Multimedia publisher and events producer Physicians' Continuing Education (PCE), US, has announced the appointment of James J. Gormley as editor of the Journal of Drugs in Dermatology (JDD).

Gormley, who is an award-winning journalist, author, and medical editor, brings with him 20 years of healthcare communication, publication management, and scientific affairs experience.

The Journal of Drugs in Dermatology is a peer-reviewed, MEDLINE/PubMed-indexed journal committed to advancing clinical knowledge and discovery in dermatology, including original articles and case reports that deliver cutting-edge clinical practice science and insights relating to methods, techniques, technologies, devices, and drug therapies in dermatology.

Candover and Cinven, the private equity (PE) companies that own media group Springer Science and ­Business Media, Germany, have reportedly put the company up for sale with a price tag of £2 billion. The PE owners are believed to have appointed UBS and Goldman Sachs to sound out potential bidders. According to sources, prospective buyers have until the end of next week to register their interest.

If the sale does take place, it will mark one of the biggest transactions in any sector until now this year. While media reports say Springer could fetch up to £2 billion from financial or trade buyers, the current economic crisis could make it difficult for potential bidders to meet that price.

Media companies, many of which are heavily reliant on advertising, have seen their valuations fall in the wake of a global advertising recession. However, unlike other media groups, Springer has a relatively secure source of revenue. The global publisher brings out more than 6,500 new book titles every year and owns 60 publishing houses in about 20 countries across Europe, Asia and North America. It employs over 5,000 people. Its British operation, based in Surrey, oversees the publication of 20 journals.

Springer was acquired from Bertelsmann in 2003 for €1.05 billion. It was merged with the academic publisher Kluwer, which had been bought by Cinven and Candover for £600 million a year earlier.

The scientific and academic publishing sector has experienced increasing attempted consolidations in recent years. In October 2006, specialist information provider Informa plc was approached by Springer about a possible takeover. The takeover would have then created a business worth over £4 billion. But negotiations collapsed. A separate bid for Informa also fell through last year. Several attempts to sell publishing assets have failed in recent months. These include Reed Elsevier's planned disposal of its magazines arm, Reed Business Information. The offer was withdrawn in December 2008 after bidders failed to match its asking price.

STM publisher Elsevier, Netherlands, and the American Medical Association (AMA) have announced an exclusive agreement to co-publish International Classification of Diseases, Ninth Revision, Clinical Modification (ICD-9-CM) and Healthcare Common Procedure Coding System (HCPCS) manuals by Carol J. Buck, beginning with the 2010 editions, in fall 2009.

AMA/Elsevier 2010 ICD-9-CM books will be published in August 2009 in a variety of sizes, formats and prices to meet every need. They will feature exclusive Frank H. Netter anatomical artwork, extensive illustrations, colour coded tables and annotations, as well as coding tips, notes and definitions. 2010 HCPCS, to be available in December 2009, will include many of the same features throughout.

Both product lines will be supported by exclusive free companion web sites offering access to the latest updates, coding tips and links to other valuable coding resources.

STM publisher Elsevier, Netherlands, has launched Klopotek’s PPM (Product Planning and Management) system for the first group of their Science and Technology book titles in the US, the UK, and India. Klopotek PPM replaced the existing software systems with a centralised database solution integrating the classical publishing business with innovative business models in the areas of electronic products and content delivery.

Once the global rollout of PPM has been completed, a total of 1,000 users around the globe will be working with Klopotek’s centralised database solution that integrates XML technology with Klopotek’s extensive experience as the preferred software provider to the publishing industry. This combined business and technology model has been designed to support Elsevier’s complex and unique business processes worldwide.

Elsevier’s Electronic Warehouse, a central archival storage system for all electronic production content, is now seamlessly connected to PPM. PPM delivers all required metadata from title management and production to the Electronic Warehouse and receives status and update information from Elsevier’s suppliers. As a result, PPM and the Electronic Warehouse function as the technical backbone of Elsevier’s automated global supplier communication.

PPM is now Elsevier’s title database for more than 40 different kinds of promotion material created by using Klopotek’s XML catalog tool, as well as for the automated ONIX XML product export feeds that are delivered to more than 50 external recipients worldwide. Comprehensive information will ensure data and product integrity and reduce duplication of efforts through central development and control.

Additional rollouts of PPM are planned to be completed by June 2009 in order to accomplish the global rollout for all Science & Technology and Health Science book titles published by Elsevier.

