Publisher Taylor & Francis Group, LLC, and Salesforce.com have joined forces to develop and implement a global course adoption database called Course Adoption System (CAS). Slated for launch in the beginning of 2009, CAS will enable T&F to better penetrate the global textbook market and target new customers by streamlining and enhancing processes and tracking results.

  RPS Publishing, the publishing arm of the Royal Pharmaceutical Society of Great Britain, has announced an agreement with MyiLibrary to distribute its pharmacy publications via the MyiLibrary Ebook platform. Stockley's Drug Interactions, Martindale's Drugs Restricted in Sport and Clarke's Analytical Forensic Toxicology are amongst the growing list of available titles.

  Oxford Journals, a division of Oxford University Press (OUP), has announced the extension of their contract with HighWire Press, an online hosting division of the Stanford University Libraries. With this new deal, HighWire will continue hosting the online content of all journals published by Oxford University Press until 2010.

  TechWeb's Light Reading Communications Network has announced the acquisition of Pyramid Research, a market research and advisory service company. Light Reading Communications Network is a leading integrated publishing, events and research company serving the global communications marketplace. Under the acquisition deal, Pyramid will be integrated with Heavy Reading, an independent market research arm of the Light Reading Communications Network.

  The Scientific business of Thomson Reuters has announced that one of Europe’s prestigious University Presses, Liverpool University Press, has chosen Manuscript Central to manage all fifteen of their Humanities and Social Science journals. In addition, the Press will implement Manuscript Central Optima, which integrates Manuscript Central, EndNote and ISI Web of Science into one seamless application.

  The JISC Digital Repositories and Archives Inventory (DRAI) project, which seeks to provide a comprehensive snapshot of digital resource provision in the UK, has completed phase 2 of the project. A total of 3,707 online collections have been catalogued. Staff and students in higher education can access these for free. The catalogue records from phase 2 will soon be added in the Information Environment Service Registry (IESR). Records from phase 1 have already been added in the IESR.

  Technology company Lockheed Martin Corporation has announced that it has received a five-year, single-award Indefinite Delivery/Indefinite Quantity (ID/IQ) contract worth up to $32 million to support the National Institutes of Health (NIH). Under the deal, Lockheed Martin will provide technical, scientific, management and administrative services for NIH's Office of Portfolio Analysis and Strategic Initiatives (OPASI). The newly-established OPASI provides NIH and its constituents with methods and information to manage their complex scientific portfolios in the areas of emerging scientific opportunities or public health challenges.

  Reed Exhibitions, part of Reed Elsevier Group plc, has announced that it has chosen EPiServer's Content Management System (CMS) to build and manage its entire portfolio of websites. EPiServer CMS will be deployed across all of Reed's global business units, comprising over 400 event websites and a growing number of industry portals. It is expected that the new system will be able to keep pace as new events are launched and websites developed, enabling Reed to create and integrate content in 30 different languages.

  Energy publisher Hart Energy Publishing as announced the acquisition of the Unconventional Natural Gas Report newsletter from Denver-based Energy Research Services. The monthly e-newsletter seeks to provide the oil and gas exploration and production (E&P) community with the latest information, data and resources on the unconventional natural gas industry.

  Bioinformatics firm Ariadne Genomics has announced the availability of Pathway Studio Version 6. The latest version is projected to feature powerful gene expression analysis tools, updated pathway collection and an intuitive and attractive new look and feel. Designed to overcome the scientific information overload, Pathway Studio organises and visualises knowledge from many data sources and facilitates different fields of research - RNAi, target or biomarker discovery.

  Publisher and international news organisation NewsRx has launched 19 new technology titles under its VerticalNews imprint. The new technology titles will provide current news, scientific research, and developments on information technology, the Internet, networks, telecommunications, computers, and electronics.

  Scientific publisher World Scientific Publishing Company (WSPC) and Imperial College Press (ICP) have announced the launch of several new journals in 2009. It was also announced that some journals will publish more issues in 2009 due to an increase of accepted papers. WSPC and ICP are also taking over the Journal of Porphyrins and Phthalocyanines (JPP), the official journal of the Society of Porphyrins and Phthalocyanines.

  Professional Engineering Publishing (PE Publishing), the publishing arm of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers (IMechE), has launched Engineering Conferences Online (ECO), a new online publishing service for conference organisers. ECO seeks to provide conference organisers with a new way of disseminating important engineering research that would normally be very difficult or impossible to locate in traditional book or CD formats.

  STM publisher, Springer has announced that it will begin publishing the Journal of Nutrition, Health and Aging (JNHA), starting January 2009. The journal is the official organ of several scientific associations - the International Association of Gerontology and Geriatrics (IAGG), the European Union Geriatric Medicine Society (EUGMS) and the International Academy of Nutrition and Aging (IANA).

  STM and business publisher Inderscience has published the first issues of nine new titles. The new journals are: International Journal of Applied Management Science; International Journal of Data Analysis Techniques and Strategies; International Journal of Information and Decision Sciences; International Journal of Project Organisation and Management; International Journal of Society Systems Science; International Journal of Sustainable Economy; International Journal of Digital Culture and Electronic Tourism; American Journal of Finance and Accounting; and International Journal of Arts and Technology.

