The Association of American Publishers (AAP) has joined six other copyright-related trade associations to submit its annual Special 301 Report to the Office of the US Trade Representative (USTR). The report, completed under the umbrella of the International Intellectual Property Alliance (IIPA), details issues related to IP rights protection and market access around the world.

This year’s report highlights copyright protection and enforcement problems in 48 countries and territories, and recommends that 40 of them be placed on an appropriate USTR watch list. USTR is required by statute to conduct an annual review of IP protection worldwide, undertaken each spring, and the IIPA report was prepared pursuant to that mandate. It places countries and territories on appropriate watch lists if an interagency government review process finds shortcomings in their efforts to combat IP theft. Global piracy continues to be viewed as a serious problem for the copyright industries and the US economy, costing high paying US jobs and undermining the nation’s economic growth.

In the report, the IIPA asks that China be placed on the Priority Watch List again this year. AAP and its sister organisation in the UK have continued their anti-piracy efforts in China over the past year. There is a particular emphasis on organised textbook piracy on that country’s university campuses and on Internet infringements affecting professional and scholarly publishers. While 2008 saw ongoing action on the textbook piracy issue, much more needs to be done, it has been observed. New revelations about the widespread use of infringing textbooks and reference books in university libraries throughout the country are particularly troubling. In addition, AAP remains deeply concerned by the Chinese government's inaction in the face of egregious infringement of online academic and professional journals by a company called Kangjian Shixun. Well-known Chinese libraries are supplying electronic copies of journals to this company for sale in competition with legitimate publishers.

The IIPA report also recommends that 12 other countries be placed on the Priority Watch List. Among them are Canada, Egypt, India, Mexico, Pakistan, the Philippines, Russia and Thailand, all of which are of significant interest to US publishers. Thailand is facing a rare but very damaging pirate-production-for-export problem and AAP seeks the full cooperation of Thai authorities in dealing with it. The court systems in the Philippines and India are in need of significant reform; online protection needs to be addressed by Canada and Russia and overall enforcement efforts in Pakistan need improvement.

The report recommends that 25 countries/territories be placed or kept on the Watch List. The report also requests Special 301 out-of-cycle reviews for Spain, Saudi Arabia and Malaysia. Finally, IIPA requests heightened engagement by the US government regarding eight additional countries or territories, including Taiwan, Japan and Hong Kong. While IIPA makes no recommendation regarding placement of these countries or territories on a Special 301 list, the issues highlighted in the report remain significant.

The full report can be accessed at www.iipa.com.

Scientific journal Science has published a report, according to which having research published in open access (OA) journals and other free sources does not lead to increased exposure and citations. These findings are seen to provide new insight into the nature of scholarly discussion and the future of the open source publication movement.

It is observed that an increasing number of scientists are publishing their research in open source outlets online. As these publications are freely accessible over the Internet, it is believed that more interested readers will find them and potentially cite them. Earlier studies have assumed that the open source format can more than double the number of times a journal article is used by other researchers.

James A. Evans, an assistant professor of sociology at the University of Chicago, and Jacob Reimer, a student of neurobiology at the same university, analysed millions of articles available online. These included those from open source publications and those that required payment to access. The results revealed that, on an average, when a given publication was made available online after being in print for a year, being published in an open source format increased the use of that article by about 8 percent. When articles are made available online in a commercial format a year after publication, however, usage increases by about 12 percent.

Evans and Reimer's research also points out that researchers in the developing world, where research funding and libraries are not as robust as they are in wealthier countries, were far more likely to read and cite open source articles.

The University of Chicago team concludes that outside the developed world, the open source movement ‘widens the global circle of those who can participate in science and benefit from it.’ So while some scientists and scholars may choose to pay for scientific publications even when free publications are available, their colleagues in other parts of the world may find that going with open source works is the only choice they have.

The Association of Research Libraries (ARL) Ad Hoc Task Force to Review the Proposed OCLC Policy for Use and Transfer of WorldCat Records has issued its final report. The report calls on OCLC to develop a new policy to replace the one released in November 2008.

OCLC’s release of the policy elicited serious concern from the ARL community, as well as the broader library community. As a result, ARL established an ad hoc task force to review the policy and identify issues of particular interest to research libraries. The task force report includes a brief overview of the policy and the task force’s understanding of the policy’s intent. This is followed by an explanation of specific issues and findings regarding both the policy itself and the implementation process. The report concludes with recommendations for OCLC and the library community.

The ARL Board of Directors has accepted the task force’s report. The Association has shared the report with OCLC for the use of its Board of Trustees and its newly established Review Board of Shared Data Creation and Stewardship.

The report is freely available on the ARL website at http://www.arl.org/bm~doc/oclc-report-jan09.pdf.

