Internet search services provider Google Inc. is facing growing opposition in Europe to its legal settlement in the US with book publishers and authors, media reports have indicated. While limited only to book rights in the US, the proposed settlement, which is awaiting court approval, has aroused concern among European publishers. These publishers fear they will lose some of their rights to millions of European works held in university libraries in the US, which have been drawn into Google's book-scanning project.

  US-based journal Science, published by the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), and scientific video journal Journal of Visualized Experiments (JoVE) have announced a partnership for joint production and publication of scientific videos online. This partnership seeks to enhance scientific articles published in Science through video demonstrations of experimental techniques. JoVE is a scientific journal that publishes video articles of biological experiments from academic institutions including Harvard, MIT, Stanford and Berkeley.

  Medical information provider Wolters Kluwer Health (WK Health) has announced that Cypress Fairbanks Medical Center Hospital (CFMCH) has selected its ProVation MD software for procedure documentation and coding. The software will be used to document the more than 2,000 Gastroenterology and Pulmonary procedures performed annually at the Houston-based hospital.

  Online submission system provider Aries Systems Corporation has announced that the American Nuclear Society journals will be deploying Editorial Manager for online submission and peer review. The Editorial Manager online submission system is used by several scholarly journals and processes tens of thousand of manuscripts per month.

  Publisher Taylor & Francis Group (T&F) and the Society of Vertebrate Paleontology have announced their partnership to publish the Society’s flagship publication - Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology (JVP). The new publishing deal is expected to provide numerous advantages to the journal and to the Society. T&F is looking to bring to the Society and JVP its marketing skills and extensive connections to numerous scientific and educational institutions, as well as improved contact with the media.

  Education materials publisher McGraw-Hill Education and online textbook rental company Chegg.com have announced the launch of a pilot shared-revenue programme. Under the initiative, McGraw-Hill will provide new print textbooks directly to Chegg for its online rental business. This first-of-its-kind collaboration will provide McGraw-Hill with a new revenue stream and allow Chegg to expand the supply of textbooks that students can rent from its service.

  Information services provider Thomson Reuters has announced that they have joined the InChI Trust, a not-for-profit organisation to expand and develop the InChI Open Source chemical structure representation algorithm. The algorithm provides a consistent, credible and compatible way for databases of chemical structures to be linked together for the benefit of users of chemical information around the world.

  Kaplan Test Prep and Admissions, a provider of test preparation services, has entered into a partnership with science and technology magazine Scientific American to bring select content from the magazine to its MCAT course materials. Designed to teach challenging content related to the medical school entrance exam, the colour diagrams and 3-D figures (infographics) will be used for Kaplan’s MCAT Review Notes in biology, physics, general chemistry and organic chemistry. Kaplan’s new MCAT course materials with enhanced content from Scientific American will be available in both print format and online, beginning August 21.

  XML content server provider Mark Logic Corporation has announced that Platts, the energy information arm of McGraw-Hill Companies, is using MarkLogic Server to power LNG TraderNet. LNG TraderNet is a web-based service that provides members of the LNG (Liquefied Natural Gas) community with the latest market intelligence and analytical tools on the physical energy markets. Utilising MarkLogic, Platts is expected to drive internal cost savings and more effectively price, package and monetise its energy and metals information.

  Open access publisher BioMed Central has announced that Investigative Genetics, a new open access journal, is now accepting submissions. The journal will be overseen by co-Editors-in-Chief Bruce Budowle (University of North Texas Health Science Center, USA), Manfred Kayser (Erasmus University Medical Centre Rotterdam, Netherlands) and Antti Sajantila (University of Helsinki, Finland). They will be supported by an expert Editorial Board.

  Symyx Technologies, Inc., a US-based provider of technologies for R&D, has announced that the Symyx Available Chemicals Directory (ACD) has moved from quarterly to monthly updates of supplier catalogues. Continuously improving the update frequency of ACD enables scientists to identify the optimal set of compounds for their synthesis or library with increased confidence that those compounds will be available at the indicated prices from the selected suppliers.

