Editors at the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) have released a new study on the prevalence of ghostwriting. The move follows recent reports that scientific research has been contaminated by ghost writers funded by drug companies.

According to the study, six of the top medical journals published a significant number of ghostwritten articles in 2008. The authors of 630 articles took an online questionnaire designed by the researchers. Of this, 7.8 percent admitted contributions to their articles by people whose work should have qualified them to be named as authors on the papers but who were not listed.

Responding authors reported a 10.9 percent rate of ghostwriting in the New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM), the highest rate among the journals. An NEJM representative has questioned the study’s methodology while informing that the publication is currently tightening its ghostwriting policies. The study also reported a ghostwriting rate of 7.9 percent in JAMA and 4.9 percent in the Annals of Internal Medicine.

It was found that ghost authors were most prevalent in research articles, as against opinion pieces like reviews or editorials. The new study, yet to be peer-reviewed or published in a medical journal, was made public at an international meeting of journal editors in Vancouver.

Ghostwriting refers to medical writers who, sponsored by a drug or medical device manufacturer, make major research or writing contributions to articles that are then published under the names of academic authors.

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STM publisher Elsevier, Netherlands, has announced the October 2009 launch of a new journal, Current Opinion in Environmental Sustainability. Professor Rik Leemans from Wageningen University and Professor Anand Patwardhan from the Indian Institute of Technology Bombay will serve as Editors-in-Chief. More than forty internationally-recognised experts will serve on the Editorial Board.

Available on ScienceDirect from September 2009, Current Opinion in Environmental Sustainability aims to address all the scientific, economic, social, technological and institutional aspects related to the challenge of environmental sustainability by focusing on integration across academic disciplines and insights with implications for societal practices and processes. The journal was developed by the Earth System Science Partnership (ESSP) to ensure that specialists keep up to date with the expanding volume of information published in the interdisciplinary research area of environmental change and sustainability. It is divided into six major sections - Climate Systems, Human settlements and habitat, Energy systems, Terrestrials systems, Carbon and Nitrogen cycles, and Aquatic systems. Reviewed once a year, each section aims to cover the latest advances and trends on the environmental dimensions of sustainability and provides the views of invited experts on recent literature, with particular emphasis on articles published in the past two-three years. Access to the first two issues will be complimentary for first three months.

The ESSP is a science partnership of the four international global environmental change research programmes – an international programme of biodiversity science (DIVERSITAS), International Geosphere-Biosphere Programme (IGBP), International Human Dimensions Programme on Global Change (IHDP), and the World Climate Research Programme (WCRP) - for the integrated study of the Earth system, the ways that it is changing, and the implications for global and regional sustainability.

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Academic publisher Cambridge University Press has announced a partnership with FiledBy to provide over 100 Cambridge authors with websites on the FiledBy marketing platform. Cambridge is one of the world's largest university publishers with a programme that encompasses virtually every academic discipline, including science, technology & medicine, humanities, social sciences, reference and general interest books, journals and electronic products.

The companies started working together before the FiledBy platform launched in the spring of 2009. A pilot programme was designed to register 50 Cambridge authors on FiledBy and provide them with powerful premium web tools. Given the success of the pilot program, Cambridge elected to expand with an additional 65 author sites in August. Since FiledBy websites are pre-assembled and all published authors and their books are represented, the sites are easy for an author to claim and enhance with photo, biography, videos, documents, podcasts and links.

FiledBy is an online directory of author sites providing web tools, e-commerce and community-building solutions for published book authors and contributors - co-authors, illustrators, photographers, artists, translators and editors. FiledBy provides authors and readers with social tools to connect with each other and includes more than 3 million pre-assembled author and contributor websites and 8 million book pages that can be discovered through a single database.

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Market research and data services provider Research and Markets, Ireland, has announced the addition of Woodhead Publishing Ltd's new report ‘Scholarly Communication for Librarians’ to their offering.

The Scholarly Communication for Librarians report explains complex concepts in a clear, concise manner. It is designed to quickly bring the reader up to speed on scholarly communications. Written by a well-known international expert on scholarly communications and open access, this report covers the current landscape of scholarly communications and publishing and potential futures, outlining key aspects of transition to best possible futures for libraries and librarians.