ProQuest, part of Cambridge Information Group, US, has announced that the full suite of ProQuest Central database products is now available to members of the Institute of Information Science (IZUM) throughout Slovenia through a subscription arrangement. The breadth of content in ProQuest Central is seen to be well suited to meet the information needs of IZUM’s growing community of university, high school and special libraries.

ProQuest Central is projected as the largest aggregated full-text database in the market currently, totalling more than 11,600 titles, of which 8,700 titles are in full text. The licence agreement with IZUM is expected to both enable access to content for academics, and help subscribing institutions throughout Slovenia attract the best researchers from around the globe. It follows a similar agreement made recently in Bulgaria.

From primary scholarly journals, popular trade publications, company reports and dissertations to newspapers, newsletters and newswires, ProQuest Central seeks to provide global coverage of a wide range of disciplines. It also provides full-text content from several leading publishers across the world, including full-text titles from Cambridge University Press and Dow Jones. Current and international content is provided in over 160 subject areas including business and economics, medical and health, news and world affairs, science, education, technology, humanities, social sciences, psychology, literature, law and women’s studies. ProQuest Central also seeks to offer sophisticated content indexing and platform features.

STM publisher Elsevier, Netherlands, has announced that the Australian Research Council (ARC) has selected Scopus, the world’s largest abstract and citation (A&C) database, for its Excellence in Research for Australia (ERA) initiative. The ERA initiative will assess research quality within Australia's higher education institutions using a combination of indicators and expert review by committees comprised of experienced, internationally-recognised experts.

Scopus Custom Data will be the sole provider used to assess the country’s higher education research output for the ERA’s first group of science disciplines - Physical, Chemical and Earth Sciences (PCE). By leveraging the content available in Scopus the ARC’s ERA initiative will evaluate 41 Higher Education Providers (HEPs) using international and national benchmarks.

Scopus Custom Data provides research agencies, institutions and government bodies with customised datasets in XML format for large-scale research performance analysis. The XML data can then be loaded by customers into their proprietary in-house systems, making it possible for them to run their specific search queries and execute their own analytical techniques; providing the analyst with the freedom to formulate their own reports.

Scientific publisher Nature Publishing Group, UK, has announced that Nature Chemistry, its 16th research journal, is now publishing papers online in advance of print. The first issue (April 2009) will go live on March 20th at http://www.nature.com/nchem/index.html.

A monthly peer-reviewed publication, Nature Chemistry will cover chemistry-related research in traditional core chemical fields as well as multidisciplinary subjects such as bioinorganic chemistry and nanotechnology. It will publish research articles, reviews, correspondence, perspectives and commentaries, as well as News & Views articles about recent research advances and analyses of issues including education, funding and the impact of chemistry on society.

Readers will also be able to view 3-D displays of molecules described in research papers on the journal's website. They can also click on links to PubChem, and post comments.

E-research and educational publisher Gale, part of Cengage Learning, US, has announced that three of its titles were named Outstanding Reference Sources for 2008 by the American Library Association’s Reference and User Services Association (RUSA). Available in digital, eBook and print format, the winning titles are: Climate Change in Context; The Gale Encyclopedia of Diets; and Encyclopedia of Products and Industries – Manufacturing.

Climate Change in Context is a comprehensive guide to the increasingly important topic of climate change, including global warming. Cross-curricular in nature, the title supports both basic and advanced curricula in earth and environmental science, general science, history, government and the social sciences. Aimed primarily at high school students, this two-volume, four-colour title offers coverage of the history, politics and ethical debates related to climate change, including the impact of climate change on daily life, trade and commerce, travel and the future of both industrialized and impoverished nations.

The Gale Encyclopedia of Diets examines in two volumes special diets such as a Gluten-free or high-protein diet and popular weight-loss programs such as the Atkins Diet, dietary concerns, nutritional basics and the effects of dietary choices on one's health. The Encyclopaedia presents an overview of all topics in a standardised, balanced format.

Encyclopedia of Products and Industries – Manufacturing is designed to assist college students who need to research products and the relationships between products and their industries. This two-volume set focuses on manufacturers of durable goods such as tires, automobiles, appliances, business equipment, home furnishings and sporting goods. Tables, charts and statistics augment essays and include market size, market share and market segments.

The Outstanding Reference Sources list was established in 1958 to recommend the best reference publications for small and medium-sized libraries. Since this time, Gale has received more than 50 RUSA awards. The Reference Sources Committee evaluates print reference sources and publishes annually an annotated list of these outstanding reference works in the May issue of American Libraries. The list is also included in Reference & Users Services Quarterly and via the website http://www.ala.org/ala/rusa/rusaprotools/
outstandingref/outstandingreference.cfm.

The journal Psychotherapy and Psychosomatics has published a paper which deals with the issue of intellectual freedom in medical research. Authored by journal editor Giovanni A. Fava, the paper is available in the current issue of the journal.