  STM publisher Springer has announced that it is set to publish the International Journal of Behavioral Medicine (IJBM), starting in 2009. The journal is the official organ of the International Society of Behavioral Medicine (ISBM). Joost Dekker of the VU University Medical Center serves as editor-in-chief of the journal.

  Academic publisher SAGE has announced that the Journal of the Royal Society for the Promotion of Health will be changing its name to Perspectives in Public Health, from the beginning of 2009. The title change is a result of the merger of the Royal Society of Health with the Royal Institute of Public Health to form the Royal Society for Public Health (RSPH), which will take place on October 1, 2008.

  Library technology solutions provider SirsiDynix has announced the release of SirsiDynix Symphony e-Library, an enhanced online library catalog solution that offers the speed, ease and flexibility librarians have requested. The product runs on SirsiDynix Symphony 3.2.1; its predecessor, iBistro, is currently in use at 900 libraries worldwide.

  Online submission system provider Aries Systems Corporation has announced that its Editorial Manager online manuscript submission and peer review system has been integrated with the CrossCheck plagiarism detection service. CrossCheck technology compares the content of documents against text stored in a growing database of published materials to identify possible instances of plagiarism. CrossCheck is powered by technology from iParadigms, LLC and content from contributing scholarly publishing members of the CrossRef organisation.

  A recently launched international survey ‘Meeting the challenges: societies and scholarly communication’ aims to gain insight and understanding of the professional challenges facing scholarly societies across the world in the 21st century. Aimed at top-level society executives, the survey seeks to address critical issues for societies with regards membership and publishing.

  Off-the-shelf market research publisher Global Industry Analysts, Inc. (GIA) has published a report titled "Publishing Industry: A Global Outlook". The report provides a collection of statistical anecdotes, market briefs and summaries of research findings. According to the report, key factors wielding an influence on the world publishing market include favorable economic conditions, lifestyle trends, population growth, purchasing power, ethnic diversity and age composition, education standards and foreign trade. Electronic or online publishing is the fast catching popular medium for publishing books, newspapers, magazines and other types of publications.

  The Scholarly Publishing and Academic Resources Coalition (SPARC), the Public Library of Science (PLoS), and Students for FreeCulture have jointly announced the first international Open Access Day. Building on the worldwide momentum toward Open Access to publicly funded research, Open Access Day is expected to create a key opportunity for the higher education community and the general public to understand more clearly the opportunities of wider access and use of content.

  The Association of Learned and Professional Society Publishers (ALPSP) and PSP Consulting are launching a new short course for journal editors in January 2009. This event is for editors from journals in all disciplines, and is based on a course for only medical editors that is now in its 12th year. It will take place January 29-30, in Oxford, UK.

  Open access publisher BioMed Central has announced its participation in the Festival of Science, one of Europe's biggest science festivals to be held at the University of Liverpool (UK) in September. It proposes to organise a free forum at the event entitled 'How science addresses developing world issues'. The aim is to get research organisations, charities and the media together to discuss how research and open communication are needed to advance medical understanding in diseases such as malaria and AIDS, widely prevalent in developing countries.

  National Library of Medicine (NLM) at the National Institute of Health (NIH) has accepted the Journal of Visualized Experiments (JoVE) for indexing in the official repositories of the scientific literature MEDLINE and PubMed. The journal has now become the first video journal to be indexed by NLM.

  BioSpectrum Asia, a life sciences magazine from the CyberMedia Group, has reportedly won the Asian Publishing Award 2008 under the 'innovative business model' category. The award was announced during the Asian Publishing Convention (APC) held in Singapore recently. BioSpectrum Asia is seen to have won the award for developing business models that exploit multimedia opportunities while understanding the role of content and changing consumer preferences.

  PharmAsiaNews.com, a subscription-based online service of F-D-C Reports, Inc., has announced that Dr. Zhu Shen, chief executive officer of BioForesight, a leading global life science consulting firm, has joined the editorial advisory board of the service. PharmAsiaNews.com provides news and analysis on regulatory, legal and financial developments affecting pharmaceutical, biologics and medical device manufacturers doing business in China, India, Japan and the Pacific Rim.

  Global library cooperative Online Computer Library Center, Inc. (OCLC) has announced the Jackie Dooley, internationally recognised expert in the fields of archives, visual materials, special collections and archival standards, has accepted a position with OCLC Programs and Research as a Consulting Archivist. Currently Head of Special Collections and Archives at University of California, Irvine, Dooley will begin working in September 2008 with colleagues in OCLC Programs and Research offices in San Mateo, California, and Dublin, Ohio.

  Academic publisher Maney Publishing has announced the appointment of Dr Willard McCarty, Professor of Humanities Computing, King's College London, as Editor of Interdisciplinary Science Reviews, an international journal. Dr Julianne Nyhan of the European Science Foundation will become Book Reviews Editor, while Howard Cattermole, who is retiring after five years as Editor, will become Consulting Editor.