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 holds thousands of major research publications from most of the leading publishers, consultants and analysts. Earlier this month, the company announced the addition of the ‘The Future of the Academic Journal’ report to their offering. The report contains contributions from leading international figures from universities and publishers. It looks at a fast moving and vital area for academics and publishers.

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Electronic research databases provider EBSCO Publishing, US, has announced that it is making the latest evidence-based flu-related information available for free on the web. The site (www.ebscohost.com/flu) will provide evidence-based clinical information from DynaMed and Nursing Reference Center, EBSCO’s clinical and nursing point-of-care databases, along with patient education information in 17 languages from the Patient Education Reference Center.

The information provided under the ‘For Physicians’ and ‘For Nurses’ sections are expected to consolidate key evidence from multiple sources along with the latest evidence-based content. These are projected to help healthcare providers stay current with recommendations for monitoring, diagnosing, and treating patients with flu-like illnesses.

The ‘For Patients’ section includes current, easy-to-understand articles written for non-medical professionals. The site adds patient education information in 17 languages including: Arabic, Chinese (Simplified), Chinese (Traditional), English, Farsi, French, German, Hindi, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Polish, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish, Tagalog and Vietnamese. It is expected that the information will allow hospitals to have resources to provide to their diverse local communities. Also, people can obtain access the latest treatment and condition information about the pandemic H1N1 and seasonal influenza.

Medical institutions, organisations, universities, schools and public libraries can add links to the EBSCO influenza portal at their own flu resources pages and websites.

In April, EBSCO Publishing announced that it was the first clinical information provider to make the clinical summaries on the pandemic H1N1 virus available for free. The www.ebscohost.com/flu site pulls together the information collected about the H1N1 outbreak and other strains of the flu in a bid to ensure key medical evidence is easy to find going into the 2009-10 flu season.

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Digital content products and technologies provider ebrary, US, has announced that five new publishers have joined ebrary's Half-Off Sale, adding over 1,800 eligible titles to the industry's biggest cost savings programme of the year. The most recent publishers to make backlist titles available through ebrary at 50 percent off list price through December 15, 2009, are ABC-CLIO/Greenwood, Informa Healthcare, IOS Press, John Benjamins, and University of British Columbia Press. To date 35 publishers have signed up to participate in ebrary’s new programme.

More than 51,800 titles are now available through ebrary's first-of-its-kind sale from publishers such as Elsevier, Taylor & Francis, Cambridge University Press, Wiley, Springer, and many others. The selection may be previewed at http://site.ebrary.com/lib/librarytitles1/home.action.

ebrary offers a growing selection of more than 170,000 digital books, handbooks, reports, maps, journals and other valuable content from over 350 of the world’s leading publishers under flexible subscription, purchase, and usage-based models. Additionally, the company offers e-publishing services for customers to cost-effectively distribute their own PDF content online on ebrary’s servers or their own. With this new initiative, ebrary is offering an opportunity for libraries, corporations, and other organisations to purchase and own authoritative content at discounted rates from an esteemed group of renowned publishers. Simultaneously, the company is providing participating publishers with new revenue opportunities for their backlist selections.

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Symyx Technologies, Inc., a US-based provider of technologies for R&D, has announced that Julie Page, vice president of global customer support, will take over European operations, reporting directly to Trevor Heritage, president of Symyx’s software division. In addition, the company has announced personnel additions in consulting services, pre-sales and sales as part of its continued expansion to support the growing customer needs of its software solutions and services in Europe.

Symyx has offices in Geneva, Switzerland and Basel, Switzerland; in addition to field staff throughout Germany, France, Italy and Scandinavia. Julie Page, now vice president of global customer support and European operations, will oversee sales, facilities, HR, and customer support and services for the entire region. Page has been with Symyx for nearly 20 years in various sales, consulting and marketing roles. She is based in the United Kingdom.