The paper notes that the drug industry has full control of many scientific societies, journals and clinical practice guidelines. Members of special interest groups act as editors, reviewers and consultants to medical journals, scientific meetings and non-profit research organisations, with the task of systematically preventing the dissemination of data which may be in conflict with their interest. It further states that censorship may be the result of direct prevention of publication and dissemination of findings by the pharmaceutical company itself.

Another subtle form of censorship is by counteracting published information with massive doses of propaganda. Filtering information (selective perception), engineering opinions, using the public relations industry and marginalising dissident cultures are the well-known modalities of action. Yet, according to Fava, it is deliberate self-censorship which may yield the most dangerous effects. One way to address the problem has to do with the value that is represented by investigators who opted for not having any substantial conflicts of interest. The paper provides several suggestions for preserving intellectual freedom in medicine, based on research evidence which is available.

The International Council for Scientific and Technical Information (ICSTI) has announced that its ‘Managing Data for Science’ annual conference and general assembly will be held from June 9-11, 2009, at Library and Archives Canada, in Ottawa. Hosted by the NRC Canada Institute for Scientific and Technical Information (NRC-CISTI), this annual conference has been largely viewed as being a dynamic engine for research and development as well as scientific data management and integration worldwide. This year's conference will be structured around the data ‘lifecycle.’

ICSTI 2009 will address issues ranging from integration in published outputs and re-purposing, to hosting, archiving and preservation. Speakers include Paul Uhlir from the US National Academies, Lee Dirks from Microsoft as well as Richard Boulderstone from the British Library. These practitioners and others will speak about the effect of eScience on the way libraries, publishers and scientists relate to each other as well as how the era of ‘big data’ will enable enhanced experimentation and collaboration in science.

Throughout the conference, speakers will emphasise on how data management and collaboration are key factors in the innovation process, and how science and technology are now part of our daily lives. More information on the conference is available at www.icsti.org.

STM publisher Springer, Germany, has announced a partnership with the Senckenberg Gesellschaft fuer Naturforschung to publish two scientific journals - Palaeobiodiversity and Palaeoenvironments and Marine Biodiversity – starting March 2009.

A quarterly publication, Palaeobiodiversity and Palaeoenvironments is an international journal providing a multidisciplinary approach to the fields of palaeobiodiversity, palaeoenvironments and palaeobiogeography. Reporting on the causes and processes of changes in plant and animal life in earth’s history, the journal publishes original research, review papers and short notes. Dr. Peter Königshof of the Senckenberg Research Institute and Natural History Museum in Frankfurt, Germany, is the editor.

Devoted to all aspects of biodiversity research in marine ecosystems, Marine Biodiversity presents original research papers, short notes and reviews. The scope of the journal covers research at gene, species and ecosystems levels, and the patterns and understanding of the processes responsible for the regulation and maintenance of diversity in marine systems. Dr. Pedro Martínez Arbizu of the Senckenberg Research Institute at the German Center for Marine Biodiversity Research in Wilhelmshaven is the editor.

The journals will be published in both electronic and print versions. They will receive maximum exposure through Springer’s abstracting and indexing services and innovative product development initiatives.

Publishing-specific software solutions provider Publishing Technology plc, UK, has announced a partnership with Klopotek AG to promote IngentaConnect and pub2web products in the German and Benelux markets. Klopotek AG is a leading supplier of software and consulting services for publishers of books and journals, print and online.

Under the agreement, Klopotek will develop new business opportunities for the online products, while Publishing Technology will retain responsibility for product support. The agreement grants Klopotek exclusive rights in Germany and non-exclusive rights in the Benelux region.

IngentaConnect is a fully-outsourced e-publishing service, hosting over 30,000 publications for a range of different publishers. The service maximises publication discoverability and current awareness while getting content online quickly, easily and affordably. IngentaConnect is integrated with many other scholarly web services and key traffic drivers such as Google. It receives more than 6 million visits each month from a global user base numbering in the millions. The service provides flexible access and authorization, thereby allowing publishers to control the business models used - subscriptions, pay-per-view, free trials, etc.

pub2web is a comprehensive, content-agnostic, multi-lingual digital publishing platform built on the proven technology of IngentaConnect. It is designed to address the evolving and diverse online strategies of the 21st century publishing community. The platform enables book and journal publishers to leverage their online investment to its fullest potential by providing them with full control over their brand, content and user relationships along with the flexibility to deliver content at the most granular level.

Library solutions provider Ex Libris Group, Israel, has announced that the TriUniversity Group of Libraries (TUG) in Ontario, Canada, has gone live with a public beta version of the Primo discovery and delivery solution. TUG is a consortium of three university libraries - the University of Guelph, the University of Waterloo, and Wilfrid Laurier University. The Group is also a member of the Ontario Council of University Libraries (OCUL) consortium and the Canadian Research Knowledge Network (CRKN).

