Cell Press titles post impressive impact factors

July 5, 2011

Whether it’s the established, leading journals, or the youngest rising stars, when it comes to impact factors Cell Press has delivered a top class performance, once again.

Cell Press is delighted to announce that its flagship journal Cell’s 2010 impact factor increased to 32.401 according to new data released in the Journal Citation Reports© published by ThomsonReuters (2010). The impact factor for Cell, the number one research journal in Cell Biology and Biochemistry & Molecular Biology, has climbed steadily over the last 5 years. Also from the June 28^th report, the 2010 impact factor for Immunity is 24.221, an impressive 18% increase over last year.

Among Cell Press’s more recent suite of journal launches focusing on translational biomedical areas, Cancer Cell delivered another strong performance increasing by almost 7% to 26.925. Rising stars Cell Stem Cell and Cell Host & Microbe continue to grow from strength to strength in their third year of impact factors with Cell Stem Cell rising to 25.943 and Cell Host & Microbeincreasing to 13.728.

The 14 Trends review titles which joined Cell Press in 2007, also demonstrated significant increases in a number of subject areas. Leading lights include Trends in Biotechnology which grew 40% to 9.644, Trends in Ecology & Evolution which increased by 25% to 14.448, Trends in Genetics which increased by 31% to 11.364 and Trends in Endocrinology and Metabolism which increased by 29% to 8.479.

“We are delighted that the work published in Cell Press journals continues to be valued by the scientific community and to have a high impact in advancing new discoveries. Our sincere thanks go out to all the Cell Press authors and reviewers who have helped make this possible” said Emilie Marcus, Editor-in-Chief of Cell Press and Editor of Cell. “We’ve worked hard to deliver fast, fair and informed editorial services and to maintain our commitment to publishing the highest quality science while investing in new and improved services for our authors and readers, such as new online article formats and mobile applications. We will continue to put the best science and innovation at the heart of everything we do.”

To read more about the 2010 impact factors from Cell Press go to www.cell.com/cellpress/impact

PLoS ONE named as the new SPARC Innovator

July 1, 2011

Public Library of Science changes the face of open-access publishing, again

Washington, DC – For blazing a new trail in open-access journals, inspiring broader change in scholarly publishing, and thriving along the way, SPARC (the Scholarly Publishing and Academic Resources Coalition) has named the Public Library of Science’s (PLoS) PLoS ONE as the SPARC Innovator for June 2011.

Launched in 2006 by the San Francisco- and Cambridge-based non-profit publisher, PLoS ONE is an interdisciplinary journal and groundbreaking new model in which editors and reviewers do not assess the potential importance of the work submitted before publication. Instead, if the research is found solid, the author pays a flat fee and up it goes on the Web.

As when they launched PLoS in 2000, co-founders Pat Brown, Michael Eisen, and Harold Varmus considered the situation as scientists, this time frustrated by time wasted submitting, revising, and resubmitting papers. They aimed to eliminate the hassle of traditional journal publishing and help to get out research deemed worthy of joining the scientific literature through a set of objective criteria. Once vetted by their peers in this simplified approach, authors pay $1,350 per article and are published.

The innovative new model has led to tremendous success for PLoS ONE – from both publishing and financial perspectives – and for the Public Library of Science. In 2010, PLoS ONE published 6,800 articles – as compared to 1,200 in 2007 – and became self-sustaining. In four years, this one journal has become the largest peer-reviewed journal in existence; and, on its current trajectory, PLoS ONE could be publishing 3 percent of all biomedical literature in 2012. The Public Library of Science is now the world’s largest not-for-profit open-access journal publisher.

“PLoS ONE is a game-changer,” said Heather Joseph, executive director of SPARC (the Scholarly Publishing and Academic Resources Coalition). “It breaks through the preconception that authors – and readers – require a journal to determine the significance of scientific research, and demonstrates that the community is ready and willing to take on that role.”