The Healthcare and Science business of Thomson Reuters has announced that Egyptian Universities Libraries (EUL) has selected Thomson Reuters to provide research solutions to their consortium of university libraries. EUL signed a multi-year contract with Thomson Reuters to provide Egypt's researcher's access to ISI Web of Knowledge.

ISI Web of Knowledge is an integrated research platform that helps users find, analyse and manage information in the sciences, social sciences and arts and humanities.

Using the Web of Science, the multidisciplinary bibliographic resource within ISI Web of Knowledge, EUL members will now have access to nearly 11,000 prestigious research journals from around the world. Additionally, EUL now offers its researchers other key components of ISI Web of Knowledge, including Journal Citation Reports - a systemic, objective way to evaluate, categorise and compare the world's leading scholarly journals; and MEDLINE - a premier bibliographic database that indexes life sciences records from 1950 to the present.

TBI Communications, a UK-based strategic marketing consultancy for scholarly publishers, recently launched ‘Perfect 10’, a viral marketing campaign on behalf of medical publisher BMJ Group. Targeting about 250,000 initial recipients, the campaign is projected as the first major use of viral marketing technologies in the reference information sector. It takes the form of a quiz designed to test clinical practitioners’ medical knowledge and encourage them to ‘challenge a friend’. Its objective is to raise awareness and instigate free trials of Best Practice, BMJ Group’s new clinical decision support tool.

The quiz was produced in conjunction with Tamba Internet and features patient diagnosis and treatment questions from OnExamination, acquired by the BMJ Group in 2008. It aims to draw attention to potential gaps in clinicians’ knowledge that can be filled by Best Practice. Players can add their score to a global or custom leaderboard in order to compare themselves to the friends and colleagues they challenge.

The incorporation of existing BMJ Group content is also seen to highlight the potential for publishers to repurpose latent assets in exploiting viral marketing.

The Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE) has published ‘Enhancing learning and teaching through the use of technology – a revised approach to HEFCE’s strategy for e-learning’. This revised approach follows an independent review of the strategy and is designed to provide further support to higher education institutions as they develop their own e-learning strategies.

The new approach is intended to support institutions in considering where they may wish to prioritise their technology-related investment over the next few years, and to develop appropriate institutional learning and teaching strategies. Support and guidance is available from JISC and from the Higher Education Academy (HEA).

Findings from the review, which was carried out with the support of the HEA and JISC, suggested the strategy has been useful in motivating institutional activity but that some of the information has become outdated, given the current level of maturity in e-learning in the sector.

In order to assist institutions in achieving their strategic aims for enhancing learning and teaching through technology, the document includes a suggested framework focusing on: pedagogy, curriculum design and development; learning resources and environments; quality; and research and evaluation.

WebJunction, an online learning community for librarians and library staff, is now offering a Custom Course Catalog, a new service that provides a central location to host, promote and track library staff training. In February, LibraryU, a US-based provider of online, library-specific staff development courses, joined the WebJunction catalogue. The topics added include web-based reference, marketing, library management, shelving, cataloging, readers advisory and children's services.

The Custom Course Catalog service allows a library organisation to build a training catalogue to meet the specific needs of its staff. The catalogue can combine an organisation's own course listings with selections from WebJunction's online course offerings in an easy-to-manage, always-accessible web environment. WebJunction's course catalogue contains nearly 700 courses selected to help library staff build the skills required to meet the needs of rapidly changing libraries.

With the Custom Course Catalog, the library staff learner is seen to experience a straight-forward registration process for courses selected and gathered together from multiple suppliers. The learner requires a standard web browser to access the catalogue and courses. Each learner can manage his or her own learning progress, taking multiple courses, tracking individual learning history, and printing certificates of completion.

All training offerings are housed in a unique, private online location, so that each library organisation can make courses available only to its designated staff. The catalogue is hosted by WebJunction on its platform and backed by its support and training groups.

Academic and professional literature publisher Emerald Group Publishing Ltd., UK, has announced the appointment of Alastair Cook as business manager for Middle East and Turkey.

Alastair will be working alongside Brian Berry, who has represented Emerald for a number of years within the region, enabling him to meet existing and prospective customers. The establishment of a Dubai office will allow Emerald to further support customers within the region. Emerald now has regional business mangers in North and South America, India, China, Malaysia, Australia, Japan and Europe.

Alastair has previously worked within academic publishing and brings to Emerald over 17 years of experience having worked across various specialist areas including book commissioning, editorial, production, sales and sales management. He has previously worked for Elsevier Science, Wolters Kluwer Health and more recently Thomson-Reuters.