Symyx provides a suite of software, content, and technology to support R&D scientific information management. Symyx software gives scientists immediate access to personal, laboratory, enterprise, proprietary and third-party information across different projects and platforms.

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The British Library has announced that the UK has made its first major independent contribution of data to the WorldWideScience Alliance project (www.worldwidescience.org) with the upload of the Environment Research Funders' Forum (ERFF) Research Database. The database holds information on some 20,000 publicly funded environmental research projects and programmes that have been funded by ERFF's member organisations since 2005.

Although data is being continually added to the ERFF's collections, anyone using WorldWideScience.org will be able to access information through the federated search function.

WorldWideScience, developed and maintained by the US Department of Energy, counts the British Library as one of its alliance members. The global science gateway seeks to offer researchers the ability to search over 50 national databases simultaneously, providing anyone interested in science with free access to quality, authoritative information on the latest in scientific research. Chaired by Richard Boulderstone, Director of E-Strategy and Information Systems at the British Library, the project currently makes available over 357 million pages of scientific information covering energy, medicine, agriculture and the environment. It continues to seek new partners to expand the resource and help stimulate revolutionary advances in science.

The ERFF aims to maximise the coherence and effectiveness of environmental research in the UK by bringing together 19 public sector funders (government departments, agencies and the devolved administrations). It seeks to provide long term strategic direction for environmental research in the UK and the underpinning evidence on which this depends.

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Publisher linking services provider CrossRef, US, has announced a collaboration with archiving organisations and publishers to ensure that several journals that have ceased publication remain linkable with the CrossRef DOIs (Digital Object Identifiers) originally assigned to the articles. The titles include Auto/Biography and Graft from SAGE and Brief Treatment and Crisis Intervention from Oxford University Press (OUP). All three titles are now available through both CLOCKSS and Portico.

An archive 'trigger event' occurs when a published journal or other content is no longer available from the publisher. Trigger events can occur for a variety of reasons. Both SAGE and OUP have had agreements in place with archive organisations for several years. According to CrossRef, the discontinuation of journals published by these publishers mark for the first time that such agreements have been implemented for real-world cases.

Access to triggered content is available to the more than 600 Portico participants at http://www.portico.org/news/trigger.html.

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Health information provider MEDai, Inc., US, part of STM publisher Elsevier, has announced that Novant Health, a not-for-profit integrated group of hospitals and physician practices, will roll out MEDai’s Pinpoint Review to its nine hospitals in North Carolina, Virginia and South Carolina.

Pinpoint Review is a patient-specific early-warning system for hospitals that generates predictions for acute-care patients, focusing on the likelihood of a patient developing a complication, like decubitus ulcers, or at risk for being readmitted. Such events increase hospital mortality rates, boost healthcare costs, compromise patient care quality and safety, and result in lower government reimbursement to hospitals.

Pinpoint Review provides real-time predictions utilising MEDai’s superior modeling methodology to alert care providers to patients at risk for developing several of the conditions that the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) no longer reimburse, called ‘never or non reimbursable events,’ which can cost hospitals millions of dollars. The Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations consistently encourages hospitals to deliver a higher quality of care and fewer medical errors.

Pinpoint Review is the latest addition to a complete suite of MEDai-developed tools, which includes Pinpoint Quality and Pinpoint Compliance. Pinpoint Quality provides robust retrospective analysis that helps hospitals and physicians quickly identify areas for improvement, making it possible for clinicians to improve performance, outcomes, patient satisfaction, efficiency and cost savings. Pinpoint Compliance provides a simple, time-saving Web-based solution for organisations to collect, report and submit data to the Joint Commission and other regulatory agencies allowing hospitals to participate in initiatives related to accreditation, quality improvement and compliance. Pinpoint Review expands the suite by adding the element of real-time decision support, including the application of alerts and predictive models to patient data while patients are still in the hospital.

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A nationally coordinated approach to technology in education allows learners and researchers to adopt new technologies faster, according to an international study by the UK’s Joint Information Systems Committee (JISC). Led by JISC in the UK and SURF in the Netherlands, coordinated national initiatives and central funding structure in the two countries have sought to bring the benefits of Web 2.0 to their higher education and research communities.

