Internet search services provider Google Inc., US, has reportedly ended legal disputes with a French publishing trade group and a French authors’ association over the company’s scanning of books.
The Syndicat National de l’Edition and the SGDL Society of Authors agreed with Google to end litigation over Google’s scanning of copyright-protected books without permission. The Syndicat National de l’Edition represents more than 600 publishers in France. With this move, Google no longer faces French legal action over book scanning.
Google is working to improve its relationship with French industry groups and regulators after disputes over privacy and access to copyrighted content. It has also settled legal disputes with the Hachette Livre unit of Lagardere SCA (MMB) and La Martiniere Groupe that allowed it scan out-of-print works that are still copyrighted.
According to Philippe Colombet, Google Books’ strategic partner development manager in France, the company plans to sell some of the scanned copyrighted works as electronic books. It will share the proceeds with publishers under individual deals where the ‘majority of the revenue comes to the publisher.’
Google would financially support the SGDL Society of Authors’ development of a database of book authors and right-owners to settle legal proceedings over the scanning of copyright-protected books for its digital library, the company and the SGDL said in a joint statement. Google declined to disclose the financial terms of the support.
The SGDL, which represents 6,000 French and French-speaking authors, said the agreement would reaffirm the position of authors and help them protect their rights online.
STM publisher Springer has announced a partnership with the Fields Institute for Research in Mathematical Sciences. Under the deal, Springer will publish two book series, Fields Institute Communications (FIC) and Fields Institute Monographs (FIM).
FIC focuses primarily on publishing proceedings and outgrowths of research presented at conferences, and FIM features high-quality research monographs and lecture notes in both mathematics and its applications in science, engineering, finance, industry and medicine. Publications in both series often result from in-house activities such as conferences and graduate courses associated with thematic programmes and summer schools. However all authors in the mathematical sciences are encouraged to consider publishing with the Institute, taking advantage of the benefits now afforded by the partnership with Springer.
Editorial responsibility for both series will remain with the Fields Institute. Springer will assume responsibility for production, marketing and distribution of the books that appear in these series, in both print and digital formats. Four books in total for both series are planned for 2012.
Chemical information provider Chemical Abstracts Service (CAS), a division of the American Chemical Society, has announced the selection of 15 Ph.D. students in the chemical sciences for the 2012 SciFinder Future Leaders in Chemistry programme. Each of these students demonstrated academic excellence, a commitment to research and an appreciation of chemical information. Their exceptional essays and impressive letters of recommendation distinguished these students from among the hundreds who applied.
Since 2010, the SciFinder Future Leaders in Chemistry programme, formerly the SciFinder Academic Exchange Program, has served as an intensive mini-university where graduate students from around the world exchange ideas and experiences in chemistry and informatics. In only the third year of the programme, applications were received from 32 countries around the world and more than doubled in number from last year, resulting in an acceptance rate of just over four percent. This year's class joins an elite group of scientists who have unique perspectives on how chemical information is vital to the advancement of research.
Participants in the 2012 SciFinder Future Leaders in Chemistry program have the unique opportunity to share their insights on chemical information and learn from their peers. During their visit to the CAS campus in Columbus, Ohio, participants get a behind-the-scenes look at how CAS builds and maintains the most authoritative chemistry databases as they meet and exchange ideas with the CAS scientists and engineers responsible for SciFinder, projected to be the world's best chemical information research tool. As in past years, participants will also visit prestigious Central Ohio research organisations such as The Ohio State University, Battelle Memorial Institute and TechColumbus.
In addition, participants will join an expected 12,000 chemistry professionals in Philadelphia, Penn., to attend the 244th ACS National Meeting & Exposition and listen to scientists present new research, hear the latest information in their areas of interest, and network with other chemists.
Knovel, provider of a Web-based application integrating technical information with analytical and search tools, has announced that Siemens, the global powerhouse in electronics and electrical engineering, now provides access to Knovel’s Web-based technical references to its 30,000 engineers and scientists worldwide.
With interactive and validated content across 28 subject areas, the engineers have convenient access to a wide range of information useful in product design and development including guidance, best practices and materials selection.
Siemens is an integrated technology company with business and products focused on four sectors - Energy, Healthcare, Industry and Infrastructure & Cities. Under the Siemens Centre for Knowledge Interchange Program, the company works closely with a global network of universities from which it regularly employs graduates. These universities include the Technical University, Munich, Technical University of Denmark, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and Tsinghua University in Beijing, where students have access to and use Knovel in their studies.
The American Academy of Nursing, an independent affiliate of the American Nursing Association, has selected Susan Sportsman and Michelle Troseth of Elsevier to join the ranks of the distinguished American Academy of Nursing 2012 Class of Fellows.
Founded in 1973, The American Academy of Nursing recognises nurse leaders in management, practice, research, policy, and education. The Academy’s 1,800 fellows are the most accomplished and influential leaders in nursing. This year, 176 were acknowledged for their impact on the healthcare industry and will be inducted into the Class of Fellows at the Academy’s 39th Annual Meeting and Conference on October 13, 2012 in Washington, DC.
As the Executive Vice President and Chief Professional Practice Officer of Elsevier, Michelle Troseth provides strategic leadership for Elsevier Clinical Decision Support (CDS) division and Elsevier CPM Resource Center business, an organisation focused on practice transformation at the point of care. Troseth has over 25 years of experience in co-designing and implementing evidence-based practice and technology infrastructures to support patient-centered care and interdisciplinary integration at the point of care across hundreds of healthcare settings. She is currently co-chair of the TIGER Initiative Foundation Board of Directors (Technology Informatics Guiding Education Reform).