STM publisher Elsevier, Netherlands, has announced that Biomaterials, a leading journal in the field of biomaterials science, will host Biomaterials Asia 2009. Scheduled for April 5-8, 2009, in Hong Kong, the event will highlight the latest Asian research developments, institutions, and individuals in biomaterials science.

Under the chairmanship of Professor David Williams, Editor-in-Chief of Biomaterials, the conference programme will focus on the interface between advanced materials science and biological science, bringing the latest expertise in advanced medical engineering, clinical sciences and regenerative medicine under one roof.

This event, with keynote speakers drawn from the world’s best scientists, will provide an opportunity for researchers, technologists and clinicians in the fields of bioengineering, medical device technology, pharmaceutical science, tissue engineering and biomaterials science to explore and debate the latest scientific developments, translational science and commercial applications. Conference sessions will be modeled after the scientific sections defined by the journal.

Biomaterials covers the science and application of biomaterials and associated medical devices. The journal seeks to provide a peer-reviewed forum for the publication of original papers and authoritative review papers dealing with the most important issues facing the use of materials in clinical practice. The journal is relevant to all applications of biomaterials including implantable medical devices, tissue engineering and drug delivery systems.

PLoS ONE, a free online journal published by open access publisher Public Library of Science (PLoS), US, has announced the launch of everyONE (http://everyone.plos.org), a new community blog for PLoS ONE authors and readers.

As of March 2009, PLoS ONE has published over 5,000 articles, representing the work of over 30,000 authors and co-authors, and receives over 160,000 unique visitors per month. The blog is for authors who have published with the journal as well as for those who haven't.

The blog has been named everyONE for three main reasons: PLoS ONE is for every rigorous research article that passes the publisher’s our peer-review process; it is a forum for research in every scientific discipline; and it is a source of information for every inquisitive reader with an interest in high-quality scientific research.

PLoS ONE is a peer-reviewed, open-access journal for all science and medicine. It features reports of original research from all disciplines within science and medicine. By not excluding papers on the basis of subject area, PLoS ONE seeks to facilitate the discovery of the connections between papers, whether within or between disciplines.

Academic and professional literature publisher Emerald Group Publishing Ltd., UK, has announced a 5-year deal with CASPUR (Consorzio Interuniversitario per le Applicazioni di Supercalcolo per Università e Ricerca) Inter-University Consortium for the Application of Super-Computing for Universities and Research.

This agreement provides CASPUR’s 27 members with the possibility of electronic access to 17 journals which are included in the Library and Information Studies collection. For 2009, these members include Università degli Studi di Roma La Sapienza (Rome), Università degli Studi Roma Tre (Rome) and Università degli Studi del Salento (Lecce).

Established in 1992, the consortium based in Rome seeks to promote the use of advanced information processing systems for scientific research while disseminating the culture of information and communication technology and their applications.

EMpact Sales (EMpact), the publisher representation group of EBSCO Information Services, US, has signed an agreement with the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) PUBLISHING to serve as the exclusive sales and marketing representative. Under the deal, EMpact will promote 23 scientific-based, peer-reviewed journals for CSIRO PUBLISHING, in both print and electronic format, in South Korea and Latin America, including Mexico, Central America, South America and the Caribbean, including Puerto Rico.

Through its affiliation with EBSCO Information Services, EMpact is projected as the ideal partner for publishers who wish to expand their sales efforts and promotion of their products to additional targeted territories across the globe. The EMpact team can develop an exclusive and strategic plan to dramatically broaden the exposure for publishers’ electronic products and content.

As part of the EBSCO group, EMpact brings to the sales process an expanded team of experienced sales and marketing personnel, many of whom have been working with publishers and libraries for many years. With the support of 32 fully staffed offices in 23 countries worldwide, EMpact’s global reach makes it possible for content providers to take advantage of opportunities they might otherwise miss.

CSIRO PUBLISHING is an autonomous, not-for-profit business unit within Australia´s Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation, CSIRO. It’s internationally recognised publishing programme covers a wide range of scientific disciplines, including agriculture, plant and animal sciences, physical sciences and environmental management.

Market research and data services provider Research and Markets, Ireland, has announced the addition of the Proceedings of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers, Part G: Journal of Aerospace Engineering subscription to their offering.

