ProQuest, part of Cambridge Information Group, has announced that the full suite of ProQuest Central database products is now available to members of the Institute of Information Science (IZUM) throughout Slovenia through a subscription arrangement. The agreement with IZUM is expected to both enable access to content for academics, and help subscribing institutions throughout Slovenia attract the best researchers from around the globe. It follows a similar agreement made recently in Bulgaria.

  STM publisher Elsevier has announced that the Australian Research Council (ARC) has selected Scopus, the world’s largest abstract and citation (A&C) database, for its Excellence in Research for Australia (ERA) initiative. The ERA initiative will assess research quality within Australia's higher education institutions using a combination of indicators and expert review by committees comprised of experienced, internationally-recognised experts.

  STM publisher Springer has announced a partnership with the Senckenberg Gesellschaft fuer Naturforschung to publish two scientific journals - Palaeobiodiversity and Palaeoenvironments and Marine Biodiversity – starting March 2009. The journals will receive maximum exposure through Springer’s abstracting and indexing services and innovative product development initiatives.

  Open access (OA) publisher BioMed Central has announced a partnership with Computer Aid International to support research in Africa. BioMed aims to raise £10,760 in order to provide a container of 225 PCs to Kenyatta University in Nairobi to help local scientists conduct vital research. The move is part of the publisher’s ongoing commitment to promote OA in the developing world.

  Publisher Karger has announced a partnership with EMpact Sales, the publisher representation group of EBSCO Information Services. Under the deal, EMpact will offer the new Karger Hospital Collection to customers in the US, the UK, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Belgium, Mexico, Central and South America, and the Caribbean. It will serve as sales and marketing representative and consultant for Karger in these territories.

  VerusMed, a medical information business unit of ConnectivHealth, Inc., has been sold to Intellerus, LLC, a private investment firm. Terms of the transaction were not disclosed. As part of the sale, about 12 employees have left the company to work for Intellerus.

  The Indian government has granted the European Patent Office (EPO) access to its Traditional Knowledge Digital Library (TKDL). Loaded with ancient medical knowledge, the online database contains translations of manuscripts and textbooks in five languages, including English. Examiners at the EPO will use the TKDL to evaluate patent applications and to better treat attempts to patent traditional knowledge as ‘new’ inventions.

  Academic publisher SAGE has announced the acquisition of a portion of the advertising sales business of US-based Leonard Media Group (LMG). Jeff Leonard, principal of Leonard Media Group, will continue to own and operate his remaining businesses under the LMG umbrella. The 5-member team from the Group has sold – and will continue to sell – advertising in select SAGE print journals and online products.

  Oxford Journals, a division of Oxford University Press (OUP), has announced a new publishing partnership with the International Society for Computational Biology (ISCB). Under the deal, the journal Bioinformatics will once again become an official journal of the ISCB from this year.

  STM publisher Springer will publish Reproductive Medicine and Biology, the official English-language journal of the Japan Society for Reproductive Medicine, the Japan Society of Fertilization and Implantation, and the Japan Society of Andrology from March 2009. Professor Hiroshi Imai from Kyoto University in Japan will serve as the Editor-in-chief of the journal. He will be supported by an expert editorial board.

  The American Medical Association (AMA) has announced that its physician-focused newspaper, American Medical News, is expanding its online presence and capabilities to better accommodate physicians’ needs. The print version of American Medical News is moving to a twice-a-month publishing schedule. The full content of the print edition will continue to be presented on amednews.com, which will also present fresh reporting and features every weekday throughout the year.

  Scientific publisher Nature Publishing Group has announced that Nature Chemistry, its 16th research journal, is now publishing papers online in advance of print. The first issue (April 2009) will go live on March 20, 2009. A monthly peer-reviewed publication, Nature Chemistry will cover chemistry-related research in traditional core chemical fields as well as multidisciplinary subjects such as bioinorganic chemistry and nanotechnology.

  Subscription services provider Swets has announced that following an enthusiastic reception at a pre-launch event at ALA Midwinter, SwetsWise Selection Support, a decision support service, has entered into its beta testing phase. The tool seeks to combine customers’ usage statistics with their subscription holdings and pricing information. This results in a fully integrated price-per-use overview for collection analysis, with the flexibility to include additional customer-specific data.

  Online publishing solutions provider Semantico Limited has announced a new release of its SAMS access management system for online publishing offering full support for Shibboleth version 1.3 and 2.0. The new version positions SAMS as a next-generation access system, facilitating federated, single sign-on access.

  Scrip World Pharmaceutical News has launched scripnews.com – an online news and analysis service for the global pharmaceutical industry. The full scripnews.com service is now available to Scrip subscribers. Non-subscribers will also be able to sample the complete new service by visiting scripnews.com and registering for a complimentary trial subscription.

  The UK Research Reserve (UKRR) programme, a collaborative initiative of higher education libraries led by Imperial College London and the British Library, has been launched. Under the initiative, the British Library will store low-use journals for the HE community and make them accessible to researchers and others using the latest ordering and delivery systems.

  The Medpedia Project has announced the public launch of the beta version of a technology platform for the worldwide health community. The Project aims to create a new model of how the world will assemble, maintain, critique and access medical knowledge. It will, over time, be a repository of up-to-date unbiased medical information, contributed and maintained by health experts around the world, and freely available to everyone.

  Academic publisher Sage has announced the launch of Sage Reference’s new two-volume Encyclopedia of Health Services Research. The encyclopaedia claims to be the only single reference source to cover comprehensively the diverse, complex field of health services research. An expert team of health services researchers has focused on the access, costs, quality and outcomes of healthcare to create the resource.