Dr. Susan Sportsman is the Director of the Academic Consulting Group, an innovative service of Elsevier that provides targeted consultation services and faculty development workshops to improve nursing education. The consultants provide expert, unbiased, results-oriented recommendations for improving the clients’ programs. Dr. Sportsman is also currently the Co-Chair of the Texas Team Advancing Health Through Nursing Education Committee and a member of the Texas Board of Nursing Advisory Committee on Education.
Open access publisher BioMed Central has announced that the journal Multidisciplinary Respiratory Medicine has published its first open access articles with the publisher. The journal, originally published by Novamedia srl, launched in 2006 as the official scientific journal of the Interdisciplinary Association for Research in Lung Diseases, AIMAR.
Editors-in-Chief Fernando De Benedetto, Claudio F Donner and Claudio M Sanguinetti look forward to the journal’s continued growth under the open access model. The opportunity for increased visibility offered by open access will surely help the journal to become the truly international publication that it hopes to be.
Multidisciplinary Respiratory Medicine is a peer-reviewed, open access journal encompassing all aspects of respiratory medicine. It has a particular focus on interdisciplinary and translational research. The journal is the official journal of the Italian scientific society AIMAR. It aims to provide a forum for the publication and free access of high quality original scientific articles, reviews and position papers documenting clinical and experimental advances in respiratory medicine, and related fields.
PeerJ Inc., a new US-based open access academic publishing company, has formally announced its launch. Founded by academic publishing and technology professionals from PLoS ONE and Mendeley, PeerJ will publish a broad based, rapid, peer-reviewed journal, PeerJ, and a preprint server, PeerJ PrePrints. PeerJ will open for submissions in Summer 2012, and will publish its first articles in December 2012.
PeerJ will publish all well reported, scientifically sound research in the biological and medical sciences. The journal will operate a rigorous peer review process and will deliver the highest standards in everything it does.
It seeks to provide authors with low cost lifetime memberships giving them the rights to publish their papers freely thereafter. Three membership plans exist - Basic, Enhanced and Investigator. All member plans confer lifetime rights, and the three tiers allow members to publish once, twice, or an unlimited number of times per year in PeerJ.
Funding for PeerJ has come from a partnership between O'Reilly AlphaTech Ventures (OATV) and O’Reilly Media. Tim O’Reilly, founder of O’Reilly Media and an Open Source leader, will join the governing board of PeerJ. He was reportedly instrumental in helping to block the passage of the 2012 RWA bill in the US Congress (which would have negatively affected open access to academic content in the US) and is a passionate advocate for open, unfettered communication in academia.
Accelrys, Inc., a US-based scientific enterprise R&D software and services company, has announced its first European Science Symposium with a focus on advancing scientific innovation through improved predictive science and data analysis. Taking place on June 20 at the Sheraton Brussels Hotel, this free event provides the opportunity for scientists to hear how academic and industry experts are addressing the most difficult and important scientific challenges with advanced modelling, simulation and data analysis software solutions.
The Science Symposium includes speakers from Accelrys and ABB (Sweden), ETH (Zurich), EsbaTech (Switzerland), European Bioinformatics Institute and University of Dundee (UK), FMP and Fraunhofer IFAM (Germany), Universite de Mons (Belgium), Universidad de Navarra (Spain) and Institut de Recherches Servier, Discngine and Universite de Strasbourg (France).
The European Science Symposium offers three dedicated tracks focusing on scientific data analysis; life sciences modelling; and simulation and materials science modeling and simulation.
The Scientific Data Analysis track focuses on the use of Pipeline Pilot and the scientific Component Collections that underpin Accelrys Enterprise Platform to solve problems spanning cheminformatics, bioinformatics (including Next Generation Sequencing), image analysis, statistical analysis and text analytics.
The Life Sciences Modeling and Simulation track focuses on the use of Accelrys Discovery Studio software in the discovery and development of macromolecule therapeutics and small molecule drugs. This track also features a demonstration of the upcoming Discovery Studio release along with case studies on the design and development of antibody drugs and lead optimisation of small molecules.
The Materials Science Modeling and Simulation track focuses on the use of Accelrys Materials Studio software in the research and development of new materials and the optimisation of existing materials and formulations. Case studies will cover topics such as polymer, formulation and catalysis modelling.
The Charlesworth Group has renewed national online agreements with 12 publishers as part of its National Science and Technology Library (NSTL) consortia sales programme. These renewals cover a 3 year term.
The country-wide China agreements with NSTL connects publishers to around 650 Chinese universities and research centers, opening opportunities for publishers to increase their reach, brand and readership across China, connecting with institutions nationally and disseminating key research to an increasing audience across this growing market.
The Charlesworth Group offers customisable and trusted publishing services, innovating and educating from their global office base across 3 continents - Asia, Europe and North America. The company specialises in China sales and marketing, cutting edge XML workflows, and Author & Education services.
Google ends legal dispute with French authors over book scanning project
Springer and Fields Institute for Research in Mathematical Sciences announce publishing partnership
Leaders in the nursing field named to American Academy of Nursing 2012 Class of Fellows
Multidisciplinary Respiratory Medicine journal publishes first OA articles with BioMed Central
The Charlesworth Group renews China agreements with National Science and Technology Library