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OCLC Completes Transfer of Licensed Databases to EBSCO Publishing

OCLC has transferred to EBSCO Publishing(EBSCO) the rights to license publisher-owned databases that are currently available through the OCLC FirstSearch reference service. This transaction is intended to complete the cooperative’s transition out of the role of content reseller. OCLC is focusing on management and access to libraries’ full collections through the OCLC WorldShare Platform.

In March 2010, EBSCO acquired the NetLibrary Division of OCLC as well as the rights to license a select number of publisher-owned databases available through FirstSearch. The current transaction completes the transfer of OCLC’s rights to license publisher-owned databases on FirstSearch that began under the 2010 agreement.

EBSCO has agreed to host, distribute and support these licensed databases, and plans to load the databases and begin providing access to users on EBSCOhost®. OCLC and EBSCO are working together to ensure a smooth transition for users, and uninterrupted service for customers.

FirstSearch remains part of OCLC’s discovery and delivery services. As these services become part of the OCLC WorldShare Platform, FirstSearch users will see improved integration and workflows. OCLC will continue to provide access to WorldCat and other databases published by OCLC, such as ArticleFirst, OCLC WorldCat Dissertations and Theses, SCIPIO and Electronic Books.

“OCLC’s strategy is to provide a neutral platform that libraries can rely on to manage and offer access to their collections,” said Chip Nilges, OCLC Vice President, Business Development. “Instead of hosting and reselling content, we want to partner with content providers so that we can incorporate their collections into the OCLC WorldShare Platform, help our members automate their collection workflows, and improve access to content.”

The OCLC WorldShare Platform is a global, interconnected Web architecture that supports OCLC’s Webscale services and applications, and provides flexible, open access to library data through APIs and other Web services. Library service and content providers, like EBSCO, can offer libraries access to their content and services through the OCLC WorldShare Platform.

OCLC started the FirstSearch service in the early 1990s, which shifted the model from mediated to patron accessible online reference services. Much of the content available on the FirstSearch service was licensed from publishers or database providers. “Today, content reselling is a mature business and is best done by companies that specialize in the field.  Libraries will be better served by EBSCO, one of the leading service providers in the field,” said Mr. Nilges.
OCLC has agreed to assign to EBSCO the hosting contracts for the following databases:

  • Anthropological Index
  • Anthropological Literature
  • Anthropology Plus
  • Avery Index to Architectural Periodicals
  • Chicano database
  • FRANCIS
  • Heritage of the Printed Book (formerly Hand Press Book)
  • History of Science, Technology and Medicine
  • Index to 19th-Century American Art Periodicals
  • Russian Academy of Sciences Bibliographies

Senior Vice President of Business Development at EBSCO Publishing, Mark Herrick, says the databases involved will fit in nicely with the current database offerings from EBSCO Publishing. “These databases from FirstSearch will both complement and augment the databases available on EBSCOhost. Since EBSCOhost is the most-used research platform, we expect a smooth transition for libraries and their end users.”

Offering these resources on EBSCOhost is in line with EBSCO’s approach to making available the highest quality subject indexes. Customers of EBSCO Discovery Service™ (EDS) who subscribe to these databases on EBSCOhost will be able to leverage EBSCO’s unique Platform Blending technology to infuse results from these databases into their EDS experience.

London Book Fair 2012

Now in its 41st year, The London Book Fair continues to be the global market place for rights negotiation and the sales and distribution of content across print, audio, TV, film and digital channels.

With over 250 seminars and events, 1,500,000 international exhibiting companies and 24,500 publishing professionals, The London Book Fair encompasses the broad spectrum of the publishing industry.

Register to attend and join us at Earls Court, London from the 16th – 18th April for The London Book Fair 2012. 

JISC announces new structure to reshape for the future

Today JISC is announcing how, by bringing the leadership from across JISC into a more cohesive structure supported and enabled by the creation of a legal entity, it will reshape itself for the future.

“This is the start of an exciting future for JISC,” said Professor Martyn Harrow, Head of JISC. “We are determined to continue and develop our crucial role in supporting UK colleges and universities and skills providers, keep at the forefront of best practice. This has never been more important than now at a time of tighter funding and unprecedented challenges to the sectors.”

The changes are designed to provide a firm footing for the organisation as it responds to the recommendations made in the Wilson Review in JISC which was published in February 2011. The Review was commissioned by the Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE) in response to the current economic environment looking at the value of JISC.

