Tuesday, August 26, 2025
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RSC journals continue to make a big impact

The Royal Society of Chemistry’s publishing portfolio has once again shown outstanding excellence, with the publication of the latest Impact Factors (IF) report from Thomson Reuters.

Six out of the top 20 multidisciplinary chemistry journals are published by the RSC – more than any other publisher.

And the RSC has more journals than any other publisher in the top 20 for 5-year impact factors, demonstrating that the society is consistently publishing high quality research.

Altogether, more than 30 per cent of RSC journals have an IF greater than 5.000, and more than a quarter of the RSC’s journals are in the top 10 per cent of their ISI category.

Natural Product Reports came out top in both the ‘Chemistry: Medicinal’ and ‘Chemistry: Organic’ categories with a figure of 10.178. Other individual journal highlights include Energy & Environmental Science (11.653), Chemical Science (8.314), Green Chemistry (6.828) and Chemical Communications(6.378).

Meloney Bartlett, the RSC’s head of journal publishing said:  “This year’s results show once again that you can trust RSC journals to consistently deliver high quality content.

“The figures reflect the world-class publishing service we strive to provide to our authors, rapidly delivering cutting-edge chemical science with unparalleled accessibility to researchers throughout the world.

“The results are also a great reflection on the dedication and commitment of our editors, editorial boards and referees, and we thank them for their support.”

Springer Science+Business Media-Hilfsfonds e.V. donates 25,000 euros for flood disaster victims in Germany

Urgently needed funds for rebuilding kindergartens, retirement homes, and institutions for the disabled in the affected regions

In view of the dramatic situation as a result of floods earlier this year in Germany, Springer Science+Business Media has earmarked 25,000 euros in June for people facing hardship through no fault of their own. The money comes from the publishing group’s charity fund Springer Hilfsfonds and was donated to Aktion Deutschland Hilft, Germany’s Relief Coalition, to assist victims of this year’s floods.

“Springer decided to donate this money because we want to assist in the laborious process of overcoming the hardships caused by the floods. We believe that by choosing Aktion Deutschland Hilft, we have found the right relief coalition to put the funds to use swiftly and without a lot of red tape,” Ralph Knüchel, Vice Chairman of the Springer Hilfsfonds, explained.

Aktion Deutschland Hilft was set up in 2001 as a coalition of German relief organizations to provide rapid and professional assistance to the victims of large disasters throughout the world – this time the flood disaster in Germany itself. Clean-up operations have now begun, and the extent of the damage is coming to light. Kindergartens, retirement homes, and institutions for the disabled have suffered extensive damage and need to be repaired as quickly as possible.

“In view of the huge reconstruction tasks, we are extremely grateful for the solidarity being shown in Germany, as reflected by the donation of Springer Science+Business Media, for example,” said Kai Pleuser, who is responsible for business/CSR partnerships at Aktion Deutschland Hilft.

Aktion Deutschland Hilft e.V. is a registered humanitarian relief organization. The coalition was set up in 2001 by ten well-known relief organizations and now has 22 members, who pool their efforts to provide swift and effective assistance in the aftermath of large disasters. The member organizations combine their many years of experience in humanitarian relief work to help enhance the success of their operations.

HighWire Expands eBook Integration with Tizra Partnership

HighWire Press, the leading ePublishing platform for scholarly publishers, is pleased to announce a strategic partnership with Tizra to extend ebook functionality and integration to the HighWire Open Platform.

“HighWire provides an advanced digital publishing platform to help industry-leading scholarly publishers innovate and thrive,” said Tom Rump, Managing Director of HighWire. “We considered many alternatives before selecting Tizra, but concluded that their nimble ebook tools best complemented the HighWire Open Platform, helping us expand our focus on discoverability and creating the most intuitive user experience.”

“Discovery in the ebook environment goes beyond search – it is the end to end path that a reader takes in finding, assessing, and making a decision to invest in a book, whether that investment is time or money,” noted Tara Robenalt, Director of Product Management at HighWire. “With the addition of Tizra’s ebook reader features, HighWire publishers can blend books alongside their e-journals, offering an integrated cross-content solution that falls into the reader’s natural workflow.”

With help from Tizra, HighWire’s expanded ebook solution offers:

* Easy-to-read display, chapter navigation and page views, focusing on the page-turning experience;

* Social sharing options (Twitter, Facebook, bookmarking) at the page level;

* Increased discoverability through search engine optimization and the ability to provide readers with cross-content recommendations;

* Mobile optimization using responsive and adaptive design to support access and viewing on smartphones and tablets;

* Intuitive tools available to editorial staff giving them direct control over content updates.

“HighWire shares our enthusiasm for helping publishers and readers build communities around content,” stated Abe Dane, President and COO of Tizra. “We are extremely excited to work with a leader in digital publishing, whose outstanding technology and services combine with ours to make econtent more valuable and accessible.”