Published eight times a year, the Journal of Aerospace Engineering is a forum for the communication of ideas and methods presently in use at the forefront of technology in the field of aerospace engineering. It contains papers on both theoretical and practical aspects of all types of civil and military aircraft and spacecraft and their support systems. The scope is wide, covering research, design, development, production, operation, servicing and repair, components and auxiliary equipment, safety and reliability.

Research and Markets provides the latest data on international and regional markets, key industries, the top companies, new products and the latest trends. The company hold ‘1000’s of major research publications from most of the leading publishers, consultants and analysts.

Publishing services provider GLC Custom Publishing, US, has announced a new custom publishing partnership with OrthoCarolina, one of the most comprehensive and prestigious orthopedic practices in the US. Fall 2008 was GLC’s first issue of a consumer and referring physician magazine, OrthoCarolina, for this physician group. A complete redesign for this advertising supported magazine is planned for the Spring issue.

OrthoCarolina is mailed to 25,000 patients and referring physicians in the greater Charlotte, N.C. area twice a year. It aims to keep current patients and referring physicians up-to-date on the latest medical advances, research, patient care, practice and physician achievements, community lectures and events.

Established in 1969, GLC is on the forefront of healthcare, educational and corporate publishing and communications. The company is uniquely positioned to deliver custom publishing solutions designed to differentiate clients and help them achieve their marketing objectives.

The Association of Online Publishers (AOP) has announced the results of the seventh annual AOP Census survey. The results reveal that UK online publishers predict a 16 percent growth in their digital revenues in 2009 – with digital revenues defined as income generated from various sources including online advertising (eg: display, classified, search); subscriptions; paid content, e-commerce, sponsorship and commercial content.

The census was conducted from February 9 to March 2, 2009. Against the backdrop of economic uncertainty, digital publishers remain pragmatic about the long-term future of their businesses, but are intent on investing in people skills and business functions in 2009. Sixty-three percent of online publishers expect to increase their digital investment this year, with only 7 percent anticipating a decrease in investment.

Pressure on advertising pricing and the development of multimedia sales teams are challenges that were raised by publishers in this year’s survey. Respondents have highlighted that they will invest in better skilled teams and technical infrastructure. One of the main trends to emerge from the study is the move towards integration of staff across traditional and digital businesses. About 65 percent of respondents expect more functions across departments to be integrated in 2009, including advertising planning/research; editorial; product/brand research; and advertising sales.

In a change in format, the AOP Census has been split into two parts this year and was conducted in-house under the supervision of Tim Cain, AOP’s Head of Research and Insight, appointed in January 2009. The initial census report provides an overview of the online publishing industry and future planning, including business achievement and revenue. The second part of the survey, due to be conducted and published later in the year, will cover content, content delivery, trends, opinions, threats and opportunities.

STM publisher Springer, Germany, has announced the launch a new journal, Applied Geomatics. The journal will be the official publication of the Italian Society of Photogrammetry and Topography (SIFET). Professor Alessandro Capra of the University of Modena and Reggio Emilia has been appointed Editor-in-Chief.

A quarterly publication, Applied Geomatics will cover all aspects of scientific and technical advances in the geomatic sciences. The journal will publish innovative contributions in geomatics applications covering the integration of instruments, methodologies and technologies and their use in engineering, environmental and other natural sciences. After the appearance of the first issue in April 2009, the journal will be available free of charge on www.springerlink.com throughout 2009 and 2010.

The journal will cover many research fields, among them remote sensing, image analysis, digital mapping, and land and geographic information systems. In addition to original papers, reviews and short communications, it will also contain notices of conferences and international workshops, industry news, and information on new products. The journal will include the features Online First, Cross Reference Linking, and Alert services.

Healthcare publisher Lippincott Williams & Wilkins (LWW), part of Wolters Kluwer Health, US, has announced that it has added a new behavioral health module to the comprehensive suite offered in Lippincott's Nursing Procedures and Skills, its premier online tool for nurses at the point of care. This evidence-based clinical reference serves as a staff reference and development tool and provides support for facilities seeking American Nurses Credentialing Center (ANCC) Magnet accreditation.

Lippincott's Nursing Procedures and Skills claims to be the first nursing point of care tool to meet the needs of both acute care hospitals and behavioral health facilities by providing psychiatric content. The sixty procedures are the latest addition to the growing collection, which includes additional pediatric and maternal-neonatal modules developed last year. Each procedure undergoes a thorough annual review process to ensure the most up-to-date clinical information.