Primo is claimed to be a one-stop solution for the discovery and delivery of local and remote resources, such as books, journal articles and digital objects. The solution’s Deep Search technology, a component of the Ex Libris strategic commitment to provide quality discovery for all research-library resources, enables library data from all sources to be seamlessly integrated.

Primo Deep Search functionality, which TUG will be using, enables Primo to display ranked result sets comprised of data retrieved from external repositories together with the library’s local data. The unified result set is ranked by relevance and displayed using faceted categorisation. Tight integration with the external indexes that Primo leverages enables the solution to relate to the data contained within the external systems as if it was an intrinsic part of Primo. The result is that Primo end users experience instantaneous display of results with high-quality relevance ranking and a range of discovery-augmenting functionality such as user generated content, facets, e-shelf, and ‘did you mean’.

The consortium is also beginning to work with its OCUL partners to integrate the electronic journal services of Scholars Portal into Primo, and to implement Primo Deep Search technology for full-text searching in the e-journal repository.

Online publishing solutions provider Semantico Limited, UK, has announced a new release of its SAMS access management system for online publishing offering full support for Shibboleth version 1.3 and 2.0. The new version positions SAMS as a next-generation access system.

The new Shibboleth-enabled version of SAMS offers improved data security and convenience for end-users. The update allows institutions to more easily comply with the direction currently being given by JISC. JISC recently announced its decision to move from Athens to 'a new generation access management service, based on the Shibboleth technology', and is encouraging its stakeholders to embrace federated access. The new version of SAMS has already been successfully deployed with two of Semantico's major clients and further implementations are underway.

Since its launch in 2003, SAMS has grown a large installed base, aided by its flexibility in covering access models for journals, e-books, reference works, directories and scholarly publishing. Users include Oxford University Press, Cambridge University Press, Dawson Books, Brill and Hodder Education. The largest SAMS deployment handles more than 5 million authentication requests per month, and over 20 million API requests.

Scrip World Pharmaceutical News has launched scripnews.com – an online news and analysis service for the global pharmaceutical industry. The launch firmly places Scrip at the cutting edge of online content and delivery.

Scripnews.com offers users the latest breaking news in context by providing added-value drug, clinical and company information from Citeline, journal abstracts from Expert Opinion, Current Medical Research and Opinion and JME, as well as links to other Informa Pharma newsletter content. It serves as a single point of access for all Scrip content, enabling users to benefit from multimedia reporting, a 24 hour news cycle, a global editorial team, and the fully integrated input from the whole Informa Pharma team of analysts. Customisable e-mail alerts will deliver Scrip news to any level of subject detail at any requested frequency. The site’s advanced ‘search’, ‘related content’, and ‘refine by’ features will allow users to focus on their specific information needs.

The weekly publication of Scrip World Pharmaceutical News will continue to be an important part of the Scrip subscription package during the newsletter’s transition from an issue-based news publication to an online service.

The full scripnews.com service is now available to Scrip subscribers. Non-subscribers will also be able to sample the complete new service by visiting scripnews.com and registering for a complimentary trial subscription.

The Association of Research Libraries (ARL) has released a statement on the current global economic crisis and its effect on publishing and library subscriptions. The ARL statement, which is aimed at scholarly publishers and vendors, reinforces some of the key points in a recent statement by the International Coalition of Library Consortia (ICOLC) and offers additional observations and recommendations from the perspectives of ARL member libraries.

Large libraries are far from exempt from the consequences of the current global economic crisis. Downturns in state support for public institutions along with substantial losses in endowment funds mean that many ARL member libraries are facing substantial reductions in both operating and materials budgets. In addition to cuts already made, there is strong evidence that most ARL member libraries are preparing for further budget reductions in the 2009–2010 fiscal year.

The ARL statement includes a set of recommendations that are based on the belief that scholarly publishers are all set to act to minimise negative impacts on the scholarly communication system resulting from economic conditions. Among other strategies, the statements calls for publishers and vendors to adopt flexible approaches to pricing and avoid reducing content or access as libraries seek to renegotiate expenditures. ARL encourages publishers to consult widely with research libraries in developing responses to the current economic environment. Small, not-for-profit publishers are of particular concern, and ARL member libraries welcome conversations regarding new publishing models that can reduce the cost and vulnerability of established publications of high value.

The full statement is available on the ARL website at http://www.arl.org/bm~doc/economic-statement-2009.pdf.

The UK Research Reserve (UKRR) programme, a collaborative initiative of higher education libraries led by Imperial College London and the British Library, has been launched. Under the initiative, the British Library will store low-use journals for the HE community and make them accessible to researchers and others using the latest ordering and delivery systems. In July 2008, the Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE) announced £9.84 million of funding for a five year programme to build upon the success of Phase 1.