New and improved user interface launched for Zentralblatt MATH

The leading online database for mathematics, Zentralblatt MATH (zbMATH), has launched a redesigned user interface with more intuitive and visual user guidance. The main changes are the simplified search functionalities, in particular the ability to use any combination of criteria, continual refining of the search options, simplified switching between main categories, documents, authors or journals, and the integrated links between the indexed articles and the newly designed database swMATH. In the future the database will be accessible on mobile devices as well.

The online database zbMATH is produced jointly by FIZ Karlsruhe – Leibniz Institute for Information Infrastructure, the Heidelberg Academy of Sciences and Humanities and the European Mathematical Society (EMS). Springer is responsible for the marketing of zbMATH

“The close collaboration between mathematicians throughout the world means the database’s functionalities need to be optimized periodically, and adapted to meet the requirements of the researchers and users,” explained Mario Aigner, planning editor for mathematics and project coordinator of zbMATH at Springer. “The new interface and the improved search and filter options now allow users to harness the full potential of zbMATH, the most comprehensive database for mathematical publications. It offers the perfect combination of comprehensive data, easily findable and specialized information, user-friendly presentation and simple processing of results. The new website truly meets the needs of the scientific community in the 21st century.”

The changes were made following a survey conducted by the EMS in 2012 among zbMATH users. The new website marks the first step in implementing feedback from the surveyed scientists. Additional elements tailored to meet their needs and further components will follow.

The database was first published in 1931 by Springer, and came to be regarded as the most comprehensive and oldest review journal for mathematics. zbMATH is now run as an online resource, and offers a wide variety of services that go far beyond the original concept of a journal, networking the mathematics research community across the globe. The database covers almost the entire mathematics literature, making it the leading publication medium in the discipline. It currently contains three million citations from 3,500 journals and more than 1,100 book series, and 170,000 monographs. zbMATH reflects the current state of research in the field and its development over the past 150 years.

Serials Solutions Expands Dutch Audio-Visual Content in the Summon Service

Serials Solutions, a ProQuest business, has acted on requests to expand discovery of audio-visual content by working with the Netherlands Institute for Sound and Vision (‘Nederlands Instituut voor Beeld en Geluid’) to include the database Academia. One of the largest audio-visual archives in Europe, the institute preserves a major part of the Dutch audio-visual heritage.

Academia is an online database providing access to thousands of hours of video and audio for higher education in the Netherlands with sources selected from the archives of the Dutch Institute for Sound and Vision.  The collection of approximately 60,000 records covering historical and recent television, radio and film material.

The Netherlands Institute for Sound and Vision (‘Nederlands Instituut voor Beeld en Geluid’) is a cultural-historical organization of national interest. It collects, preserves and opens the audiovisual heritage for as many users as possible: media professionals, education, science and the general public. In addition, the institute develops and disseminates knowledge in the area of audiovisual archiving, digitization and media history.

The Summon service makes global content available to scholars worldwide, with an interface available in 32 languages and dialects. It applies native-language searching capabilities and language-tuned relevancy for 17 languages.

Ukrainian research institutions to benefit from broader access to Elsevier content and solutions

Elsevier, a world-leading provider of scientific, technical and medical information products and services, today announced its cooperation with the Ukrainian Ministry of Education and Science in order to provide access to Elsevier’s scientific databases for sixty Ukrainian research institutions.

A Declaration of Intent for Cooperation has been signed by the Ministry of Education and Science and Elsevier. The agreement includes access to Scopus, the largest abstract and citation database of peer-reviewed literature. The Ukrainian Ministry also intends to licenseScienceDirect, Elsevier’s full-text platform for research literature and Elsevier’s SciVal research management solutions, which provide insights into research performance.

“Access to Elsevier content and solutions will allow Ukrainian academics to access the world’s leading research publications to study the outcomes of trustworthy research,” said Mr. Yevhen Sulima, Ukraine’s First Deputy Minister of Education and Science. “In an international context, access to Elsevier databases such as Scopus and ScienceDirect will increase the quality and impact of Ukrainian research.”

Charles Pallandt, Director Sales & Marketing at Elsevier said, “We are honored to be the first international publisher to collaborate extensively with the Ukrainian research community. I am confident the positive impact of expanding access to scientific information will result in increased publication output and will lead to an improved global ranking position.”

Stephen Carter to succeed Peter Rigby as Group Chief Executive of Informa Plc

Informa Plc, the international publishing, business information and events company, today announces that Peter Rigby will retire as Group Chief Executive at the end of 2013. Stephen A. Carter, currently a non-executive board director, will succeed him on 1st January 2014.