“It was important that we take the time to study the recommendations made by Wilson,” continued Professor Harrow. “We therefore set up a Transition Group, made up of expert representatives from across the communities that we serve to go through the Wilson report in detail.  The Group, so ably and skilfully led by Professor David Baker, Deputy Chair of JISC, has provided recommendations that will help us secure a better and more sustainable future for JISC and the sectors we serve.”

One of the first changes will see JISC will become a company limited by guarantee on 1 August 2012 managing the JISC offering across its products and services.  The new company’s primary focus will be on three distinct areas for UK education and research:

•    Infrastructure services:  networks, access management, cloud services
•    Data and content services: procurement, data hosting, data management and interoperability
•    JISC Futures/Solution Services: focussed on supporting education, students, research, and the running of institutions as businesses

JISC will be set up initially as a holding (parent) company and following this, step by step, the current elements of JISC will be brought into this new company structure.

Professor Harrow said, “While it is too early to detail of all the changes, we can say with certainty that our guiding principle will be to ensure that the new model for JISC meets the needs of all our stakeholders.  Our challenge is to do the same, or more, with less, but I am determined that the changes will not compromise our record of providing excellent services to UK colleges, universities and skills providers. It is very clear to me that JISC itself must change if we are to meet the challenges that all our sectors are facing, and we must create a new JISC for new times.”

E-book consumers drive sales via apps and online retailers, says BISG Study

E-book consumers are increasing their purchase of books — both print and e-book formats — online and especially through in-app purchasing, and decreasing their use of brick-and-mortar stores, according to the Book Industry Study Group (BISG)’s closely watched Consumer Attitudes Toward E-Book Reading survey. The first installment in Volume Three of the survey reveals that more than half of e-book readers increased their use of apps to purchase books and more than one-third increased their use of general retail websites such as Amazon.com. The gains for these digital vendors come at the expense of brick and mortar bookstores, even independents. More than a third of e-book buyers decreased their spending at national chains and 29% said they are buying less from their local indie.

“The e-book market is developing very quickly, with consumer attitudes and behavior changing over the course of months, rather than years,” said Angela Bole, BISG’s Deputy Executive Director. “One of the strengths of this study is its ability to monitor ‘Power Buyers.’ They are predictors of where the market is moving, providing us with an ideal opportunity to look at what’s coming next.”

The BISG study, which is conducted by Bowker Market Research, follows Power Buyers (those who acquire e-books at least weekly) closely for their ability to act as predictors of overall consumer behavior. The latest installment of Consumer Attitudes Toward E-Book Reading shows a rosy outlook for publishing, with nearly three-quarters of e-book Power Buyers purchasing more titles overall. Further, nearly half of Power Buyers had more total spending on books in all formats.

Findings also show that while dedicated e-readers remain the dominant e-reading platform, especially among Power Buyers, multi-function tablet devices and smartphones are gaining in popularity. Consumer Attitudes Toward E-Book Reading results show:

  • Almost 17% of respondents indicated that tablets were the devices most used to read e-books — up from 13% in the previous survey.
  • Respondents who preferred smartphones jumped from 5.3% to 9.2%.
  • Dedicated e-readers were preferred by 60.9% of all respondents, down from 71.6% in the previous survey.

 

Since November 2009, Consumer Attitudes Toward E-Book Reading has been tracking the habits and preferences of book consumers who say they have acquired an e-book or a dedicated e-reading device within the past 18 months. Volume Three is sponsored by Baker & Taylor, Barnes & Noble, and Harlequin.

Consumer Attitudes Toward E-Book Reading is powered by Bowker Market Research. In addition to quarterly PDF Summary Reports, Volume Three of Consumer Attitudes Toward E-Book Reading is published as a dynamic online report via Real-Time Reporting: a unique web-based tool set displaying the raw data derived from responses — drillable and sortable, with on-demand accessibility.

Data for Consumer Attitudes Toward E-Book Reading was derived from a nationally representative panel of book consumers (men, women and teens). Each month a new group of more than 6,000 respondents complete surveys about their book purchasing behavior for Bowker Market Research. Out of more than 72,000 possible panelists drawn from the last 10 months, respondents were qualified for the BISG e-book survey by indicating they had either purchased a “digital book or e-book” or owned a dedicated e-reading device (such as Kindle, NOOK, or Sony Reader). The resulting sample size for the survey was 1,036, an increase from prior fieldings.

