STM publisher Springer Science+Business Media, Germany, has announced that its Springer eBooks Collection has witnessed substantial success, with several universities and companies opting for it. It has recently signed agreements with academic institutions including the Great Western Library Alliance consortium (US), the University of Chicago (US), the University of Manchester (UK), the University of Oslo (Norway), the University of Jordan, the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology/ETH, the Akademintorg / Russian Foundation for Basic research consortium, several members of the KESLI consortium (Korea) and several institutes in India. In addition, several companies have also purchased Springer eBooks.
All students and researchers at individual universities and companies will have electronic access to the Springer eBooks they have purchased, with immediate effect. Currently nearly 13,000 e-books are available on www.springerlink.com.
The Springer eBook Collection was launched at the ALA Annual Conference in New Orleans earlier this year. The company has introduced a special offer, wherein customers who purchase the 2007 eBook Collection before the end of 2006 get the electronic versions of all Springer books published in 2005 and 2006 as well.
Search engine and online engineering community operator GlobalSpec, US, has announced the launch of its online community, CR4SM - The Engineer's Place for News and Discussion. The website, available at cr4.globalspec.com, provides a collaborative environment for engineers, scientists, technical researchers and related professionals.
The portal offers visitors, access to open industry-based forums where they can discuss important engineering issues and seek out answers to technical questions. Additionally, it contains blogs from industry professionals, tracking news, trends and technological advancements. Registration is offered for free and users are invited to participate in the forums and blog discussions.
The newly redesigned CR4 makes it easier for users to register, post articles, ask questions, and obtain information tailored to their specific interests. Also, users can post images, which in conjunction with the symbols editor function, can be used to post mathematical formulas while posing questions and participating in discussions.
Users can also subscribe to the Daily Digest, a daily e-mail summary of current stories and posts on CR4, allowing them to easily stay up-to-date.
The Institution of Engineering and Technology (IET) has announced that it will launch five new publications at the forthcoming International Online Information exhibition in London. The institute will also announce a major development of its Digital Library platform.
Under the initiative, IET will split its journal IEE Proceedings Vision, Image and Signal processing into three new titles - IET Computer Vision, IET Image Processing and IET Signal Processing. The new titles will focus on a specific area of research, enabling greater coverage of each of these important topics. In addition, two new titles - IET Synthetic Biology, edited by Dr. Jim Haseloff, University of Cambridge and IET Renewable Power Generation, edited by Professor David Infield, CREST at Loughborough University - will be launched in 2007.
The new publications are projected to widen the scope of the Institution's research journals and take to 22 the total of such publications. The announcement coincides with a redesign of the existing titles which will move from the IEE brand to IET. This follows the creation of the new Institution by the IEE and IIE earlier this year.
In addition, the institute will also launch its new online journals archive, which will contain digitised back issues of IEE's research journals dating as back as 1872. The Electronics Letters back-file from 1965-1993 will be available for the opening of the Online exhibition. Remaining content, including the IEE Proceedings journals, will be available from early 2007.
Information services provider Atypon Systems, Inc., US, has announced a three-year extension of its e-journal publishing partnership with academic publisher Lynne Rienner Publishers, US. Under the deal, Atypon will continue to provide the technology platform for the Journal of East Asian Studies, Global Governance and Alternatives.
Atypon Link, the company's e-publishing solution, is projected as a scalable platform that provides various innovations and enhancements each year. According to the company, it offers a cost effective, aggregated hosting and delivery platform wherein publishers can benefit from a well managed, outsourced e-publishing service. It allows for a branded publisher presence and provides publishers with the ability to set publishing and business model parameters within an easy-to-use, reliable system. It also simplifies the process of launching and managing content online, requiring less in-house resources.
Lynne Rienner publishes scholarly and academic books and journals in politics, the social sciences and the humanities.
Publisher EBSCO Publishing, US, has announced an agreement with COIN Educational Products (COIN), US, to acquire the latter's high school career guidance product line. Under the deal, applicable COIN products including COIN Career Library, COIN Career Community, and Coin Career Guidance, will now be hosted and supported by EBSCO. However, COIN will remain the owner and provider of its own line of materials pertaining to K-8 career guidance and educational planning.
COIN products owned by EBSCO include Coin Career Library, Coin Career Community and Coin Career Guidance. COIN will however retain other products such as CLIMB, CLUE, Career Targets, Career Targets Online, Coin Jr., Individual Career Planning Portfolios, Basic Skills, and Coin Educational Inventory.
COIN products provide intuitive, informative tools for students and advisors to delve into self-assessment, and to gather detailed information on the specific careers and institutions that match their skills, interests, etc. These career solution products are expected to further complement EBSCO's growing suite of databases.
Academic publisher Maney Publishing, UK, has reportedly announced new agreements with four leading universities in the UK, via Eduserv Chest. Under the deal, the universities will now have access to Maney's online journal content.
The universities are: The Open University, the Swansea University, the Glasgow University and the University of Manchester. While the Open University has signed up to the Materials Science and Engineering Collection, Swansea has opted for the History and Humanities Collection. The Glasgow University has opted for Healthcare as well as the History and Humanities Collection. The University of Manchester has signed up for the whole collection, which includes Botanical/Environment.
The Maney Online Research E-Journal (MORE) collections offer immediate online access to 60 titles from the publisher. The materials science and engineering collection has been enhanced with the addition of eleven titles from the UK based publisher Multi-Science Publishing.
In a separate deal, the University of Western Ontario has signed up for the History and Humanities collection.
A study of librarian purchasing preferences commissioned by the Publishing Research Consortium (PRC), UK, has revealed the factors that could prompt a librarian to substitute journal subscriptions with open access (OA) materials. According to the study titled 'Self-Archiving and Journal Subscriptions: Co-existence or Competition?' the length of the embargo period and peer review are key determinants in a librarian's decision to maintain, or not, journal subscriptions. The study raises questions about previous claims that librarians will continue to subscribe to journals even when some or all of the content is freely available on institutional archives.
The study, conducted by Scholarly Information Strategies in July 2006, surveyed over 400 librarians internationally. As well as collecting their general attitudes to OA, conjoint analysis was employed to identify the relative importance of specific decision-making factors such as price, embargo period, article version and reliability of access. This approach was to avoid selection bias and produce data models that show the likely impact on subscription or cancellation behaviour under different market scenarios. The model outputs can be highly useful for developing products, understanding price sensitivity and examining other practical issues.
The PRC is a group representing publishers and societies supporting global research into scholarly communication. The full report of the study can be accessed on the PRC site at www.publishingresearch.org.uk.
This is with reference to the news alert titled "Dialog Choice pricing plan now available to academic institutions" covered in the News Section of Knowledgespeak (dated 9th November 2006). The article has been removed due to a dateline error.