The UKRR will safeguard the long term future of printed research journals. Low-use journals will be stored and maintained at the British Library, enabling quick and easy access to research materials. Building on the strengths of the British Library's document supply service, researchers can choose to access journal articles in printed or electronic format. The British Library will ensure efficient use of resources allowing universities to reclaim the space from journal storage and re-purpose it for new opportunities, for example research and learning. By the end of the five-year programme 100 km of shelf space will have been released, amounting to capital savings of £29 million.

The programme builds on the successful 18 month pilot phase which proved the concept in eight participating libraries from the Universities of Birmingham, Cardiff, Exeter, Imperial College London, Liverpool, Newcastle, Southampton and St Andrews.

The Medpedia Project has announced the public launch of the beta version of a technology platform for the worldwide health community. Harvard Medical School, Stanford School of Medicine, Berkeley School of Public Health, University of Michigan Medical School and other leading global health organisations, are contributing in various ways to Medpedia. The Medpedia Project aims to create a new model of how the world will assemble, maintain, critique and access medical knowledge. It will, over time, be a repository of up-to-date unbiased medical information, contributed and maintained by health experts around the world, and freely available to everyone.

The Medpedia Platform includes three interrelated services - a collaborative knowledge base; a Professional Network and Directory for health professionals and organizations; and Communities of Interest in which medical professionals and non-professionals can share information about conditions, treatments, lifestyle choices, etc. This free resource is available at www.medpedia.com.

The Medpedia collaborative knowledge base provides medical professionals and organisations a central place to record their knowledge and receive national and international recognition and visibility for their expertise. Since the announcement of The Medpedia Project in July 2008, over 110 organisations have contributed or pledged over 7,000 pages of content to the knowledge base, and thousands of people have become a part of the community.

The Medpedia Professional Network provides medical and health professionals a free communications and networking system, a place to organise conference attendees and speakers, a professional expertise directory, a recruiting tool for research collaborators, and a clinical referral network. Twenty five health organisations recently announced plans to use the Medpedia Network and Directory to connect with their memberships. The list includes the American Heart Association (AHA), NHS Choices (National Health Service) of the UK, the University of Michigan Medical School (UMMS), the University of California Berkeley School of Public Health, and many others.

Royal Society Publishing has announced that its online journal content is now hosted on the HighWire H2O platform. The new domain http://royalsocietypublishing.org replaces the site on MetaPress. Title-level redirects are now in place until the end of April on the old MetaPress site to take users automatically to the relevant journal homepage on HighWire where all journal content, 1665 to the present day, is now loaded. To give libraries time to check their e-access accounts and make necessary changes all content is open to visitors until March 31. After that date only subscribers will be able to access current content for Royal Society journals.

HighWire's H2O platform infrastructure is designed to cooperate with emerging web services and technologies, keeping publishers ahead of the curve. Because the system architecture seamlessly accommodates content structured in different ways, H2O is designed not only to accommodate the latest technology, but also to anticipate the technology of the future. The e-publishing software platform will allow Royal Society Publishing content to be more accessible, and more portable, than ever. It will enable readers to take the latest scientific discoveries with them, through RSS feeds or through any other flexible - and future - innovations in online publishing.

HighWire, a division of the Stanford University Libraries, provides technology and customised online services to 140 publishing partners ranging from independent non-profit societies and associations, to university presses and large commercial publishers. HighWire has grown over the years to host the definitive online versions of journals, books, reference works, monographs, dictionaries, proceedings, edited collections and Knowledge Environments. In addition to just handling XML input and output, HighWire's electronic publishing platform H2O, which debuted in March 2008, incorporates standards like Atom Publishing Protocol (backed by Google & Microsoft), and powerful tools such as the MarkLogic Server.

Academic publisher SAGE has announced the launch of Sage Reference’s new two-volume Encyclopedia of Health Services Research. The encyclopaedia claims to be the only single reference source to cover comprehensively the diverse, complex field of health services research. An expert team of health services researchers has focused on the access, costs, quality and outcomes of healthcare to create the resource.

According to Sage, the resource’s highly accessible, A-to-Z entries present biographies of the field’s current and past leaders; health services associations, foundations and research organisations; and major concepts and topics. Cross-cultural, racial and international differences are examined in both historical and contemporary contexts, and a Reader’s Guide organises the content into key categories. These include Disease, Disability, Health & Health Behavior; Government & International Healthcare Organizations; Health Professionals & Healthcare Organizations; Laws, Regulations & Ethics; Measurement, Data Sources & Coding, and Research Methods; Policy Issues, Healthcare Reform & International Comparisons; and Special & Vulnerable Groups. All public and academic libraries can add the encyclopaedia’s print and/or electronic formats to offer information to general readers, students, scholars and professionals.

Editor Ross M. Mullner is Associate Professor of Health Policy Administration at the University of Illinois at Chicago. He is also Special Assistant to the Director of the Illinois Department of Healthcare and Family Services, and Visiting Adjunct Associate Professor in the Department of Health Systems Management at Rush University.