The study looked at activities and developments in e-learning and e-infrastructure in Australia, Canada, Denmark, Germany, Japan, Korea, the Netherlands, New Zealand, the US and the UK. The researchers examined the geographic, economic and cultural factors which shape the way these programmes are developing across the world.

The conclusions come as part of an observational study which provides a snapshot of e-learning and e-infrastructure activities that support the higher education and research communities in 10 countries. Various reviews also identify the UK as among the leaders in areas such as e-infrastructure, digitisation and data repositories along with countries such as Germany and the US. The introduction of the UK Access Management Federation in 2008 also means that the UK has a nationally-coordinated identity and access management system in place across the education and research sectors.

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Forensic Science Policy & Management, published by Taylor & Francis, has launched a discussion forum that seeks to provide readers and the entire forensic science community the opportunity to discuss current issues in forensic science. The Forensic Science Forum moderator Barry Fisher will launch discussions based on articles published in the journal as well as other timely topics.

Along with Forensic Science Policy & Management, the Forensic Science Forum aims to improve the effectiveness, efficiency, quality, and operations of forensic science laboratories as well as the education and training of forensic scientists. In addition, it will explore the government and institutional policies that affect the practice and management of forensic science.

Forensic Science Policy & Management does not focus on the science of forensic science, but rather on how scientists, managers, and policy makers practice and use that science. The journal seeks to provide a vital forum for exploring both current practice in forensic science and methods for improving and advancing the field so that it can meet rapidly increasing public needs and expectations. Authors and readers include scientists, practitioners, laboratory supervisors/directors, and policymakers in academia, government, and forensic science laboratories around the globe.

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STM publisher Elsevier, Netherlands, has announced that it has become one of the Charter Members of the InChI Trust. Originally developed by the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC), the IUPAC International Chemical Identifier (InChI) is a non-proprietary, international standard to represent chemical structures as an alpha-numeric character string generated by an algorithm.

InChIs are machine readable and therefore allow chemistry and chemical structures to be much more navigable and discoverable. The InChI Trust is a not-for-profit organisation established to develop and improve on the current InChI standard and thereby further enable the interlinking of chemistry and chemical structures on the web.

Recognising that scientists need to navigate through a range of information sources, Elsevier has already implemented InChI Keys within Reaxys, the leading workflow solution for synthetic chemists. The use of InChIs also ties into the broader Elsevier strategy of Content Innovation in which research articles are enriched to provide more depth, value, and context to our users. For the chemistry journals available on ScienceDirect, the incorporation of InChI keys will improve the discoverability and organisation of compounds within the chemistry scientific literature, facilitating and accelerating connectivity to other research tools and content sources.

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The American Society for Microbiology (ASM) has announced the mid-2010 launch of mBio, a new open access online journal designed to make microbiology research broadly accessible. The focus of the journal will be on rapid publication of research spanning the entire spectrum of microbiology and related fields. Arturo Casadevall, Chair of the Department of Microbiology and Immunology at Albert Einstein College of Medicine in the Bronx, New York, will serve its Editor-in-Chief.

Every published research article in mBio will be accompanied by a brief non-technical summary written by the author in language that conveys the importance of the work to non-specialists in that area of research.

The new term ‘ASM Access’ has been coined to reference mBio’s particular definition of open access, which otherwise varies among scientific publications. Full text of mBio articles and supplemental materials will be accessible by the public immediately upon publication. Full text of the articles also will be deposited in PubMed Central with access immediately upon publication. mBio authors will be asked to sign a licensing agreement granting publishing rights to ASM and permitting unrestricted non-commercial reuse by others.

The new journal will be linked with the American Academy of Microbiology (AAM), the leadership arm of the ASM. The relationship is expected to allow mBio to draw on the expertise of the Academy’s members to serve in an editorial capacity. ASM already brings out nine specialised primary research journals. Like these, mBio will also be hosted on the HighWire platform at www.journals.asm.org.