The survey findings are available for sale both as a PDF Summary Report and as a complete data compendium, accessible online. A substantial discount is available for BISG members. For more information, or to order a copy of Consumer Attitudes Toward E-Book Reading, visit www.bisg.org/publications/product.php?p=19&c=437.

Springer adds six new clinical review journals to its medicine portfolio

Springer is adding six new quarterly clinical review journals to its existing medicine portfolio in March 2012. These new journals will expand the publisher’s medical specialty coverage, focusing on dermatology, geriatrics/gerontology, nutrition, obesity, obstetrics/gynecology and respiratory care. Editorial responsibilities will be carried out at the Springer Philadelphia office.

William F. Curtis, Executive Vice President of Clinical Medicine, Biomedicine and Life Sciences at Springer, said, “We are excited to be adding these titles to an already strong portfolio of review journals, and honored to be working with such a distinguished group of editors-in-chief who will oversee their development.”

The six new review journals will help physicians keep up to date with a rapidly growing quantity of medical information. Editors-in-chief will specify each journal’s thematic structure, tapping international authorities as section editors and expert authors as contributors. Each of the 28 comprehensive review articles published per volume will feature annotated reference lists that highlight new developments and recently published papers of major importance. International editorial boards will ensure that topics are current and include emerging research.

Current Dermatology Reports reviews significant topics in dermatology such as epidemiology, surgery, pharmacology, clinical trial design and pediatrics. The editor-in-chief, Dr. Kim Papp of the University of Western Ontario, London, Canada, has conducted more than 1,700 clinical trials and authored or co-authored nearly 200 publications and abstracts.

Current Obesity Reports highlights the emerging body of interdisciplinary, obesity-related research. The editor-in-chief, Dr. Angelo Tremblay of Laval University, Canada, is an internationally renowned obesity researcher and one of the most highly cited authors in the field.

Current Obstetrics and Gynecology Reports presents recent clinical advances in diagnostic and management techniques pertaining to conditions affecting women, such as endometriosis, infertility, menopause, prenatal medicine and vulval and cervical lesions. The editor-in-chief Dr. Ie-Ming Shih is a professor at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, USA, the top-ranked gynecology center in the United States

Current Nutrition Reports covers emerging concepts regarding the influence of nutrition on diabetes, cardiovascular disease, cancer and obesity, as well as the impact of nutrition on genetics, metabolic function and public health. Research conducted by editor-in-chief Dr. Luc Djoussé of Harvard Medical School and Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Boston, USA, focuses on nutrition and genetic factors, as well as the interaction between both on cardiovascular disease risk.

Current Respiratory Care Reports offers timely clinical reviews of recent publications on the assessment, treatment and management of patients with respiratory-related disorders, such as interstitial lung disease, interventional pulmonology, lung cancer, pleural diseases and mesothelioma. Editor-in-chief Dr. Ali Musani is professor at National Jewish Health in Denver, USA, the top-ranked pulmonology institution in the United States.

Current Translational Geriatrics and Experimental Gerontology Reports serves clinicians and researchers who care for patients affected by age-related conditions, including change in cognitive function, the influence of genetics on neurodegenerative disorders, traumatic brain injury and dementia. Dr. Giulio Maria Pasinetti and Dr. Jun Wang are co-editors-in-chief, and both are from Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York, USA, the top-ranked geriatrics institution in the United States.

Cambridge University Press acquires 19 Australian Academic Press journals

Cambridge University Press and Australian Academic Press (AAP) are pleased to announce that Cambridge has acquired the AAP journals list. The AAP list, consisting of 19 titles either owned by AAP or published on behalf of several Learned Societies, expands and complements Cambridge’s existing journals portfolio of over 300 academic and professional journals.

The AAP journals are internationally recognised, peer-reviewed titles which specialise in psychology, neuropathology, rehabilitation and behavioural science. They proudly showcase Australian and New Zealand content alongside international contributions and several specialise in research within the geographical area of Australasia and the Pacific.

Simon Ross, Managing Director of Cambridge Journals at Cambridge University Press said: “We are delighted to be taking on the AAP journals which are a welcome addition to our expanding journals publishing programme. We’ve recently been building on our long established profile in Asia and Australasia, where our Australian office was founded in 1969, and the AAP list gives us an additional platform in this increasingly dynamic region. We welcome the AAP journals wholeheartedly and look forward to working closely with our new colleagues.”