For details on how the Public Library of Science scales the PLoS ONE model and how other top publishers have been inspired to adopt the concept, read the full June 2011 SPARC Innovator Profile at http://www.arl.org/sparc/innovator.

Sarah Durrant announced as Chief Executive of ALPSP

July 1, 2011

ALPSP, the international trade association for scholarly and professional publishers, announces Sarah Durrant is new Chief Executive.

The Association of Learned and Professional Society Publishers (ALPSP) is delighted to announce the appointment of Sarah Durrant as Chief Executive. With members in 40 countries, ALPSP represents the scholarly and professional publishing industry to stakeholders and policy makers around the globe, provides a wealth of information and advice, best practice leadership and a variety of professional development and networking activities.

Sarah brings to ALPSP more than twenty years experience in scholarly publishing gained in a variety of roles at major publishing houses and related organizations. Since 2007 she has been Managing Director of Red Sage Consulting and for the past 3 years has served as Secretary General of the Association of Subscription Agents and Intermediaries (ASA).

Speaking of her appointment, Chair of the Council of ALPSP Toby Green said “We are very pleased that Sarah Durrant has chosen to join ALPSP. The Association will mark its 40th anniversary in 2012 and continues to grow and to go from strength-to-strength. Sarah is absolutely the right person to build on ALPSP’s achievements and take the Association forward so that it can continue to serve the needs of the scholarly and professional publishing community”.

Sarah Durrant said “I am delighted to be working for ALPSP. Ian Russell and the ALPSP team have done a tremendous job of raising the organisation’s profile and enhancing understanding and knowledge of scholarly publishing, inside the sector and beyond. I look forward to working with ALPSP members and to ensuring the Association continues to help them achieve their goals.”

Sarah replaces Ian Russell and joins ALPSP on September 1, 2011.

Taylor & Francis launches new platform as successor to informaworld

July 1, 2011

Taylor & Francis Online (the successor to the award winning Informaworld) launched successfully over last weekend and the site is now fully operational. Well done to everyone who put so much work into this. This multi-million pound investment into the delivery platform for our online content has consumed the business for the last two years. The effort and commitment from so many people has been outstanding and the amazing success of a very complicated system is down to the core of those in the TFO team.

The process of redirecting from informaworld to Taylor & Francis Online ran smoothly and we have experienced no downtime during the transition. The platform is running quickly and is currently performing within times agreed with our provider on how long it should take to download the homepage, perform a search, and access article content.

Delivering 1600 journals and 30,000 e-books online is fundamental to the success of T&F. We are confident that we now have a robust and fast system that will meet and exceed the needs of our customers.

Lots of its offices have been enjoying cakes to celebrate the launch. The picture shows some of the cupcakes they had in Milton Park.

Nature most highly cited journal in the Journal Citation Report (JCR)

July 1, 2011

This week Thomson Reuters published the 2010 Journal Citation Report (JCR). Nature Publishing Group (NPG) achieved outstanding results, with Nature’s Impact Factor for 2010 reaching a new high of 36.101. Nature articles received over 500,000 citations in 2010, making it the most highly cited journal in the JCR.

Nature Chemistry received a first impact factor of 17.927, debuting as the number 1 primary research journal in the multidisciplinary chemistry category. Sixteen titles published by NPG lead their JCR categories, and 17 Nature titles are in the top 50 journals by Impact Factor in the JCR.

“We recognise the limitations and overuse of impact factors, but citations remain a clear indicator of usage, relevance and scientific value,” said Steven Inchcoombe, Managing Director, Nature Publishing Group. “For us the real validation of our journals is more complex. Researchers choosing to submit their best work to us; over 5000 peer reviewers agreeing to review for Nature in 2010; more than 5000 institutions subscribing to our journals; over 7 million unique users a month for nature.com. These are all important indicators that we are achieving our goal to filter and select for scientific significance.”