  Scientific publisher RSC Publishing, the publishing arm of the Royal Society of Chemistry, has announced the 2010 launch of a new journal Chemical Science. Researchers from across all the chemical sciences will now have a new dedicated home for presenting findings of exceptional significance. Professor David MacMillan of Princeton, USA will serve as the Editor-in-Chief. He will lead an international team of Associate Editors to drive the scientific development and quality of the content of the journal.

  Electronic research databases provider EBSCO Publishing (EBSCO) has expanded its non-English full-text scholarly content with the release of Fuente Académica Premier. This database represents a rapidly growing collection of Latin American, Portuguese and Spanish-language periodicals. Fuente Académica Premier includes full text for more than 650 scholarly publications and all collection of academic books from 18 countries that will grow to more than 75.

  The Radiological Society of North America recently unveiled a new look and layout for the Radiology (radiology.rsna.org) and RadioGraphics (radiographics.rsna.org) homepages and articles. Along with newly designed tables of contents and a flexible, three-column design, RadioGraphics and Radiology share other new features designed to improve viewing of online contents and facilitate article searches.

  STM publisher Elsevier has announced that an H1N1 influenza channel has been added to the Elsevier Global Medical News (EGMN) wire service division of the International Medical News Group. The H1N1 channel was created to meet physicians' continuing needs to keep up-to-date with the news about the spread of the 2009 H1N1 influenza virus, as well as the new diagnostics, vaccines, clinical trials and treatments for H1N1 infections.

  Higher education publisher Cengage Learning has announced that it will enter the print textbook rental market with the Fall 2009 launch of CengageBrain.com - a single destination providing students with the choice to rent or purchase the company's diverse array of learning solutions. CengageBrain.com will serve as the expanded version of the current iChapters.com. Cengage Learning is the first higher education publisher to offer a print textbook rental option directly to students, with titles available at a cost of 40 to 70 percent less than the suggested retail price, addressing customer demand for additional lower cost options.

  Information services provider Thomson Reuters has announced the latest release of its database Prous Science Integrity, developed in response to demand from synthetic chemists in pharmaceutical and fine chemical companies. The redesigned Organic Synthesis Knowledge Area within Prous Science Integrity allows researchers to directly retrieve intermediates and reagents, as well as synthesis schemes, to pinpoint key characteristics of synthesis route components in seconds.

  Integrated media firms Ziff Davis Enterprise and JAZD have announced the launch of the TechDirect directory for global enterprise IT buyers. Built and powered by JAZD, TechDirect is projected to offer comprehensive information on technology vendors and their products, along with product comparisons, downloadable specifications, pricing and marketing literature. It is expected that buyers will use these pieces of information at specific points in the purchasing process.

  The American Chemical Society (ACS) has announced that it has published its Annual Report online for the first time. The 2008 ACS Annual Report has been published exclusively on the Web in a multimedia format. As users browse through the site, they will find all of the traditional features of an ACS annual report including the Society's financial information, yearly highlights, and officers' message. In addition, ACS has launched a companion Web site to help ACS members and potential members navigate its various programmes and resources.

  The International Digital Publishing Forum (IDPF), the standards and trade association for digital publishing, has announced that the maintenance activities associated with the EPUB standards will start this month. The DAISY (Digital Accessible Information System) Consortium will provide leadership and resources to assist in the maintenance for the EPUB standards. The working group charter was unanimously approved by the IDPF membership.

  Digital content products and technologies provider ebrary has announced a first-of-its-kind programme that brings libraries, corporations, and other organisations the best cost savings of the year on full-text e-books from leading publishers across the globe. Under the Publisher Half-Off Sale programme, institutions around the globe can save 50 percent off list price when they purchase as few as 15 to 25 backlist titles from a single participating publisher through December 15, 2009. To date, Cambridge University Press, Elsevier, IGI Global, Springer, Taylor & Francis, University of North Carolina Press, and Wiley have joined the programme, with additional publishers expected to participate shortly.