Stephen May, Publisher and owner of AAP and President of the Australian Publishers Association, said: “As well as surpassing the business expectations laid down by AAP, Cambridge University Press was also chosen because it provides stability and scholarship-friendly principles. We felt Cambridge offered an attractive alternative for our Partner Societies, and we were also confident that the whole list, including titles owned and developed by AAP, would be in good hands.”

On the subject of AAP’s future direction, Amanda Hearn, Marketing and Sales Manager at AAP said: “This sale reflects AAP’s refocused strategy to further strengthen our position as a premier provider of psychological resources for both practitioners and their clients, as well as a niche academic publisher of high quality books and monographs distributed worldwide, both online and in print.”

For Cambridge this acquisition further demonstrates an ongoing commitment to Journals publishing, which has seen the journal’s business expand by over 54% in the past four years. The future will see continued emphasis on building an even stronger STM list to complement the world-leading and expanding HSS Journals list already published by Cambridge.

Cambridge will continue to publish the AAP list with current editors and Societies with immediate effect starting with all 2012 volumes.

Below is the list of the 19 titles acquired by Cambridge:

Australian and New Zealand Journal of Family Therapy:http://journals.cambridge.org/AFT

Behaviour Change: http://journals.cambridge.org/BEC

Brain Impairment: http://journals.cambridge.org

The Australian Educational and Development Psychologist: http://journals.cambridge.org/EDP

International Journal of Disability Management: http://journals.cambridge.org/IDM

Australian Journal of Guidance and Counselling: http://journals.cambridge.org/JGC

The Australian Journal of Rehabilitation Counselling: http://journals.cambridge.org/JRC

Journal of Relationships Research: http://journals.cambridge.org/JRR

Journal of Smoking Cessation: http://journals.cambridge.org/JSC

Journal of Tropical Psychology: http://journals.cambridge.org/JTP

Journal of Pacific Rim Psychology: http://journals.cambridge.org/PRP

Twin Research and Human Genetics: http://journals.cambridge.org/THG

Australian Journal of Environmental Education: http://journals.cambridge.org/AEE

Children Australia: http://journals.cambridge.org/CHA

Journal of Hospitality and Tourism Management: http://journals.cambridge.org/JHT

The Australian Journal of Indigenous Education: http://journals.cambridge.org/JIE

Australiasian Journal of Special Education: http://journals.cambridge.org/JSE

The Australian and New Zealand Journal of Organisational Psychology: http://journals.cambridge.org/ORP

Queensland Review: http://journals.cambridge.org/QRE

Wiley-Blackwell Adds 44 Titles to Journal Publishing Program in 2012

Wiley-Blackwell, the Scientific, Technical, Medical, and Scholarly publishing business of John Wiley & Sons, Inc., will begin publishing 44 titles new to its journal program, including 16 new launches and 40 journals published in collaboration with societies or other organizations.

Brand new titles publishing on Wiley Online Library over the course of 2012 include Advanced Healthcare Materials, PsyCH Journal (published with the Institute of Psychology, Chinese Academy of Sciences), Clinical Liver Disease (published with The American Association for the Study of Liver Diseases), Food and Energy Security (a Wiley Open Access title in partnership with the Association of Applied Biologists) and the open access title Journal of the American Heart Association: Cardiovascular and Cerebrovascular Disease.

Of the 44 titles, 28 are moving to Wiley-Blackwell from other publishers or from self-publication and these include ten journals from the American Counseling Association, three titles from the International Reading Association, two journals from TESOL International Association, ChemPlusChem (published in collaboration with ChemPubSoc, 16 European Chemical Societies), European Journal of Pain (published with European Federation of IASP® (International Association for the Study of Pain) Chapters (EFIC®)), Chemistry & Industry (the magazine of the Society of Chemical Industry) and Biology of the Cell (published with Société Française des Microscopies and Société Biologie Cellulaire de France).

“It is exciting that 2012 sees so many of our additional journals published in partnership with societies and other groups. I feel particularly honored that Wiley-Blackwell has been selected as publisher of these important titles. We look forward to working with our new partners,” says Steven Miron, SVP, Wiley-Blackwell.

Eight of the new launches this year will be open access titles, joining a further six journals in the Wiley Open Access program. Wiley Open Access is a new program of fully open access journals publishing primary research across a variety disciplines. A full list of journals is available at www.wileyopenaccess.com. Wiley also publishes over 700 hybrid journals which offer OnlineOpen for authors who wish to make their article available to non-subscribers on publication, or whose funding agency requires grantees to archive the final version of their article.