A formal ‘Call for Papers’ will be issued in December 2009, and the journal launch is planned for May 2010.

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Library technology solutions provider SirsiDynix US, has announced that Utah State University Library has successfully installed and begun operations using the SirsiDynix Symphony Integrated Library System (ILS) in the Merrill-Cazier Library. The solution is complemented by a host of SirsiDynix tools, including SirsiDynix e-Library and the SirsiDynix Web Reporter business intelligence tool. USU upgraded to Symphony after using SirsiDynix Horizon ILS for over 12 years. USU joins over 1,400 academic institutions that have chosen SirsiDynix solutions for their library technology needs, including almost 300 using SirsiDynix’s pioneering Symphony ILS, unveiled in late 2007.

Symphony’s open architecture design allowed USU to seamlessly install a third-party material handling system supporting an extensive remote storage facility during the implementation. The technology upgrade completes the University’s library improvement project, providing the USU community improved, robust access to over 1.5 million volumes in the 305 thousand square foot Merrill-Cazier Library.

Symphony incorporates open, industry-standard technologies, offering libraries an expansive list of features and capabilities. These include an open n-tier architecture, software-as-a-service (SaaS) options, powerful search and discovery solutions, comprehensive integrated library management and productivity solutions, Java-based staff clients for all modules, fully documented application programming interfaces (APIs) that support unparalleled customisability and integration capabilities, Unicode support, advanced business intelligence and reporting tools, support for API, SIP2 and NCIP and embedded and full Oracle database support.

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Federated search services provider Deep Web Technologies, US, has announced the appointment of Andy Alsop as Vice President of Business Development. Alsop joins Deep Web Technologies with 20 years of experience in information technology.

In his new position, Alsop will drive the adoption of Deep Web Technologies’ Explorit Research Accelerator through strategic partnerships with companies that want to embrace the power of federated search. Prior to this, he served as CEO of Packet Analytics Corporation, a venture-backed Los Alamos National Laboratory spinout that focused on network forensic search of high-volume network data. His expertise fuses tactical mastery, technological proficiency, operating know-how and an ability to develop strong corporate relationships to help drive the growth of young technology companies.

Deep Web Technologies creates custom, sophisticated federated search solutions for clients who demand precise, accurate results. The tool of choice when needing to access the deep web, federated search performs real-time, parallel searches of multiple information sources, merging the results into one page. Serving Fortune 500 companies, a number of leading federal government organizations, and a variety of other customers and partners, Deep Web Technologies has built a reputation as the ‘researcher’s choice’ for its advanced, agile information discovery tools.

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The latest edition of blogspeak is now online. Featured are John Blossom (It Depends on What "Semantic" Is: NetBase And Natural Language Processing Hit Hiccups with HealthBase); Kent Anderson (E-books: Tasting Blood in the Water); Margaret Somerville (Ethical pitfalls in academic publishing); and David Crotty (New Technologies and the Need for Standards). A service of Knowledgespeak.com, Blogspeak includes blog posts relevant to the publishing industry, particularly STM publishing. Subscribers are invited to participate in the latest edition of blogspeak Here

Information services provider Thomson Reuters, US, has announced the launch of Century of Social Sciences, a superior and unique set of backfiles covering research in the social sciences back to 1900. Century of Social Sciences expands the coverage of Web of Science, available on the ISI Web of Knowledge platform - the world’s largest citation environment of scholarly literature.

Culled from over 300 prestigious journals, information dating back to 1900 is now available to researchers, faculty, authors, and students. They can now track research trends, authors, and articles over the entire century and identify seminal studies that form the basis for today’s research.

These social science journals represent a collection of the oldest and most prestigious sources in their respective fields. Full bibliographic and cited reference data is available in disciplines such as communication, education, geography, history, law, political science, and public health. Century of Social Sciences also features extensive coverage of high-impact psychology journals, including key titles associated with Sigmund Freud.

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Evidence of publication bias favouring positive results, both in which studies are reported in journals and in how they are treated by peer reviewers, emerged at the recently concluded 6th Peer Review Congress in Vancouver.