Peter Rigby (58) first joined Informa in 1983 and has served as Chief Executive or Executive Chairman since 1988. Under his leadership, Informa has grown from a company valued at a few million pounds to a business with a market capitalisation exceeding £3bn.

Stephen A. Carter (49), who has been an Informa board director since 2010, was formerly President/Managing Director EMEA and President/Managing Director Global Managed Services at Alcatel-Lucent, the telecommunications and technology group. Before joining Alcatel-Lucent, he worked in a number of senior roles in the media and communications sector, including serving a term as the Founding Chief Executive of Ofcom, the UK Communications Industry Regulator.

The orderly leadership transition follows a sustained period of growth at Informa, which now employs more than 7,000 people across its Academic Publishing, Events and Business Information operations.

During his period of office, Peter Rigby designed and implemented a strategy to overhaul the original IBC print publishing business, anticipating the structural shifts underway in the sector. Through a combination of organic investment and several major transactions, he successfully led Informa through the most disruptive era for media companies – transforming it into a first-class digital data, information and events group. It now commands leading global positions across attractive growth markets in academic publishing, business information and exhibitions. In 2012, almost 75% of Informa’s publishing revenue was digital.

The Board of Informa conducted a thorough search process, working with the JCA Group.

Derek Mapp, Chairman, said:

“Informa owes a huge debt of gratitude to Peter, who has devoted a large portion of his career to the group, guiding it from humble beginnings into the leading global media group it is today. His boundless energy, enthusiasm and passionate management style has touched many people during his tenure and reflected in the unique culture prevalent across the group. I am sure that all of Informa’s stakeholders, including employees, shareholders and customers, will join me in thanking him for his enormous contribution to the company.

I am delighted that Peter’s business legacy will be continued by an executive of Stephen Carter’s calibre. The Board was unanimous that Stephen’s UK and international experience, knowledge and strategic understanding of the digital and technology industries, combined with his empathy for Informa’s unique culture and commercial success, made him a natural choice as Peter’s successor.”

Peter Rigby, Chief Executive, said:

“Like all good things, my time at Informa must come to an end. I decided many years ago that I would not overstay my welcome and leaving at the top, under my own terms and with Informa in great shape fulfils that promise to myself. 

Informa has been a major part of my life for the past 30 years, during which time the company has grown and evolved more than I could ever have imagined at the outset. I have enjoyed every minute of it and feel privileged to have been given the opportunity to manage the business over such a long and significant period.

For this, I owe many people a debt of gratitude, but in particular I would like to thank all my colleagues at Informa, both past and present. This is a business that is wholly dependent on the creativity, expertise and tenacity of its staff. This is what has made Informa the business it is today and it is what gives me confidence it will continue to flourish under Stephen’s leadership for many years to come.”

Stephen A. Carter said:

“Informa is a robust and resilient international business, with significant opportunities for growth and further digital innovation.

Peter and the team have built a powerful business. Our responsibility will be to continue the Informa tradition of delivering consistent returns to shareholders.”

Springer celebrates the 1,000th volume of Methods in Molecular Biology

Springer is proud to announce that it has published Vascular Proteomics, the 1,000th volume of Methods in Molecular Biology (MIMB), both part of the SpringerProtocols database. Making this accomplishment even more noteworthy is the fact that the series has had the same editorial direction for its entire 30 years through John Walker, whose name is synonymous with MIMB.

As one of the first series to introduce the step-by-step protocols approach for reproducing laboratory techniques,  MIMB was groundbreaking when it was created, and is a mainstay in labs and colleges across the world. In addition to detailed directions, MIMB was the first to provide a notes section including tips, tricks, shortcuts and troubleshooting advice. So rather than just presenting techniques, guidance from the users themselves is also offered. Finally, each volume focuses on specific sub-disciplines, not just a spattering of general protocols. This makes the series unique due to the depth and focus of each volume.

“Methods in Molecular Biology is a detailed and incredibly useful series for researchers that was one of the first of its kind,” said John Walker. “What we have created in the series is something that I am personally proud of, and I know that the people of Springer share my enthusiasm for this remarkable milestone.”

MIMB was also the impetus behind the creation of the SpringerProtocols product. Making up 90 percent of SpringerProtocols content, MIMB spawned many of the other primary series in the protocols family. The chapter lay out and format from MIMB also served as the template for all other protocols series, which offer up reproducible, tested and trusted laboratory guides for scientists everywhere.

Carolyn Honour, Editorial Director of Biomedicine at Springer, said, “Springer is proud of this 1,000th volume of Methods in Molecular Biology, a series that has served as inspiration for other products and services that we offer to researchers. We are particularly grateful for the careful stewardship that John Walker has afforded over the past 30 years, and we look forward to continuing to grow this valuable and well-respected series.”