“We thank our referees for the important part that they play in ensuring that Nature and its sister journals continue to publish a high standard of work,” said Dr Philip Campbell, Editor-in-Chief,Nature and the Nature journals. “We also thank our authors for entrusting their outstanding research to us. The selection criteria of Nature are aimed at scientific significance. That in turn may lead to citation impact and media coverage, but Nature editors aren’t driven by those considerations.”

Nature and its sister journals employ in-house professional editors, all of whom are scientists, with Ph.D.s and in most cases postdoc, faculty or industrial experience. “We believe fast, efficient publishing operations are well served by our full time editorial staff,” said Dr Campbell. “We use our best judgement to avoid unnecessary work for authors. Many authors happily confirm that their article was much improved by rigorous peer review – sometimes necessitating additional work by the researchers – and by the editorial process.”

NPG continues to explore article level metrics and other indicators of quality, impact, reach and value. Above all else, NPG’s goal is serve global science and scientists, and to provide maximum visibility and discoverability for authors and their research.

Libraries Offer Tools and Support for Open-Access Publishing

June 9, 2011

As part of its efforts to promote broader access to academic research, Duke University Libraries has announced a new service to help members of the Duke community create and publish peer-reviewed, open-access scholarly journals.

Open-access journals make published research available for free to anyone who has access to the Internet. With the advent of online publishing, open access has emerged as an alternative to the traditional fee- and subscription-based model of scholarly publishing, which limits access to those who can pay for content and the high overhead costs of printing.

The Libraries are piloting the service with two journals. Greek, Roman, and Byzantine Studies, founded in 1958, is edited by Kent J. Rigsby, professor emeritus of Classical Studies, and Joshua D. Sosin, associate professor of Classical Studies. GRBS’s first issue using the new open-access service has just been published and is now available online.

The second journal, andererseits: Yearbook of Transatlantic German Studies, is a new publication published jointly by Duke’s Department of Germanic Languages & Literatures and the Germanistik/Literatur und Medienpraxis of the Universität Duisburg-Essen in Essen, Germany. That publication will become open-access with its second issue later this year.

The Libraries’ new service helps prospective editors establish their journal online, providing guidance and advice as editors develop the journal’s structure. Journals are built on a free, open-source platform known as Open Journal Systems, which was developed specifically to manage the overhead of creating and sustaining academic journals. The platform is structured to guide editors as they set up their publications, with customizable templates to control the overall design and internal structure. The software also helps editors manage the publishing process, from receiving submissions to peer review, editing, layout, and publication. OJS allows both editors and contributors to track and manage articles as they move through the pipeline, so that the publication process is prompt, efficient, and transparent.

The Open Journal Systems software was developed by the Public Knowledge Project, a partnership of Canadian and U.S. universities. More than 7,500 scholarly journals use the software as their publishing platform. At Duke, the Office of Information Technology hosts the software, and staff from the Libraries manage it.

Deborah Jakubs, the Rita DiGiallonardo Holloway University Librarian & Vice Provost for Library Affairs, noted, “This new service is the just the latest in series of efforts Duke has made to promote open access as an institutional priority. When scholarly research is freely available, it has the potential to reach more people, accelerate new discoveries, and make a bigger impact on the world. It’s one more way we can put knowledge in the service of society.”

In March 2010, Duke’s Academic Council unanimously adopted an open access policy by which scholarly articles written by all Duke faculty members are made freely available to the public for non-commercial use, by default. Then last fall, Duke joined a group of leading research institutions in signing a Compact for Open-Access Publishing Equity (COPE), establishing a special fund to make it easier for researchers to publish their work in open-access journals.

As one of the first faculty members to use the new service, Joshua D. Sosin, Associate Editor of Greek, Roman, and Byzantine Studies, said “The Duke Libraries and the Department of Classical Studies have long collaborated to provide free, web-based access to some of the University’s most ancient materials. We are thrilled to be able to extend that partnership to scholarly research. Socrates famously did not accept fees; this piece of critical infrastructure allows us to do the same!”