Dr. Seth Leopold, orthopedic surgeon at the University of Washington School of Medicine, described his group's study, where two variations of a fabricated, CONSORT-conforming randomised controlled trial (RCT) were made. These were sent to 209 peer reviewers for Journal of Bone and Joint Surgery and Clinical Orthopaedics and Related Research. Peer reviewers were randomised to receive each version of the paper, which were identical apart from the direction of the finding. It was found that the paper reporting a positive result received more positive reviews for methodological rigour, was scrutinised less carefully for errors, and was more likely to receive recommendations to publish.

A further analysis was made of published vs. unpublished Food and Drug Administration (FDA) data on antidepressant trial outcomes, which now includes ‘published’ trials if they appear in review articles. It was found that negative trial results were bundled with positive ones in reviews, rather than being fully published. Of eight trials reviewed by the FDA in the study period, half of which were deemed positive and half negative, outcomes were reported positively 103 times compared to eight times negatively.

Two other abstracts presented on September 11 investigated the time to publication of manuscripts rejected by major biomedical journals. A common finding was that a quarter of manuscripts in the samples remain apparently unpublished, even after a number of years.

These findings - although not yet published in peer-reviewed journals - seem to add to the evidence of publication bias favouring positive results. The findings are also seen to suggest that certain 'gaps' in research studies and wasted research efforts continue to take place.

The Peer Review Congress - held every four years - aims to improve the quality and credibility of biomedical peer review and publication and to help advance the efficiency, effectiveness, and equitability of the dissemination of biomedical information throughout the world.

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Global library cooperative OCLC, US, has announced that its board of trustees has convened a Record Use Policy Council. The council will draw upon the fundamental values of the OCLC cooperative and engage with libraries worldwide to develop the next generation of the WorldCat Record Use Policy. The intent is to recommend a new policy that is aligned with the present and future information landscape. The new policy will replace the Guidelines for Use and Transfer of OCLC Derived Records that was developed in 1987.

The formation of this council was one of the recommendations contained in the final report of the OCLC Review Board on the Principles of Shared Data Creation and Stewardship. This report was formed in January 2009 to represent the membership and inform OCLC on best practices for sharing library data.

The Policy Council is also charged with carrying out the other recommendations contained in the final report, including development of a policy to enable expanding the role and value of WorldCat in the broad information ecosystem. The members of the OCLC Record Use Policy Council have agreed to undertake a significant body of work to canvass the current and future information needs of the library community and provide a broad and inclusive set of perspectives and experiences.

Over the next seven months, the council will review key values and principles underlying the current guidelines developed in 1987; develop success criteria for a revised policy or guidelines; conduct and disseminate the results of an environmental scan of data-sharing policies; evaluate findings from the environmental scan and draft a new policy and recommendations for implementation; and develop a formal, transparent and well-managed process for vetting the new draft policy with the OCLC Regional Councils and the OCLC Global Council as the representatives of the OCLC membership.

The Record Use Policy Council will begin its work soon. The group will define an approach and timeline to carry out this charge. The council will submit a new draft policy and recommendations for implementation to the Chair of the OCLC board of trustees and OCLC President and CEO, for review and approval by the trustees in midyear 2010.

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STM publisher Elsevier, Netherlands, has announced the launch of a new web platform - Elsevier Mental Health. Elsevier Mental Health is a website bringing together information and resources from all of Elsevier’s products and services in clinical psychology, psychiatry and other areas of mental health. It links to online books, journals top cited and top downloaded articles, alerting services, conferences, topical discussion forums and various RSS feeds powered by ScienceDirect and Scopus.

The need to provide mental health resources is becoming increasingly apparent as governments around the world are investing heavily in mental health service provisions, and encouraging many more evidence-based treatment methodologies to be available. The field continues to expand in importance.

Elsevier Mental Health is intended to be a one-stop information resource for researchers, scientists and practitioners working in the field of mental health. As well as containing essential information about Elsevier’s offerings in the field of mental health, individuals with subscriptions to ScienceDirect will be able to access full journal articles.