Developed by a team of expert nurses with extensive clinical experience, Lippincott's Nursing Procedures and Skills offers an impressive combination of features that help promote, monitor, and maintain staff excellence. The over 900 procedures and skills have been thoroughly reviewed by the in-house Wolters Kluwer Health editorial and professional nursing staff and independent expert reviewers to ensure that all content is in full compliance with nursing practice standards and the guidelines of the Joint Commission, the American Association of Critical Care Nurses, and other respected nursing authorities. More than 1,200 full-color images and videos give nurses accurate, step-by-step guidance and show critical steps of procedures being performed. Accompanying skills checklists can be used to review and monitor staff competency.

Symyx Technologies, Inc., a US-based provider of technologies for R&D, has announced the release of the latest version of its enterprise electronic lab notebook (ELN), Symyx Notebook. Version 6.2 of the product supplements existing functionality for analytical chemistry research and biology with new capabilities supporting synthetic and medicinal chemistry investigations by adding Symyx chemical representation, chemical reaction, and compound registration capabilities.

The Symyx chemistry engine powers the ISIS scientific information platform that underlies many chemistry registrations, inventory and other systems used in the pharmaceutical and chemical industries. In addition, Symyx Notebook 6.2 adds essential chemistry information enabling scientists to access current chemical sourcing, molecular property, synthetic methodology, bioactivity and toxicology information from Symyx and participating content providers in the context of laboratory workflows.

With Symyx Notebook 6.2, scientists can expect to rapidly design and share single and multi-step synthesis plans. For instance, scientists designing reaction steps can handle stoichiometry calculations more efficiently by easily accessing Symyx Available Chemicals Directory to look up key properties like molecular formula, molecular weight, density and purity. They can then use the Symyx Registration service to register purchased or synthesised compounds in a corporate registry. Finally, scientists can utilise Symyx Isentris to explore notebook-captured reaction information together with Symyx reaction content for improved synthesis speed and success.

Isentris enables scientists to combine notebook-captured and Symyx-provided molecule and reaction information for use in retro-synthetic synthesis planning. Symyx synthesis databases accelerate successful synthesis planning by providing access to over 6 million publicly available reactions.

The Association of Research Libraries (ARL) has launched a new web site for its latest assessment tool, ClimateQUAL: Organizational Climate and Diversity Assessment, offered through the StatsQUAL platform. The site (http://www.climatequal.org/) aims to provide information and useful resources for past, current, and potential ClimateQUAL participants. ClimateQUAL is a joint project of the University of Maryland Industrial/Organizational Psychology Program and ARL.

ClimateQUAL is an assessment of library staff perceptions concerning their library’s commitment to the principles of diversity; organisational policies and procedures; and staff attitudes.

The ClimateQUAL: OCDA survey contains questions designed to understand how organisational procedures and policies effect customer perception of service quality in a library setting. The survey results and follow-up improvement strategies can help promote the development of a healthy organisation.

Library solutions provider Ex Libris Group, Israel, has announced the release of version 4.3 of its MetaLib gateway and metasearch solution. Over 35 major enhancements, originating largely from requests of the MetaLib user community, focus on further streamlining staff workflows to maximise efficiency and reduce the total cost of ownership. Used in nearly 50 countries worldwide, MetaLib seeks to provide powerful yet flexible management tools that can be easily adapted to customers’ local environments and practices. New functionality in this release is seen to increase this flexibility, enabling library staff to be even more responsive to the evolving needs of their users.

Significant enhancements have been made to the MetaLib back-office tools, including the addition of task-based wizards that enable librarians to activate MetaLib resources quickly and easily; to customise the user interface; and to create deep-linking URLs to integrate the MetaLib functionality with other applications. Enhancements aimed at MetaLib end users include tighter integration between MetaLib and the SFX OpenURL-compliant link server, also from Ex Libris. From their brief list of search results, users will now be able to link directly to the full text of articles in peer-reviewed sources when they are available.

Prerelease collaborative testing with a variety of existing MetaLib customers provided feedback to Ex Libris development, implementation, support, and product management staff as the new version was being finalised for general release. The participating customers included the Finnish National Electronic Library (FinELib), the California State University and Duke University.

Healthcare information provider SLACK Incorporated, US, publisher of Orthopaedics Today Europe, recently announced a partnership with the European Federation of National Associations of Orthopaedics and Traumatology (EFORT). The affiliation emerged from the organisations' mutual interest in advancing the education of orthopaedic surgeons, making Orthopaedics Today Europe the official newspaper of the organisation.