  Medical publisher Handbooks in Health Care Company (HHC) has announced a tie-up with Rittenhouse Book Distributors, a health sciences books distributor, to offer informative and easy-to-access medical content via video website www.youtube.com. The campaign, entitled “The Experts in Medicine Series,” will be featured on both the Rittenhouse and HHC websites (www.rittenhouse.com and www.hhcbooks.com). Additionally, the videos will be searchable on YouTube. The series showcases medical authors discussing contemporary topics in medicine while previewing the text of their latest titles published by HCC.

  Nielsen Book, operator of the UK ISBN Agency and provider of product information, transaction and sales measurement services for the English language book industry worldwide, has announced its listings policy for e-books. According to the new Nielsen policy, e-books will only be listed on the Nielsen Book database and in Nielsen Book products and services if they are identified in accordance with the ISBN standard.

  Chemical Abstracts Service (CAS), a division of the American Chemical Society, has announced that it is on track to register the 50 millionth unique chemical substance on September 7. The CAS REGISTRY claims to be the most comprehensive and high-quality compendium of publicly disclosed chemical information. This milestone comes only 9 months after CAS registered its 40 millionth substance.

  Academic publisher SAGE has announced that Methodspace – the social network for the research methods community – has passed more than 2000 members in less than six months after launch. Launched in March by SAGE, Methodspace facilitates online discussion about all aspects of research methodology.

  Online publishing services provider Semantico Ltd. has announced that the Royal Marsden Manual Online, an online learning and reference product developed by Semantico in partnership with Wiley-Blackwell has been shortlisted for the ALPSP Publishing Innovation Award. The ALPSP award for Publishing Innovation is in recognition of a truly innovative approach to any aspect of publication. Applications are judged on their originality and innovative qualities, together with their utility, benefit to their community and long term prospects. The winner of the award will be announced on September 10, 2009, at the ALPSP International Conference Dinner at the Oxford Belfry.

  Information service company EBSCO Information Services (EBSCO) has developed an open source software development kit (SDK) for developing clients and servers for the Standardized Usage Statistics Harvesting Initiative (SUSHI). The SDK will assist content providers in implementing SUSHI – a key requirement for being compliant with Release 3 of the COUNTER (Counting Online Usage of Networked Electronic Resources) Code of Practice for Journals and Databases.

  Society publisher EDP Sciences has announced that more than 20 publications produced and distributed by the company have an Impact Factor (IF), and the combined efforts of the editorial offices and the resources made available to them over the past several years have yielded excellent results. The IF figures have shown continuous growth in the short term and especially the medium term.

  The latest edition of blogspeak is now online. Featured are Kent Anderson (Google Knol — Vanity Publishing Fails Again); John Timmer (Print, beware! Publishers are "on the road" to pure digital); John Blossom (Enterprise Publishers Confront Fallout from Earnings); and Gideon Burton (Is Open Scholarship Too Risky for Young Scholars?). A service of Knowledgespeak.com, Blogspeak includes blog posts relevant to the publishing industry, particularly STM publishing. Subscribers are invited to participate in the latest edition of blogspeak Here

  The Association of Research Libraries (ARL) and the Coalition for Networked Information (CNI) are co-hosting a Forum, ‘An Age of Discovery: Distinctive Collections in the Digital Age.’ To be held from October 15–16, 2009, in Washington, DC, the Forum builds on the work of the ARL Special Collections Working Group. The aim is to focus attention on opportunities available in the digital environment for leveraging the strengths of special collections, making them more widely accessible.

  Content solutions and services provider Really Strategies and DocZone, the industry’s first SaaS XML content management system, has announced the keynote speaker for the 2009 RSuite User Conference to be held October 6, 2009. Howard Ratner, CTO, Nature Publishing Group (NPG), will be the featured keynote speaker for the event.

  Reed Elsevier has announced the appointment of Ben van der Veer RA as a non-executive director of Reed Elsevier PLC and of Reed Elsevier Group plc with effect from September 3, 2009, and as a member of the supervisory board of Reed Elsevier NV, subject to approval by Reed Elsevier NV’s shareholders at an extraordinary general meeting to be held on September 3, 2009. He will be appointed to the audit committees, effective the same date.