Academic and professional literature publisher Emerald Group Publishing Ltd., UK, has announced that it has selected the Editorial & Book Production and Royalties Management applications from IBS Bookmaster to streamline its book publishing process. The software provided by IBS is tailored to meet Emerald’s needs and will enable the publisher to enhance its service to authors and customers alike.

The IBS Bookmaster Editorial and Book Production system covers a variety of tasks and processes including planning and schedules, specifications, estimating and budgeting, project scheduling, resource management, amortisation, paper control and reporting. It is driven by publishing-specific business rules, making it extremely flexible and suitable for Emerald’s book production requirements. It will also allow Emerald to submit advance title and marketing information to its channel partners.

IBS Bookmaster Royalty Management provides a host of integrated functionality that will allow Emerald the flexibility to define, change and manage Royalty contracts. It is a powerful system that automates even the most complex rights and royalty provisions.

Subscription services provider Swets, Netherlands, has announced that following an enthusiastic reception at a pre-launch event at ALA Midwinter, SwetsWise Selection Support, a decision support service, has entered into its beta testing phase. The tool seeks to combine customers’ usage statistics with their subscription holdings and pricing information. This results in a fully integrated price-per-use overview for collection analysis, with the flexibility to include additional customer-specific data.

SwetsWise Selection Support is claimed to contain an intelligent combination of price and usage information that will revolutionise the way libraries view and report on the true value of their collection. The objective data included in the tool is seen to provide librarians with a reliable basis from which to make sound, informed purchase decisions, ensuring that the available budget is spent in the most appropriate manner.

The new service utilises an award-winning technology behind the ScholarlyStats platform to collect usage statistics and integrates this data with the extensive subscription details and price information stored in SwetsWise Subscriptions. Reporting is available at account and consortium levels, as well as customised reporting. Holdings and price information will be automatically maintained and updated by SwetsWise, including any new subscriptions. Customer-specific fields may be added, along with free text and file uploads, offering a high level of flexibility. These reports will help customers to fully analyse their entire subscription spend and make better informed decisions.

Open access (OA) publisher BioMed Central, UK, has announced a partnership with Computer Aid International to support research in Africa. BioMed will support Kenyatta University in Nairobi to help local scientists conduct vital research directly relevant to local problems in one of the poorest parts of Africa. Many of the university’s academics have been published in OA journals, including those from BioMed Central. The move is part of the publisher’s ongoing commitment to promote OA in the developing world.

According to BioMed, Kenyatta cannot afford new computers, meaning that academics cannot get the access time that they need for researching and preparing papers. Computer Aid International will provide affordable, professionally refurbished PCs to the developing world, to resolve this problem. BioMed aims to raise £10,760 in order to provide a container of 225 PCs to the university. This is projected to give all research departments their own dedicated suite of computers and guarantee that the university’s 720 research staff gets adequate IT access.

Computer Aid International has been working with Kenyatta for several years. The university’s research staff is focused on areas that are directly relevant to surrounding communities in Kenya and East Africa, including local diseases such as tuberculosis, HIV/Aids and malaria. Contribution to the project can be made at http://www.justgiving.com/biomedcentral. Donors will be informed about how their money is spent and updated on the progress of the project.

Publisher Karger, Switzerland, has announced a partnership with EMpact Sales, the publisher representation group of EBSCO Information Services, US. Under the deal, EMpact will offer the new Karger Hospital Collection to customers in the US, the UK, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Belgium, Mexico, Central and South America, and the Caribbean. It will serve as sales and marketing representative and consultant for Karger in these territories.

The Karger Hospital Collection is an online collection of titles specifically selected to meet the needs and requirements of clinical centres across various medical disciplines. Consisting of 20 e-journals and 10 e-books, the collection is seen to be especially beneficial to hospital libraries.

Through its affiliation with EBSCO Information Services, EMpact aims to partner with publishers who wish to expand their sales efforts and promotion of their products to additional targeted territories across the globe. Karger is an independent, family-owned publishing house.

VerusMed, a medical information business unit of ConnectivHealth, Inc., US, has been sold to Intellerus, LLC, a private investment firm. Terms of the transaction were not disclosed. As part of the sale, about 12 employees have left the company to work for Intellerus.

ConnectivHealth is focusing on Heath Teacher, a K-12 health education programme for teachers. The company acquired the web-based product line in June 2007 as part of its purchase of Nashville-based Relegent. It plans to expand the Health Teacher line, possibly through acquisitions.

Following the latest deal, Roscoe Smith will become chairman and CEO of VerusMed, and June Manning will continue in her position as editor-in-chief. VerusMed, an evolution of Faxwatch, provides medical information to physicians, healthcare professionals, pharmaceutical and biotechnology executives.