For more information about open-access journal publishing at Duke, visit the Duke University Libraries’ website, or contact Winston Atkins, the Libraries’ Preservation Officer.

Lindau Nobel Laureate Meeting launches online community

June 9, 2011

‘Lindau Nobel Community – the interactive home of the Lindau Meetings’ launches today at lindau.nature.com. The site goes live ahead of the 61st annual Lindau Nobel Laureate Meeting, taking place from 26 June – 1 July 2011 on the shores of Lake Constance. This year, blogs in Spanish and Chinese will add to the English and German content on the site.

As in previous years, an international team of bloggers will report from the meeting. The blog roll is hosted by SciLogs (scilogs.de), the leading European science blogging service. SciLogs is part ofSpektrum der Wissenschaft, the Nature Publishing Group (NPG) company that publishes the German edition of Scientific American. Yvonne Buchholz, publisher and editor of Spanish publicationMinMente y Cerebro (Mind and Brain), will be blogging in Spanish. Yvonne’s regular blog ‘Pistas mentales’ is hosted on scilogs. Felix Cheung, Editor of Nature China, will be blogging in Chinese. Felix and Yvonne join a community of bloggers who will be reporting from the meeting in English and German.

The Foundation Lindau Nobelprizewinners Meetings and NPG are once again collaborating to make the Lindau meeting as interactive as possible. Blogs, Facebook, Twitter, Flickr, YouTube and interactive websites from NPG are mobilized to enable young researchers throughout the world to participate in the meeting. Videos of conversations between Nobel Laureates and young researchers and a special Nature Outlook will be freely available to all, thanks to support from sponsors including Mars, Incorporated. Mars, Incorporated is also supporting the translation of the videos into Chinese.

This year’s meeting is dedicated to Physiology and Medicine and brings together 25 Nobel Laureates and 570 young researchers from 80 countries. Panel discussions, lectures, seminars and social events facilitate interaction between Nobel Laureates and the scientific and academic elite of the future.

“The Lindau Nobel Laureate Meetings are not only a window to the world, but for one week in summer mirror the global map of science. Therefore, we are delighted that the social media coverage will include Spanish and Chinese content for the first time, ” comments Professor Wolfgang Schuerer, Chairman of the Foundation Lindau Nobel prize winners Meetings at Lake Constance and Vice-President of the Council for Lindau Nobel Laureate Meetings.

NPG and the Foundation Lindau Nobelprizewinners Meetings at Lake Constance will collaborate for the fourth year to produce films featuring one-on-one or small group discussions between individual Nobel Laureates and young scientists. Produced by Nature Video, the videos will be made freely available on nature.com, one of the world’s most popular scientific websites, and on YouTube.

“The Lindau Meetings offer a unique opportunity for open dialogue between the world’s brightest scientific minds,” said Harold Schmitz, Chief Science Officer of Mars, Incorporated. “Cross-sector collaboration has long been a key tenet of our approach to science and we see such interaction as essential in driving innovation for the benefit of the global community. Mars is therefore very pleased to once again support Lindau and NPG in their efforts to fulfil the Lindau mission of education, inspiration and connection – not only for those attending the meeting, but also for scientists around the world.

STM association sets out five guiding principles for document delivery

June 9, 2011

The International Association of Scientific, Technical & Medical Publishers (STM) today released a statement on document delivery. In it, STM sets out five guiding principles it believes should be applied in any consideration of document delivery use and services. STM publishers welcome constructive discussion on these principles, and seek participation in wider debates on document delivery.

With the move to online access, STM journal literature is more widely available and accessible that in the print journal era. Publishers offer a wide variety of access mechanisms, including institutional access, pay-per-view and article rental. Digital document delivery should be considered a top-up tool for occasional information provision, according to the STM statement. More structured and systematic information structure serves regular use and users.