Swets introduces Open Access APC management service

As the open access publishing model expands at an increasing rate, new challenges naturally arise for libraries, publishers, funders and researchers. Libraries in particular are having to develop, implement and manage new workflows and procedures across their institutions that are time consuming and resource-heavy. One of the major administrative burdens revolves around Article Processing Charges (APC’s), which are paid to publishers for (Gold) Open Access papers. Swets has introduced a new APC management service in order to address this need directly.

“APC management is costing libraries and institutions more time and resources than is necessary,” said David Main, CEO of Swets. “There’s a direct and urgent need for this service today, and so we’ve worked hard to put solid processes in place at Swets to facilitate this for our customers. Our expertise in handling multiple transactions for thousands of publishers and libraries worldwide make us an ideal partner for those organizations looking to streamline their internal processes in this area.”

Swets aims to reduce the burden on the library by managing the complex APC invoicing and payment processes on their behalf. The service provides APC management for all types of institution:

  • APC fund management options to keep track of spending
  • A single point of contact to handle all publisher relationships
  • A clear, concise way to handle all micro-transactions
  • A means to reduce the number of invoices that need processing
  • Detailed, real-time reporting on the status of all transactions

“Our APC Management service is just our first step into the Open Access arena,” comments David Main.“The differing needs and requirements of the funders, authors, institutions and indeed publishers present additional opportunities for us to help. Swets is committed to working closely with all parties to establish exactly where and how we can effectively support in improving and standardizing OA related workflows.”

Customers interested in Swets’ APC Management service should visit our website, atwww.swets.com/open-access or contact us directly to discuss their requirements.

BioWorld Has Been Acquired by Thomson Reuters

BioWorld and its companion publication Medical Device Daily (MDD) have been acquired by Thomson Reuters, the world’s leading source of intelligent information for businesses and professionals.

We’re interested in joining Thomson Reuters because we believe it will allow us to further invest in innovation and to grow our offerings. As you may know, Thomson Reuters is also the provider of Cortellis. Thomson Reuters CortellisSM is a single source of pharmaceutical intelligence with flexible delivery options for quicker, more-informed decision making.

Bringing the BioWorld portfolio into Thomson Reuters will strengthen our publications by giving our journalists access to all the information Thomson Reuters captures on the industry. The news and industry perspective published by BioWorld and MDD will likewise strengthen the information, analytics and insight Thomson Reuters delivers to its customers.

Customers should be assured that it is business as usual throughout the transition, and that you will continue to enjoy the same great offerings you’ve come to expect from BioWorld and MDD. In addition, as a BioWorld and MDD customer you will benefit from the Thomson Reuters superior service, global resources and rich expertise along with integrated access to a broad range of content including: clinical trials, pharmacology, systems biology, patents, investigational drugs, and conference reports.

Both BioWorld and Thomson Reuters are delighted by this new opportunity.

Springer announces impact factor increases for journals in 2012

Thomson Reuters recently released its Journal Citation Reports® (JCR) for 2012 and, among those journals receiving a first-time impact factor (IF), 46 were Springer publications. This brings the total number of Springer journals with IFs to 1,539, many of which are published on behalf of Springer’s society partners. In addition, the growth in citations among Springer journals was also impressive, with 86 percent of the portfolio’s journal titles having increased their citations. Finally, 55 percent of journals increased their impact factors, another indication of the quality and reach of Springer’s journal publications.

Among the list of journals that received a first-time IF, 21 were open access (OA), including those at BioMed Central. The total number of Springer’s OA journals with an impact factor now stands at 163, which account for a full 41 percent of all open access journals at Springer. These figures further underscore the importance of open access in the world of scientific publishing. This is especially true at Springer, the world’s largest OA publisher.

“Once again we at Springer are pleased with the numbers released in this year’s JCR,” said Peter Hendriks, Springer’s President of STM Publishing. “Not only did our overall numbers grow, but nearly one half of those with new impact factors were open access. This reaffirms the importance of peer-reviewed publications supported by different models, and highlights the commitment that Springer has made to provide high-quality content to researchers and students the world over.”

ProQuest appoints Tony Rummans as VP, Global Sales

ProQuest, US, has announced the appointment of Tony Rummans as Vice President Global Sales. In this role, Rummans will be responsible for leading the Global Sales organisation, helping to drive the strategic transformation of ProQuest’s integrated go-to-market approach.

In addition, Rummans will also serve on the sales, marketing and customer experience leadership team.

Rummans has a rich background of international sales leadership with 30 years’ experience in the information technology industry. He most recently served as Senior Vice President for Americas Software & Solutions Sales at Kofax, a leading provider of smart process applications.

ProQuest is celebrating the 75th anniversary of microfilm and the legacy of innovations that have supported researchers and librarians for more than a century. The launch of University Microfilms, Inc. (UMI) introduced a new era for libraries, enabling preservation and sharing of large document collections.

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