Federated search services provider Deep Web Technologies (http://www.deepwebtech.com), US, has announced that Larry Donahue recently joined its executive staff as Chief Operating Officer (COO) and Corporate Counsel. Donahue brings over 15 years of direct leadership experience, combining a broad range of strategic planning, financial and legal expertise with a specific focus on software marketing. In his new role, he will advise on legal matters while seeking to drive the organisation forward with a practical, attentive management style.

Donahue is a registered patent attorney, has contributed to multiple Internet-focused publications and has presented on topics associated with cyber communication, the Internet and computer technology, both from a legal and technical standpoint.

Deep Web Technologies recently launched the first two of a number of vertically focused portals: the Biznar (http://www.biznar.com), a deep web business research website; and Mednar (http://www.mednar.com), a vertical search engine for medical professionals. Both search engines are publicly available and use Deep Web’s advanced federated search technology. The technology is seen to extend ease-of-use and power to find content not normally indexed by popular search engines such as Google and Yahoo.

The Indian government has granted the European Patent Office (EPO) access to its Traditional Knowledge Digital Library (TKDL). Loaded with ancient medical knowledge, the online database contains translations of manuscripts and textbooks in five languages, including English. Examiners at the EPO will use the TKDL to evaluate patent applications and to better treat attempts to patent traditional knowledge as ‘new’ inventions.

The cooperation between India and the EPO is projected to benefit both parties. It helps protect India’s traditional knowledge from misappropriation and gives the EPO additional relevant information for granting properly defined patents. For the first time in history, the TKDL will make traditional Indian medical texts available in English, French, German, Japanese and Spanish. It is also the first time that these texts – many of them old manuscripts written in Hindi, Sanskrit, Arabic, Persian, Urdu and other languages – can be accessed in a digital, searchable format.

Development of the TKDL started in 1999 as a joint project between five Indian government organisations, including the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research and the National Institute of Science Communication and Information Resources. The main aim of the TKDL is to prevent unjustified patenting of traditional knowledge that is already being used in the public domain in India. Such public knowledge constitutes ‘prior art’, according to EPO regulations. As such, it cannot be patented unless the applicants can demonstrate significant inventive or new improvements.

EPO examiners have been able to access the TKDL since February 2, 2009. Patent examiners will now be able to compare patent applications to existing traditional knowledge documented in this new source. Examiners can limit the scope of a patent or reject it altogether before it is granted. This can prevent lengthy and costly opposition procedures.

Various other countries have also granted the EPO access to traditional knowledge databases. In 2008, the Chinese Patent Office opened its 32000-entry database on traditional Chinese medicine to the EPO.

Scientific publisher Nature Publishing Group, UK, has announced that Nature Chemistry, its 16th research journal, is now publishing papers online in advance of print. The first issue (April 2009) will go live on March 20th at http://www.nature.com/nchem/index.html.

A monthly peer-reviewed publication, Nature Chemistry will cover chemistry-related research in traditional core chemical fields as well as multidisciplinary subjects such as bioinorganic chemistry and nanotechnology. It will publish research articles, reviews, correspondence, perspectives and commentaries, as well as News & Views articles about recent research advances and analyses of issues including education, funding and the impact of chemistry on society.

Readers will also be able to view 3-D displays of molecules described in research papers on the journal's website. They can also click on links to PubChem, and post comments.

Academic publisher SAGE has announced the acquisition of a portion of the advertising sales business of US-based Leonard Media Group (LMG). Jeff Leonard, principal of Leonard Media Group, will continue to own and operate his remaining businesses under the LMG umbrella.

The 5-member team from the Group has represented more than 20 SAGE journals in the science and medical fields for 8 years. This sales team has helped SAGE achieve a record-setting year for ad sales in 2008 for many of its journals. The team has sold – and will continue to sell – advertising in select SAGE print journals and online products.

The Leonard Media Group has been in business for 20 years, representing a variety of publishers and companies, including the Illuminating Engineering Society of North America, the Global Health Council and the Pennsylvania Bar Association.

Knowledge management and discovery software developer Collexis Holdings, Inc., US, has announced that the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) has licensed the Collexis’ Reviewer Finder and Journal Dashboard applications for the 6 AACR cancer research journals.

The Collexis Reviewer Finder helps publishing organisations in two important ways. First it assists in reducing the time to identify the most qualified reviewers from hours to virtually minutes, and secondly it enhances security by identifying potential conflicts of reviewers based on co-authorship and institutional affiliation. The Collexis Reviewer Finder will be integrated into the publishing workflow solution that AACR is using.

The Collexis Journal Dashboard is providing the customer a complex view to analyse the portfolio of a journal, to compare it on a granular basis to others, and to understand author patterns and emerging trends. This will therefore help in providing insights for strategic decisions on positioning and further development.

Collexis develops applications that range from search tools for users' websites to highly sophisticated discovery applications that are utilised by the intelligence community and R&D organisations worldwide. These applications allow users to identify and search for documents, experts, trends or new discoveries that may be hidden in the materials.