JISC online webinars help your organisation become more efficient and effective

How to gain the best value from journal subscriptions? JISC offers library managers and librarians advice in the first of a number of interactive online seminars this spring.

The webinar on 29 February at 13.30 will offer a practical demonstration of the Journal Usage Statistics Portal (JUSP), a ‘one-stop shop’ for academic libraries to download and analyse their journal usage.

Jo Lambert, senior development officer at Mimas and Angela Conyers of Evidence Base will highlight the time and cost saving benefits you can achieve by using JUSP to manage your usage statistics.

Using open source software could also improve the efficiency of your organisation, so the team from OSS Watchwill be leading the following two webinars in March.

The first webinar will offer advice to open source project managers on how to increase the chances of sustainable community engagement in your project.

The second webinar will discuss how to increase the longevity and sustainability of your academic project or research outputs by choosing the right open source licence.

Future webinars will explore how to increase citations of your research data, extend your Virtual Learning Environment for the benefit of students and access and use a wealth of free online moving images and sound to enhance your teaching and research.

OCLC in deal with publishers to add more content and collections to WorldCat Local

OCLC has signed new agreements with leading publishers around the world and has added important new content and collections to WorldCat Local, the OCLC discovery and delivery service that offers users integrated access to more than 922 million items.

WorldCat Local offers access to books, journals and databases from a variety of publishers and content providers from around the world; the digital collections of groups like HathiTrust and Google Books; open access materials, such as the OAIster collection; and the collective resources of libraries worldwide through WorldCat.
WorldCat Local is available as a stand-alone discovery and delivery service, and as part of OCLC WorldShare Management Services. Through WorldCat Local, users have access to more than 1,700 databases and collections, and more than 650 million articles.
OCLC recently signed agreements with the following content providers to add important new collections—including some searchable full text—to WorldCat Local, WorldCat.org and OCLC WorldShare Management Services:

  • Alexander Street Press, based in the United States, brings together the skills of traditional publishing, librarianship, and software development to create quality electronic collections. Alexander Street Press will provide metadata and full text to centrally index 30 databases through WorldCat Local, WorldCat.org and OCLC WorldShare Management Services. A few of the databases included in the agreement are American Song, Contemporary World Music, and Alexander Street Literature.
  • Brepols Publishers, based in Belgium, is an international academic publisher of works in the humanities. Brepols will be providing OCLC with books and journals, both metadata and full-text, for inclusion in WorldCat.org, WorldCat Local and OCLC WorldShare Management Services.
  • Elsevier, based in the Netherlands, a leading global provider of scientific, technical and medical (STM) information products and services, will make the full text from Elsevier’s SciVerse ScienceDirect journals and e-books available to users of OCLC’s WorldCat Local and OCLC WorldShare Management Services. Metadata from the SciVerse ScienceDirect will also be exposed in WorldCat.org.
  • IOP Publishing, based in the United Kingdom, provides publications through which leading-edge scientific research is distributed worldwide. IOP is part of the Institute of Physics, a leading scientific society promoting physics and bringing physicists together for the benefit of all. IOP will provide journal metadata to OCLC for inclusion into WorldCat Local, WorldCat.org and OCLC WorldShare Management Services.
  • Nordic Council of Ministers (Norden), based in Denmark, is a collaboration of countries involving Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden as well as the three autonomous areas, the Faroe Islands, Greenland and the Åland Islands. Norden will be providing metadata to OCLC for dictionaries, educational material, image databases, maps and other online resources related to the Nordic Region and Nordic co-operation. This metadata will be included in WorldCat Local and OCLC WorldShare Management Services.
  • The Philosophy Documentation Center, located in the United States, is a non-profit organization dedicated to providing affordable access to materials in applied ethics, classics, philosophy, and religious studies. Its E-Collection (including POIESIS: Philosophy Online Serials) contains journals, book series, conference proceedings, and other publications in applied ethics, philosophy, religious studies, and related disciplines. This collection includes titles produced in cooperation with professional associations, research centers, and publishers in several countries. The Philosophy Documentation Center is providing metadata and full text to OCLC for inclusion in WorldCat Local, WorldCat.org and OCLC WorldShare Management Services.
  • Rock’s Backpages, based in the United Kingdom, is the ultimate archive of music journalism, which includes thousands of articles from Aaliyah to ZZ Top, by the finest rock writers of the last 50 years. Rock’s Backpages will provide article level metadata to OCLC for inclusion into WorldCat Local and OCLC WorldShare Management Services. Free content will be made available through WorldCat.org.
  • Royal Society of Chemistry’s RSC Publishing division, based in the United Kingdom, provides a broad range of resources for the scientific community including Books/eBooks, databases, journals and magazines. With a significant increase in international contributions (over 50% growth in journal articles in 2011), RSC Publishing offers high impact content (average Impact Factor of 5.4) in chemical sciences; energy and environmental sciences; food science; medicinal chemistry and biomolecular sciences; and nano, polymers and materials science. RSC Publishing will be providing OCLC with eBook and journal article level metadata and full text for indexing purposes. The data will be included in all OCLC products and services including WorldCat, WorldCat.org, WorldCat Local and OCLC WorldShare Management Services.
  • The Taylor & Francis Group, based in the United Kingdom, partners with researchers, scholarly societies, universities and libraries worldwide to bring knowledge to life. As one of the world’s leading publishers of scholarly journals, books, ebooks and reference works, Taylor & Francis content spans all areas of Humanities, Social Sciences, Science and Technology. Taylor & Francis will be providing metadata for all of their journals and books. The data will be included in all OCLC products and services.
  • Sabinet, based in South Africa, has been a leader in facilitating access to electronic information for more than 27 years. Sabinet has increased their partnership with OCLC to allow OCLC to centrally index their full text for the metadata currently in WorldCat Local for the SAE Publications.