EFORT is the umbrella organisation linking Europe's national orthopaedic associations. The Federation has 38 national member societies from 36 member countries, as well as four associate scientific members.

Orthopaedics Today Europe is a bimonthly newspaper published by SLACK Incorporated that reaches orthopaedic surgeons throughout Europe. In this new arrangement, the publication will publish news and announcements from the organisation in each issue. Also, Orthopaedics Today Europe will publish a newspaper each day during the upcoming EFORT Congress in Vienna, recapping some of the previous day's most important news and providing a preview of upcoming presentations and special events.

STM publisher Thieme Publishing Group, Germany, has announced the availability of Science of Synthesis Version 3.7. Science of Synthesis provides a comprehensive critical treatment of synthetic organic chemistry and is one of the most authoritative, in-depth information resources available on synthetic methodology. This upgraded version brings two more volumes online.

Significant synthetic methods for a wide range of classes of compounds are held by the information resource, which now contains 40 volumes out of what will eventually be a total of 48. The upgrade brings the total number of reactions to over 222,000 with 8,000 new reactions. With the addition of volume 32, Category 4 (out of what will eventually total 6 categories) is complete. Category 1- 4 are all available online for the first time.

Developed in cooperation with InfoChem, Science of Synthesis possesses a user-friendly search function that allows substructure, exact structure, reaction, combined keyword, and full-text searches. Within the application, a structure search is quick and easy since users have the ability to choose between multiple structure drawing tools (ISIS Draw, Java Applet, and ChemDraw). Its compatibility with SFX assists librarians in navigating literature requests of Science of Synthesis users to resources and services relevant to their search queries.

Safari Books Online, a US-based e-reference joint venture between publishers O'Reilly Media, Inc. and Pearson Technology Group, has announced that it has expanded into German-speaking markets by launching the Safari Books Online German Basic Tech Library. The German Basic Tech Library currently offers over 200 titles for corporate teams with German-speaking developers and IT professionals and will grow by several hundred additional titles by the end of 2009.

The German books featured in the library are published by the top technical publishers in Germany. These include Markt+Technik Verlag, Addison-Wesley Verlag, O’Reilly Verlag, dpunkt Verlag, and Wiley-VHC Verlag. The content from all publishers but Wiley-VHC Verlag is exclusively available in subscription form through Safari Books Online. The books included in the German Basic Tech Library have been written by leading German-speaking subject matter experts and in many cases address the specific needs of European technologists. In addition, subscribers to this library can access thousands of English-language books and videos.

Safari Books Online features the ability for users to download a book and take it with them on a mobile device. Once subscribers have access to Safari Books Online, they can simply access the books they want to read remotely through a special mobile interface or iPhone bookbag application – and take Safari Books online with them wherever they go.

E-book technology firm ebrary, US, has announced that customers can now use the Shibboleth authentication system to access any of the company’s integrated products. These include e-books licensed under subscription and purchase models; ASP e-publishing services for distributing digitised documents online; and ISIS, its standalone e-publishing system that runs on customers’ servers, behind their firewalls.

Shibboleth allows libraries and other organisations to control and manage individual access to protected online resources offered by the institution, third-party vendors, or both. End-users can be authenticated for multiple electronic resources using a single username and password.

As with the Athens system, end-users that access ebrary through Shibboleth will have personal bookshelves automatically created for them, allowing them to use folders to organise and manage entire documents as well as highlights and notes. ebrary also offers additional tools that enhance the research process, such as a choice of viewing technologies, including QuickView for instant document viewing in a browser; InfoTools that integrates content in the ebrary system with additional resources in the library and on the web; multiple options for searching and navigating; and automatic citations when text is printed or copied and pasted, with a URL hyperlink back to the source.

Subscription services provider Swets, Netherlands, has announced that its comprehensive decision support solution, SwetsWise Selection Support, has completed Beta Testing and is now available to order.

SwetsWise Selection Support has been designed to help librarians and other information professionals make better informed decisions about their electronic resources. The service combines a customer’s usage statistics with their subscription holdings and pricing information, resulting in a fully integrated price-per-use overview for collection analysis. It includes the flexibility to include additional customer-specific data, making SwetsWise Selection Support the most comprehensive solution of its kind.

SwetsWise Selection Support utilises the technology of 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.