Oxford Journals, a division of Oxford University Press (OUP), UK, has announced a new publishing partnership with the International Society for Computational Biology (ISCB). Under the deal, the journal Bioinformatics will once again become an official journal of the ISCB from this year.

Bioinformatics and the ISCB have shared close links which will be further strengthened under the new official partnership. ISCB members will benefit from a substantial discount on the individual subscription price to Bioinformatics and other Oxford Journals titles, and Bioinformatics will continue to publish the annual ISMB conference Proceedings. New plans under the partnership include ISCB memberships for around 200 Bioinformatics authors each year.

Bioinformatics publishes the scientific papers and review articles of interest to academic and industrial researchers. Its main focus is on new developments in genome bioinformatics and computational biology. Two distinct sections within the journal - Discovery Notes and Application Notes – focus on shorter papers; the former reporting biologically interesting discoveries using computational methods, the latter exploring the applications used for experiments.

STM publisher Springer, Germany, will publish Reproductive Medicine and Biology, the official English-language journal of the Japan Society for Reproductive Medicine, the Japan Society of Fertilization and Implantation, and the Japan Society of Andrology from March 2009. Professor Hiroshi Imai from Kyoto University in Japan will serve as the Editor-in-chief of the journal. He will be supported by an expert editorial board.

Reproductive Medicine and Biology publishes original research articles that report new findings and concepts in all aspects of reproductive phenomena in all kinds of mammals. The journal contributes to progress in research in many fields, including andrology, endocrinology, oncology, immunology, genetics, surgery and ethics and social issues. The various subjects are examined at the biological, biochemical, biophysical, molecular biological, analytically morphological and clinical levels. Reports on techniques are also considered, providing a platform for the publication and the exchange of ideas among professionals from multidisciplinary fields. The journal is available in print and on Springer’s online information platform SpringerLink.

Under Springer, the journal will make use of a manuscript tracking system that speeds publication of important articles in the field. Articles will be published in Online First in full text via SpringerLink. This system ensures immediate distribution of the electronic version of the article before it appears in print. Cross Reference Linking and Alert services will be fully implemented for the journal.

Non-profit electronic archiving service provider Portico, US, has announced an agreement with Duke University Press to preserve electronic books from the e-Duke Books Scholarly Collection. With the inclusion of Duke University Press' e-books, nearly 8,300 e-journals and 4,700 e-books have now been entrusted to the Portico archive.

The e-Duke Books Scholarly Collection was launched in 2008 and provides online access to scholarly books published by Duke University Press in the humanities and social sciences. Through this agreement with Portico, the Press furthers its preservation strategy, which already includes participation in Portico on behalf of its entire e-journals collection as well as the inclusion of 12 of the Press' journals in JSTOR.

Duke University Press will be the second publisher, after Elsevier, to archive its entire collection of e-books with Portico. As part of the agreement, it will make an annual financial contribution to Portico to support its e-book preservation activities and has named Portico as a mechanism to fill post-cancellation access claims.

The American Medical Association (AMA) has announced that its physician-focused newspaper, American Medical News, is expanding its online presence and capabilities to better accommodate physicians’ needs in the fast-changing world of health-care news.

The print version of American Medical News is moving to a twice-a-month publishing schedule and will continue to provide in-depth coverage and practical advice for physician readers. The full content of the print edition will continue to be presented on www.amednews.com, which will also present fresh reporting and features every weekday throughout the year. In addition, the website contains tables, charts and useful links not found in the print edition, as well as multimedia presentations and a variety of digital conveniences. American Medical News will also offer greater access to a rich archive of practical advice on running a modern medical practice.

To stay informed on the latest health care and health policy news at the click of a button, readers can sign up at www.amednews.com to receive email news alerts and RSS Feeds. American Medical News addresses issues that impact physicians on a daily basis, helping them to fully understand the trends and forces shaping a complex, ever-changing medical environment. Topics covered include national health policy issues and legislation, health care litigation, practice management concerns and health information technology.

NeuStar, Inc., a US-based provider of technology for online services, has announced that the Public Library of Science (PLoS) has selected its Webmetrics Application Monitoring service to augment the performance capabilities of all PLoS online services. PLoS is a nonprofit organisation committed to making the world's scientific and medical literature a public resource. All PLoS journals are immediately and freely accessible online. The customer experience when accessing their nine sites must be uniformly positive in order for PLoS to achieve its knowledge-sharing goals.

The Webmetrics Application Monitoring service will help PLoS monitor online resources such as journals, blogs and search capabilities to ensure they are available and functioning properly. Monitoring can occur in various intervals - as quickly as every 60 seconds, if necessary. Alerts are sent to PLoS once an issue is identified, so that it can be resolved as quickly as possible before customers are impacted. Further, ongoing reports and analyses are provided to assist PLoS in identifying and defusing potential problems before they occur.

Webmetrics provides collaborative performance management services for complex web ecosystems.