The Royal Society, UK's autonomous scientific academy, has announced that a complete archive of the Royal Society journals will be made freely available online for the first time. This includes some of the most significant scientific papers published since 1665.
The Society's online collection, until recently only extended back to 1997. The archive now comprises every paper published in the Royal Society journals from the first ever peer-reviewed scientific journal, Philosophical Transactions in 1665, to the most recent addition, Interface. In addition, the archive provides a record of key scientific discoveries in the last 340 years. It also comprises more amusing experiments and observations such as the use of electrical conductors to cure muscle stiffness and a bizarre description of a 'Very Odd Monstrous Calf' which illustrate the inquisitive nature of science's early pioneers.
The archive will be freely available online until December 2006. Following this period, it will be available as part of Royal Society journal subscription packages or alternatively on a-pay per-view basis.
Scientific journal Nature has reportedly adopted an open peer-review system to review papers submitted for publication. Under the initiative, manuscripts will be uploaded to a pre-print server and made available online to members of the scientific community in a blog format.
Comments submitted are subject to review themselves prior to being published, and those commenting will be required to put their name and institution to their words. In addition to public review via the Peer Review Trial, manuscripts will continue to be sent to Nature's experts for a closed review. Also, authors can choose not to have their work reviewed in this manner, as there are some disadvantages associated with having an open peer-review. Although access is intended primarily for the scientific community, anyone can access the pre-published material.
However, the journal will discard any comments found to be irrelevant, intemperate or inappropriate. According to Nature's editors, both sets of comments -- the traditional peer-review opinions as well as the online remarks - will be taken into consideration while deciding whether or not to publish a study.
The Association of Learned and Professional Society Publishers (ALPSP), US, has announced the winners of the ALPSP Awards and the ALPSP/Charlesworth Awards. The international awards recognise significant achievements in the field of learned and professional publishing and are open to all publishers, societies and journal owners.
The British Journal of Surgery, published by John Wiley and Sons for the British Journal of Surgery Society Ltd., was announced winner of the ALPSP/Charlesworth Award for Learned Journals 2006. While the judges awarded a Highly Commended certificate to The Lancet Neurology, published by Elsevier, Regenerative Medicine, published by Future Medicine, and Crime Media Culture, published by SAGE Publications, were announced joint winners in the ALPSP/Charlesworth Award for Best New Journal 2006.
The ALPSP Award for Publishing Innovation was won by the International Union of Crystallography (IUCr) for its Data Exchange, Quality Assurance and Integrated Data Publication (CIF and checkCIF). The judges also awarded a Highly Commended certificate to the Knovel Interactive Library, an extensive online research platform for scientists and engineers.
Sally Morris, CEO of ALPSP, bagged the ALPSP Awards for Service to Scholarly Publishing for providing inspiration, wise advice and leadership to the stakeholders of the industry. Also short-listed was e-Therapeutics: Drug Therapy Management from the Canadian Pharmacists Association.
Subscription services provider EBSCO Information Services, US, has announced that it has enhanced its A-to-Z (A-to-Z) title listing service to meet the demands of its growing customer base. Several new features have been introduced to reduce the administrative demands of managing electronic resources.
Enhancements include a new account details page that provides vital collection statistics at-a-glance as well as up-to-date information about the account status, including activated features; access to the library's file upload/download history, including date and time of recent downloads; new search capabilities to easily locate individual titles or titles that are part of a package; the ability to manage coverage information for e-journal packages at the package or title level; an updated title wizard providing additional details to help customers select the right titles; and other improvements that simplify usage of notes, icons and more.
EBSCO's A-to-Z service provides library patrons with a single, comprehensive list of the electronic titles to which they have access. The feature allows users to quickly locate and link to journals of interest. Users can search for journals by keyword or browse an alphabetical list by title or subject.
Non-profit publisher Public Library of Science (PLoS), US, has announced the launch of a new open access (OA) journal, PLoS Neglected Tropical Diseases. The journal claims to be the first OA journal covering the world's most neglected diseases. Peter Hotez, Professor and Chairman, Department of Microbiology and Tropical Medicine, The George Washington University, serves as Editor-in-Chief.
Supported by a $1.1 million grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, PLoS Neglected Tropical Diseases, will focus on the world's most neglected tropical diseases (NTDs), such as elephantiasis, river blindness, leprosy, hookworm, schistosomiasis, and African sleeping sickness. The journal will publish high-quality, peer-reviewed research on all scientific, medical, and public health aspects of these forgotten diseases affecting millions of people every year in poor countries. In addition, the journal will include an engaging magazine section containing commentaries, reviews, features, analyses, and debates, using the latest online functionality.
The journal will begin accepting submissions in 2007. Its International Editorial Board includes experts from developing countries, and some of the biggest names in tropical medicine and global health, including renowned health economist Jeffrey Sachs and the director of the World Health Organisation's African river blindness control program, Uche Amazigo.
Library solutions provider Ex Libris, Israel, and academic publisher Cambridge University Press (CUP), UK, have announced a new deal. The two will integrate MetaLib, Ex Libris' library portal and metasearch tool, with Cambridge Journals Online, CUP's database of articles from over 200 academic journals. MetaLib will now be able to search the Cambridge University Press XML gateway and retrieve Cambridge Journals Online results.
CUP and Ex Libris jointly developed the Cambridge University Press XML gateway, which uses the Search/Retrieve via URL (SRU) protocol. The new XML gateway enables MetaLib users to include Cambridge Journals Online along with other databases in a single search, retrieving records from all these databases.
CUP, the publishing division of the University of Cambridge, seeks to advance learning, knowledge and research worldwide with the publication of over 200 journals and over 2,500 books a year for distribution in more than 200 countries. Ex Libris is a worldwide developer and provider of high-performance applications for libraries, information centres and researchers, with installations in 62 countries.
e-content service provider Techbooks, US, has announced the appointment of Carol Field as Director of Publishing Services.
In her new position, Field will be expected to strengthen professional and higher education content solutions. She will work directly with authors and publishers, such as McGraw Hill and Reed Elsevier, to develop and create content, particularly in the STM sector. Her focus initially will be in medical and humanities world.
A 30 year veteran of publishing industry, Field will initially focus on the medical and humanities world. Prior to this, she served Dovetail Content Solutions, where she oversaw editorial and production services. Earlier, she also served in several editorial and operations positions within Harper & Row Medical Publishers, Saunders College Publishing, Lippincott Williams & Wilkins and Elsevier's Clinics of North America division.
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