STM maintain that document delivery should be the exception. Permitting document delivery through carefully crafted library exceptions is justified in very limited circumstances. Where document delivery is undertaken by libraries, STM calls for five guiding principles to be observed:

1. The Berne Convention 3-step test must govern any discussion of copyright exceptions – including for library supply

2. Cross-border document deliveries by libraries and other document suppliers should be governed by arrangements negotiated directly with publishers or their authorised representatives

3. Digital document delivery direct to end-users is best governed and coordinated by rights-holders

4. Document deliveries to individuals for “private, non-commercial use” should be subject to appropriate due diligence

5. On-site print document delivery to non-commercial patrons is a good compromise

STM believes that by following these five principles “policy makers can ensure that document delivery will continue in its role as a flexible and useful access-enabling tool in a system of scholarly communication that has made more high-quality information available to more people in more ways than at any time in human history.”

The statement is available on the STM website at:

STM Statement on Document Delivery

Sage announces winner of ALPSP International Conference travel grant

June 9, 2011

SAGE today announced that Patrick Carr has won the SAGE travel grant for a librarian at the Association of Learned and Professional Society Publishers (ALPSP) International conference 2011.

Patrick, Head of Electronic & Continuing Resource Acquisitions at Joyner Library, East Carolina University won the place by answering the question “Why should librarians be talking to publishers in 2011? with the following:

“To foster transformative and sustainable enhancements in patron services through dialogue, collaboration, and innovation”

Two runners up were also selected by the judging panel:

Sharon Duan, E-Content Advisor, Information Management and Innovation Library and Learning Resources Centre entered with:

“To influence and inform the publishing world, so that publishers and libraries are fully prepared to meet current and future scholarly needs”

Judith A. Koveleskie, Periodicals Librarian at Seton Hill University, Reeves Memorial Library entered with:

“They are partners in providing resources which are interesting, attractive, and credible to a world that is drowning in misinformation”

“We received 50 entries from librarians around the world, many of which touched on issues about collaboration, which was the key thing we hope this grant will facilitate,” said Clive Parry, Global Marketing Director, SAGE. “We were delighted to see so much enthusiasm for greater connections between librarians and publishers in developing user-centric content delivery solutions for the future, and look forward to hearing Patrick’s views from the conference.”

The ALPSP conference takes place this year from 14-16th September at Heythrop Park near Oxford. The SAGE travel grant will provide Patrick Carr with a free place at the conference, including entry to the ALPSP awards dinner, plus costs towards his travel and accommodation.

On accepting his grant, Mr Carr said: “I am honoured by my receipt of the SAGE travel grant and am greatly looking forward to attendance at the ALPSP International Conference. Now is a time in which effective communication and partnership between the library and publishing communities is truly essential. I am excited to have the opportunity to participate in that discussion this September at the ALPSP International Conference.”

For more information about the conference please visit: www.alpspconference.org

More than 1 million eBooks now available via SwetsWise

June 8, 2011

Swets is pleased to announce that SwetsWise, its leading information resource management and procurement platform, has recently expanded its eBook catalog to more than one million publications. Swets has signed agreements with a number of the world’s leading eBooks publishers and aggregators, bringing together an impressive wealth of compelling content and creating an extensive collection of eBooks unparalleled within the information industry.

SwetsWise provides an intuitive interface for librarians and information managers to select and acquire eBook content. Customers are able to purchase both individual titles and eBook collections, under the same pricing and purchase models offered by publishers and aggregators directly.

“Expanding SwetsWise to support the acquisition and management of eBook content has enabled us to offer customers a single, user-friendly interface to acquire and manage both eBooks and journals, which is unique to the information industry,” said Maxim van Gisbergen, Business Development Manager at Swets. “The rapid rate that publishers and other suppliers are signing up to the platform clearly illustrates the unique proposition we offer and showcases the potential, strength and overall value of our SwetsWise platform.”