Online technology provider in scholarly publishing HighWire Press, a division of the Stanford University Libraries, has announced that HighWire-hosted journals account for 37 of the top 100 journals in Biology and Medicine, according to SLA’s BioMedical & Life Sciences Division.

In conjunction with SLA’s Centennial, the division conducted a poll to identify the 100 most influential journals of Biology & Medicine over the last 100 years. HighWire-hosted journals made up the single largest group among the 100 selected.

HighWire 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. With the recent release of HighWire’s new content platform, H2O, publishers are able to embrace the many new innovations in web and other digital technologies.

More than 400 journals competed in 64 different scientific categories. SLA will reveal its top 10 journal picks, as well as the ‘Journal of the Century,’ during an awards ceremony in Washington, D.C., on June 16. The complete list of 100 most influential journals is available online at http://units.sla.org/division/dbio/publications/resources/dbio100.html.

Serials Solutions, a business unit of ProQuest, US, has announced that the Gelman Library System at George Washington University has chosen the AquaBrowser Unified Discovery Interface to provide patrons with enhanced access to the library's entire collection.

Gelman Library is a member of the Washington Research Library Consortium (WRLC) which implemented its current Voyager integrated library system in 1997. Voyager replaced Gelman's NOTIS system. At that time, Gelman and the other consortium libraries launched an online public access catalog, called Aladin. The decision to adopt AquaBrowser as an alternative to the Aladin interface for Gelman Library was the result of a three-month product review during which other fully featured discovery layer offerings were examined.

The AquaBrowser unified discovery interface gives patrons the ability to search all indexed content with a single query, regardless of format or where the content is located within the library. Search results are simultaneously ranked by relevance and visualized using word clouds that provide opportunities for further exploration. These results can be further refined using faceted navigation.

AquaBrowser is vendor-neutral discovery platform that works with any integrated library system (ILS). Libraries can implement AquaBrowser with any ILS and then migrate it easily if and when they choose a new ILS system, including any open source ones.

The AquaBrowser platform is exclusively represented by Serials Solutions in the academic market in North America.

Current Medical Research and Opinion (CMRO), an international, peer-reviewed clinical research journal published by Informa Healthcare, has developed, and will soon institute, a formal Transparency Policy. The policy, projected to go above and beyond normal medical journal standards, is seen as a consequence of the ‘Medical Madoff’ – a recent scandal that stunned the world’s healthcare industry.

At the centre of the scandal was American anesthesiologist Dr. Scott Reuben, who published research papers that were based on fraudulent data and that benefited the drug companies who paid for his research. Dr. Reuben’s treatment recommendations, reported in at least 21 published articles, were used by physicians around the world to provide pain relief to millions of patients undergoing orthopaedic surgery.

Under the new CMRO policy, readers will be provided with any relevant financial relationships of its staff, editor-in-chief, editorial board members, international advisory board members, authors and peer reviewers to the content contained within each journal issue. The policy will go into full effect from the June 2009 issue onwards.

CMRO publisher Jay Magrann will be part of an expert panel discussing the topic of author transparency at 7th Annual Meeting of The International Publication Planning Association, June 15-16, in San Francisco.

The Association of Learned and Professional Society Publishing (ALPSP), the international trade association for scholarly and professional publishers, is seeking proposals to carry out a study of scholarly publishing practice by academic book publishers, with a particular focus on online publication. ALPSP has carried out three similar surveys of policies and practices related to online journal publishing which were conducted in 2003, 2005 and 2008.

The 2005 survey did include a limited number of questions on eBooks. However, with the increased importance of eBooks in scholarly communication and other changes such as Print on Demand affecting academic book publishing, ALPSP has therefore decided that a comprehensive survey of the policies and practices of book publishers is appropriate. This will enable subsequent surveys to track changes in policy and practice from a 2009 baseline. It is proposed that the new survey should review book publishing policies and practices overall to establish the context within which online publishing is presently being developed.

The survey is expected to cover a representative sample of non-profit, commercial, university presses and other academic publishers throughout the world. It will include ALPSP members but also provide a wider sample from such organisations as the Society for Scholarly Publishing (SSP), the Association of American University Presses (AAUP), the Association of Scientific, Technical and Medical Publishers (STM), and other publishers as appropriate. It should be noted that a total of 400 questionnaires were sent out for the Scholarly Publishing Practice, Third Survey in 2008, with a total of 263 responses received.