New content recently added to the WorldCat Local central index includes:

  • Berkeley Electronic Press
  • CAB eBooks
  • CAB Reviews
  • CAB Reviews Archive
  • IEEE, now with full text
  • IET Publications Database
  • Inspec
  • Marquis Who’s Who
  • M.E. Sharpe eBooks
  • M.E. Sharpe Journals
  • Oxford Art Online
  • Oxford Music Online
  • Religious and Theological Abstracts
  • U. S. Law Reviews and Journals

 

Vendor record collections now available in the WorldCat Local central index and to WorldCat Local “quick start” libraries:

  • HeinOnline American Law Institute Library
  • HeinOnline Bar Journals
  • OECD iLibrary

OCLC continues to negotiate access to critical library content on behalf of the cooperative to ensure access to libraries’ most popular resources. A complete list of databases and collections available through WorldCat Local from these and other publishers is available online.
For more information, visit the WorldCat Local website.

Wiley-Blackwell Launches Two Interdisciplinary Review Publications in Developmental and Membrane Biology

Wiley-Blackwell, the scientific, technical, medical and scholarly publishing business of John Wiley & Sons, Inc., has launched two new interdisciplinary review publications:WIREs Developmental Biology and WIREs Membrane Transport and Signaling.

WIREs Developmental Biology will focus on how single cells and fertilized eggs produce a complex, fully patterned adult organism. Edited by John C. Gerhart (University of California, Berkeley), Gail R. Martin (University of California, San Francisco) and Eric F. Wieschaus (Princeton University), this new resource is published in partnership with theSociety for Developmental Biology (SDB).

WIREs Membrane Transport and Signaling will explore the regulated transport of molecules through cell membranes and the transmission of extracellular signals by cellular receptors. Both are essential processes for cell survival and cell-cell communication. The publication is edited by Alexej Verkhratsky (The University of Manchester) and Maiken Nedergaard (Center for Translational Neuromedicine, University of Rochester).

Wiley Interdisciplinary Reviews, known as WIREs, are unique hybrids of encyclopedias and journals which emphasise the importance of interdisciplinary collaboration in research and education.

Each title provides authoritative, encyclopaedic coverage of diverse scientific fields with high-quality reviews commissioned from international expert contributors. Each review article is fully citable and qualifies for abstracting, indexing and ISI ranking.

The WIREs model is built around four article types:

•Overviews provide broad, relatively non-technical treatment of a core issue.
•Advanced Reviews are aimed at researchers and advanced students, surveying the literature in a fashion similar to a standard review journal.
•Opinions express a particular view on a topic that is under current debate.
•Focus Articles are more technical in nature, homing in on specific examples and implementations of research.

“Developmental biology is intrinsically interdisciplinary, combining embryology, cell biology, genetics, physiology, evolutionary biology, and more. Our affiliation with WIREs will help advance the SDB mission to foster excellence in research and education through communication of key advances in the field,” said Ida Chow, Executive Officer of the Society for Developmental Biology.