The following eBooks publishers and aggregators have agreed to make their content available in SwetsWise:

123Library
ABC-CLIO
ACLS – American Council of Learned Societies Humanities EBook (HEB)
Bentham Science Publishers
Berghahn Books
Bibliotechnia
Books 24×7 Skillsoft
Brill
CABI
Canadian Electronic Library
ciando eBooks
CRCnetBASE
de Gruyter
Digitalia
Duncker & Humblot
ebrary
e-libro
Elsevier
Emerald
Global Media
IGI Global
Infobase
IOS Press
Jaypee
Karger
Liturgical Press
Ingram Content Group, MyiLibrary®
Oxford University Press
Rittenhouse Book Distributors, Inc./The R2 Digital Library
Safari Books Online
Sesame Street eBookstore
Springer
Taylor & Francis
Woodhead Publishing
World Bank Publications
World eBook Library Consortia (WEL)
WorldScientific

Further information on the eBooks available through SwetsWise can be found at:www.swets.com/swetswise/ebooks

Ingram Content Group and Brill announce e-content management agreement

June 8, 2011

Ingram Content Group Inc. today announced an e-content management agreement with Brill, a respected scholarly and academic publisher. Brill has selected Ingram’s CoreSource platform to distribute and archive scholarly books to bookselling partners worldwide.

“The demand for electronic products in academia continues to grow in the library and consumer markets, and it is essential to the success of our authors, our company and scholars worldwide to offer our e-books in the desired formats,” said Sam Bruinsma, Director of Business Development and E-Publishing of Brill. “Through our digital distribution collaboration with Ingram, we gain the scalable infrastructure needed to successfully deliver our content timely to any destination.”

Sam Bruinsma continued, “Brill’s role is to focus on the publishing of distinctive and relevant academic content and not to devote scarce resources to the redistribution of e-content to a wide variety of emerging e-book channels around the globe. Through our Ingram Coresource arrangement we are able to fulfill our pledge to authors and customers to simultaneously publish in print and electronically.”

Brill’s publishing program focuses on humanities, international law and select science fields. Annually, the company supplies 500 new books to libraries and academics around the world. Brill will offer titles from its imprints Brill, Global Oriental, Martinus Nijhoff Publishers and VSP for distribution through Ingram’s CoreSource platform.

“Ingram continues to develop and deliver market-leading content distribution solutions,” said Marcus Woodburn, Vice President of Digital Products, Ingram Content Group. “We are pleased that Brill has selected CoreSource to meet the needs of their customers and we look forward to helping them grow.”

Ingram’s CoreSource is an easy-to-use, online solution for the storage, management, and distribution of digital content. CoreSource delivers a secure, searchable content repository and a high-capacity data distribution network, allowing publishers to move digital content easily and swiftly from their organization to any channel partner globally.

Cengage Learning EMEA acquires Nelson Thornes’ Nursing & Allied Health list

June 8, 2011

Cengage Learning EMEA announced today that it has completed the acquisition of Nelson Thornes’ Nursing & Allied Health list.

Cengage Learning, a leading provider of education solutions for the academic, professional, and library markets, is already known as an innovative force in health care education in the US. It publishes under the imprints of Delmar, Wadsworth and Gale well known titles such as Gloria Pickar’s Dosage Calculations, The Delmar Nursing Skills DVD series and Gale’s Nursing Resource Center.

The Nursing & Allied Health list acquired from Nelson Thornes strengthens the healthcare portfolio by increasing the range of titles suited to local markets. Flagship titles transferred today include Quinn’s Principles and Practice of Nurse Education,Physiotherapy in Respiratory Care and the Foundations in Nursing and Health Careseries.

“This acquisition supports our strategy to accelerate growth in the healthcare education market,” said Jill Jones, President and CEO for Cengage Learning EMEA. “Our customers can look forward to a blended publishing programme that addresses the specific needs of our local markets.”

‘’Following a strategic review, Nelson Thornes is delighted that Cengage Learning EMEA has acquired the list and is confident that it will prosper with them,’’ said Paul Howarth, MD of Nelson Thornes.

Terms of the acquisition were not disclosed.