The survey will include the use of an online questionnaire which ALPSP will promote to its membership and to the wider academic publishing community. Suggestions for what might be covered in the survey should be proposed by researchers. All proposals must be received by April 15, 2009. It is expected that go-ahead will be given in early May 2009, and that the survey results should be available for publication to coincide with the ALPSP International Conference in September 2009.

STM publisher Elsevier, Netherlands, has announced the launch of Innovation Explorers, an online community of 300 researchers from 69 countries. Through online activities ranging from facilitated chats to one-on-one interviews, the members will help the global publisher identify, design and deliver relevant products and services that resonate with and inspire research scientists around the world.

Communispace, which has created more than 325 online communities for the world’s largest brands, started the Elsevier community in November 2008 and is now actively leading member activity and the delivery of insights. Through ongoing discussions with members and facilitated activities, Elsevier hopes to better understand the challenges and unmet needs of researchers, gaining deeper insight into the pressing issues within the research community. Elsevier has already begun involving the community in developing new products that more precisely match the needs of researchers, from the early ideation phase to usability testing of prototypes.

Innovation Explorers enables a select group of top scientists to interact and engage with colleagues from around the globe and across a broad range of fields of study. These interactions offer Elsevier an unprecedented opportunity to listen to and learn from researchers as they communicate with one another.

In December 2008, Elsevier added librarians to the Innovation Explorers community, facilitating interactions among 150 librarians from 40 different countries. Librarians are an important partner, alongside researchers, in designing the research library of the future. These members participate in unique activities with fellow librarians as well as in joint activities with members of the researcher group.

Academic publisher SAGE has announced the launch of Methodspace.com, a public social network for discussion of research methods online.

Methodspace aims to bring together researchers from across the academic spectrum looking for support and advice on any aspect of methodology. Registered users can participate in discussions about methodology issues and controversies; find out about relevant conferences and events; and discover and review new resources in methods, including free book chapters and journal articles. The site was launched to a private beta audience in February 2009.

A unique area, research methods is the common thread that unites all researchers, with research methodology a fundamental part of every research journey. SAGE is leading publisher in research methods, supporting researchers for more than forty years with a collection of more than 1200 books, journals and reference works in this diverse field.

CT Corsearch, a provider of clearance and protection solutions for trademark and brand professionals, has announced the availability of the latest version of Corsearch Advantage, its collection of trademark databases. The latest release provides users with a variety of new screening capabilities. It encompasses the addition of five new countries — Argentina, Chile, Paraguay, Uruguay and Hong Kong — as well as the ability to refine Pharmaceutical Screenings by geographic location.

Partnering with intellectual property (IP) firms in Latin America, Corsearch Advantage: Screening seeks to offer comprehensive Latin American regional coverage. Additionally, its Pharma In-Use database now offers increased granularity for users, allowing them to select from over 70 jurisdictions covering more than 80 countries.

CT Corsearch, a Wolters Kluwer business, provides intuitive tools and expertise that trademark professionals need to effectively manage the trademark screening, search review and watching processes. Corsearch Advantage is claimed to have revolutionised the trademark search review process when it launched in 2004. The latest version is seen to demonstrate the company’s continued commitment to providing a comprehensive, best-in-class screening solution that allows trademark professionals to take their first steps in clearing trademarks and brands with confidence.

Publisher John Wiley & Sons, Inc., US, has announced the appointment of Stephen M. Smith as Executive Vice President, Chief Operating Officer, effective May 1, 2009. In his new position, Smith will be responsible for the overall direction and leadership of Wiley’s global publishing businesses. He will continue to report to William J. Pesce, President and Chief Executive Officer.

Smith is relocating to Wiley’s global headquarters in Hoboken, NJ, from Chichester, UK, where he is currently based as Senior Vice President, International Development, with responsibility for Europe, the Middle East, Africa, Asia, and Australia. Eric Swanson, Senior Vice President, Scientific ,Technical, Medical and Scholarly; Stephen Kippur, Executive Vice President and President, Professional/Trade; and Bonnie Lieberman, Senior Vice President and General Manager, Higher Education, will report to Smith.

Smith joined Wiley in 1992 as Vice President, Wiley Asia. In 1995, he was promoted to the new position of Vice President, International Development. He became Senior Vice President, International Development in 1996, when he assumed corporate responsibility for Wiley Australia. In May 2000, Wiley’s Professional/Trade business in Europe was added to his responsibilities. In 2006, Mr. Smith became Chief Operating Officer of Wiley’s UK business. He was appointed Senior Vice President, Wiley Europe in 2007, while continuing his role in Asia and Australia.