the full text of more than 100 electronic journals spanning subjects ranging from computer sciences and mathematics to medicine and the natural sciences. The collection includes:

Administrative Sciences
Biochemistry, Medicine & Health
Chemistry
Computer & Communication Sciences
Engineering
Environmental Sciences
Life & Behavioural Sciences
Mathematics/Electronics/Mechanics
Neurosciences
Pediatrics
Physics
Rehabilitation & Assistive Technology
Social Sciences: Economics/Policy/Management
Town planning & Architecture
Transportation Sciences

The new agreement underscores the emphasis Serials Solutions is placing on securing agreements with publishers worldwide in order to make their content discoverable by millions of researchers via the Summon service.

DataSalon launches major new data quality initiative

May 22, 2013

DataSalon have today announced a major new data quality initiative specifically targeted at the needs of scholarly publishers. It comprises a written ‘roadmap’ report to inform publishers’ data quality strategy, and a sophisticated set of data auditing and cleansing tools, to be provided as an extra module within DataSalon’s existing customer insight service MasterVision.

DataSalon have researched and compiled the ‘Data Quality Roadmap’ report as a first step for publishers to make the case for investing in the quality of their customer and related data, and to bring together a wealth of advice and best practice when considering data governance issues. The 50-page report covers all aspects of auditing, reporting and cleansing customer data, as well as documenting best practice in data standards and legislation.

The new data quality module will be fully integrated into MasterVision as an add-on option for MasterVision clients, and will provide comprehensive reporting for every data source a publisher integrates into their single customer view – highlighting a wide range of gaps, errors and inconsistencies. DataSalon will also work with clients to enhance and cleanse their data and track improvements over time.

“Data quality has become an important issue for us and our clients in recent years” commented Nick Andrews, Managing Director of DataSalon. “We already integrate and de-duplicate multiple sources of customer data on behalf of our clients, so extending that service to data quality analysis is a natural next step. We can work with clients to improve the quality of many different data sources in one central place, which is much more efficient than multiple clean-up projects for each separate system.”

BMJ have been working with DataSalon on the beta version of the new module, and were the first client to receive the roadmap report. “BMJ are committed to investing in the quality of our data as an important asset for the entire organisation, and we’re excited by the prospect of working with DataSalon to achieve this,” commented David Hutcheson, Marketing Analysis & Reporting Manager at BMJ. “Addressing data quality via MasterVision provides us with an excellent, cost effective way to audit the current state of our data and to help us decide where we target our resources to drive data quality up.”