“We have had a very positive response to the WIREs publishing model from the scientific community,” said Sean Pidgeon, Wiley-Blackwell Vice President and Publisher of Life Science Review and Reference Works. “The launch of these two new titles will powerfully reinforce the role of the WIREs in promoting interdisciplinary communication and collaboration.”

Access to both WIREs titles is free for the first two years. Register here.

Bloomsbury Publishing selects Publishers Communication Group to represent Churchill Archive and Drama Online

Leading independent publisher Bloomsbury and industry consultancy Publishers Communication Group (PCG) today announce an exclusive sales, marketing and customer service partnership for Bloomsbury’s two newest ventures, the Churchill Archive and Drama Online.  The two digital collections will launch during 2012 under the Bloomsbury Academic imprint of the London-based literary and reference publisher.

Specializing in the humanities and social sciences, Bloomsbury Academic publishes more than 1,000 books each year, maintains a backlist of about 20,000 titles, and is aggressively expanding its online portfolio of digital resources with collections such as Berg Fashion Library, Churchill Archive and Drama Online.

With this agreement, PCG continues to grow its program of full-service global representation for scholarly publishers. By leveraging local networks in Europe, North America, Latin America, India and China, PCG will execute sales and multi-channel marketing programs, as well as manage all library-facing customer service and fulfillment duties for these two collections.

The Churchill Archive makes accessible nearly one million documents amassed by Winston S. Churchill throughout his life.  Published electronically in collaboration with the Sir Winston Churchill Archive Trust and Churchill Heritage Ltd, and previously only available on microfilm, the collection is designed as a research and teaching resource documenting Churchill’s engagement in national and international affairs over six decades of public life as soldier, journalist, wartime leader and historian.  Drama Online aggregates the most studied, performed and critically acclaimed plays from the last two and half thousand years from the Methuen Drama, Arden Shakespeare and Faber lists.   The collection meets the full range of drama teaching needs, incorporating critical analysis, contextual information, performance and practitioner texts from theory to backstage and acting guides coupled with video and audio material.

Douglas Wright, Director of PCG commented: “We are excited to work with Bloomsbury on these prestigious, groundbreaking collections. Both the Churchill Archive and Drama Online are ambitious projects, and we are uniquely positioned with the necessary global infrastructure, cross-functional expertise and library connections to deliver this valuable content to educators, students and researchers of 20th century history and theatre studies around the world.”

Jonathan Glasspool, Managing Director of Bloomsbury Academic said “We are really looking forward to working with PCG to make these fabulous resources available to as wide a market as possible.”

Elsevier withdraws support for Research Works Act

By Chrysanne Lowe

Vice President Marketing Communications

At Elsevier, we have always focused on serving the global research community and ensuring the best possible access to research publications and data. In recent weeks, our support for the Research Works Act has caused some in the community to question that commitment.

We have heard expressions of support from publishers and scholarly societies for the principle behind the legislation. However, we have also heard from some Elsevier journal authors, editors and reviewers who were concerned that the Act seemed inconsistent with Elsevier’s long-standing support for expanding options for free and low-cost public access to scholarly literature. That was certainly not our intention in supporting it. This perception runs counter to our commitment to making published research widely accessible, coming at a time when we continue to expand our access options for authors and develop advanced technologies to enable the sharing and distribution of research results.

We welcome indications that key research funders are more willing to talk to publishers to explore collaborative approaches. This is a good sign because we firmly believe that more cooperation and partnership between funders and publishers is the best way to expand free public access.

While we continue to oppose government mandates in this area, Elsevier is withdrawing support for the Research Work Act itself. We hope this will address some of the concerns expressed and help create a less heated and more productive climate for our ongoing discussions with research funders.

Cooperation and collaboration are critical because different kinds of journals in different fields have different economics and models. Inflexible mandates that do not take those differences into account and do not involve the publisher in decision making can undermine the peer-reviewed journals that serve an essential purpose in the research community. Therefore, while withdrawing support for the Research Works Act, we will continue to join with those many other nonprofit and commercial publishers and scholarly societies that oppose repeated efforts to extend mandates through legislation.

We are ready and willing to work constructively and cooperatively to continue to promote free and low-cost public access through a variety of means, as we have with research funders and other partners around the world.

Publication date: 27 February 2012

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