  Scientific publisher Nature Publishing Group has announced that Nature Chemistry, its 16th research journal, is now publishing papers online in advance of print. The first issue (April 2009) will go live on March 20, 2009. A monthly peer-reviewed publication, Nature Chemistry will cover chemistry-related research in traditional core chemical fields as well as multidisciplinary subjects such as bioinorganic chemistry and nanotechnology.

  Non-profit electronic archiving service provider Portico has announced an agreement with Duke University Press to preserve electronic books from the e-Duke Books Scholarly Collection. With the inclusion of Duke University Press' e-books, nearly 8,300 e-journals and 4,700 e-books have now been entrusted to the Portico archive.

  Scientific journal Science has published a report, according to which having research published in open access (OA) journals and other free sources does not lead to increased exposure and citations. A team at the University of Chicago analysed millions of articles available online. These included those from open source publications and those that required payment to access. The results revealed that, on an average, when a given publication was made available online after being in print for a year, being published in an open source format increased the use of that article by about 8 percent. When articles are made available online in a commercial format a year after publication, however, usage increases by about 12 percent.

  The journal Psychotherapy and Psychosomatics has published a paper which deals with the issue of intellectual freedom in medical research. Authored by journal editor Giovanni A. Fava, the paper is available in the current issue of the journal. The paper notes that the drug industry has full control of many scientific societies, journals and clinical practice guidelines.

  The Association of Research Libraries (ARL) Ad Hoc Task Force to Review the Proposed OCLC Policy for Use and Transfer of WorldCat Records has issued its final report. The report calls on OCLC to develop a new policy to replace the one released in November 2008. The Association has shared the report with OCLC for the use of its Board of Trustees and its newly established Review Board of Shared Data Creation and Stewardship.

  The Association of Research Libraries (ARL) has released a statement on the current global economic crisis and its effect on publishing and library subscriptions. The ARL statement, which is aimed at scholarly publishers and vendors, reinforces some of the key points in a recent statement by the International Coalition of Library Consortia (ICOLC) and offers additional observations and recommendations from the perspectives of ARL member libraries.

  E-research and educational publisher Gale, part of Cengage Learning has announced that three of its titles were named Outstanding Reference Sources for 2008 by the American Library Association’s Reference and User Services Association (RUSA). Available in digital, eBook and print format, the winning titles are: Climate Change in Context; The Gale Encyclopedia of Diets; and Encyclopedia of Products and Industries – Manufacturing.

  The Association of American Publishers (AAP) has joined six other copyright-related trade associations to submit its annual Special 301 Report to the Office of the US Trade Representative (USTR). The report, completed under the umbrella of the International Intellectual Property Alliance (IIPA), details issues related to IP rights protection and market access around the world. This year’s report highlights copyright protection and enforcement problems in 48 countries and territories, and recommends that 40 of them be placed on an appropriate USTR watch list.

  Knowledge management and discovery software developer Collexis Holdings, Inc. has announced that the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) has licensed the Collexis’ Reviewer Finder and Journal Dashboard applications for the 6 AACR cancer research journals. Collexis develops applications that range from search tools for users' websites to highly sophisticated discovery applications that are utilised by the intelligence community and R&D organisations worldwide.

  Publishing-specific software solutions provider Publishing Technology plc has announced a partnership with Klopotek AG to promote IngentaConnect and pub2web products in the German and Benelux markets. Under the agreement, Klopotek will develop new business opportunities for the online products, while Publishing Technology will retain responsibility for product support.

  Academic and professional literature publisher Emerald Group Publishing Ltd. has announced that it has selected the Editorial & Book Production and Royalties Management applications from IBS Bookmaster to streamline its book publishing process. The software provided by IBS is tailored to meet Emerald’s needs and will enable the publisher to enhance its service to authors and customers alike.

  Royal Society Publishing has announced that its online journal content is now hosted on the HighWire H2O platform. The new domain http://royalsocietypublishing.org, replaces the site on MetaPress. Title-level redirects are now in place until the end of April on the old MetaPress site to take users automatically to the relevant journal homepage on HighWire where all journal content, 1665 to the present day, is now loaded. To give libraries time to check their e-access accounts and make necessary changes all content is open to visitors until March 31.

  NeuStar, Inc., a provider of technology for online services, has announced that the Public Library of Science (PLoS) has selected its Webmetrics Application Monitoring service to augment the performance capabilities of all PLoS online services. The service will help PLoS monitor online resources such as journals, blogs and search capabilities to ensure they are available and functioning properly. Monitoring can occur in various intervals - as quickly as every 60 seconds, if necessary.

  The International Council for Scientific and Technical Information (ICSTI) has announced that its ‘Managing Data for Science’ annual conference and general assembly will be held from June 9-11, 2009, at Library and Archives Canada, in Ottawa. Hosted by the NRC Canada Institute for Scientific and Technical Information (NRC-CISTI), this annual conference has been largely viewed as being a dynamic engine for research and development as well as scientific data management and integration worldwide.

  Library solutions provider Ex Libris Group has announced that the TriUniversity Group of Libraries (TUG) in Ontario, Canada, has gone live with a public beta version of the Primo discovery and delivery solution. TUG is a consortium of three university libraries - the University of Guelph, the University of Waterloo, and Wilfrid Laurier University.

  Federated search services provider Deep Web Technologies (http://www.deepwebtech.com) has announced that Larry Donahue recently joined its executive staff as Chief Operating Officer (COO) and Corporate Counsel. Donahue brings over 15 years of direct leadership experience, combining a broad range of strategic planning, financial and legal expertise with a specific focus on software marketing. In his new role, he will advise on legal matters while seeking to drive the organisation forward with a practical, attentive management style.