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Scientific publisher Nature Publishing Group (NPG), UK, and the Associazione Differenziamento e Morte Cellulare (ADMC) have announced a new open access journal, Cell Death & Disease. Scheduled for launch in January 2010, the journal will explore the area of cell death from a translational medicine perspective.

Cell Death & Disease is devoted to the biology of cell death in the pathogenesis of human diseases or relevant animal models. The journal aims to publish papers that present novel observations in the field of cell death, with pathophysiological or medical implications. Particular emphasis will be given to clinical, translational and applied research through its five sections: Experimental Medicine, Cancer, Immunity, Internal Medicine and Neuroscience. The journal is currently accepting submissions at www.nature.com/cddis.

An online only journal, Cell Death & Disease will make all content freely available to all researchers worldwide. The editorial team is led by three editors, Gerry Melino, Guido Kroemer and Pierluigi Nicotera, and will include a highly respected international editorial board.

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Clinica World Medical Technology News, published by Informa Business Information, has launched Clinica.co.uk – an online service specially designed to meet the complex news, information and analysis needs of the medtech industry.

Clinica.co.uk serves as a single point of access for all Clinica content enabling users to benefit from multimedia reporting, a 24-hour news cycle, a global editorial team and additional analysis and comment from the Clinica team of medtech analysts. The new site offers the learnings and views of Clinica's leading medtech analysts in a news analysis and commentary service which includes sections on Expert View, Market Insight, Medtech Ventures and Patent Watch - all designed to meet the specific needs of the medical technology industry. In addition, Clinica.co.uk offers a premium new service, Ask the Analyst, which allows users to submit questions to the publication's team of industry experts and to address questions arising from Clinica's news and information coverage.

Clinica.co.uk will be available as part of the Clinica subscription. Customers will continue to benefit from the printed publication with the added benefit of the immediacy, depth and tailored intelligence of the web service and Clinica's team of medtech experts.

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Database aggregator EBSCO Publishing, US, has announced that its products Nursing Reference Center (NRC) and CINAHL Databases offer continuing education (CE) modules for nurses. EBSCO’s Cinahl Information Systems is accredited as a provider of continuing nursing education by the American Nurse Credentialing Center’s Commission on Accreditation. Nurses who use online resources from EBSCO, including those seeking specialty certification, can earn contact hours for relicensure from these resources. The CE modules from Cinahl Information Systems are found in the suite of CINAHL databases available on EBSCOhost such as CINAHL Plus with Full Text and in NRC.

The CE modules from Cinahl are seen to allow nurses using NRC, a nursing point-of-care resource, to earn contact hours — combining their continuing education with evidence-based clinical practice.

CINAHL and NRC continuing education modules are interactive, allowing nurses to satisfy CE requirements online. They contain the latest topics on patient care and drug administration. Each CE module consists of course material, an interactive review and a competency test with a certificate of successful completion.

The modules in EBSCOhost nursing and allied health resources are claimed to be rigorously reviewed by objective standards. NRC has a growing collection of CE modules, and it is expected that the more than 300 modules in NRC will double within the year. The CINAHL databases contain more than 100 continuing education modules.

Cinahl Information Systems is also approved as a provider by the International Association for Continuing Education and Training.

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Academic and professional literature publisher Emerald Group Publishing Limited, UK, has announced that it is exhibiting at the ongoing British Academy of Management Conference. Delegates are invited to visit stand 18 to discover Emerald Management Plus, the company’s new flagship collection of scholarly journals.

Emerald Management Plus users will gain access to 212 journals from a range of 22 management disciplines. In addition to this extensive content, subscribers will receive automatic access to all newly launched and acquired titles as soon as they are available online. Also on display is a range of books and book series in the field of business and management, and two eBook series collections that complement Emerald’s business and management portfolio.

Emerald has been committed to expanding its portfolio through the acquisition and the launch of quality titles, identifying gaps and emerging areas in the research field. Throughout 2010 Emerald will publish a range of 13 new titles reflecting emerging management research trends in all parts of the world; including its first management journal from Africa.

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US-based higher learning institutions - Cornell, Dartmouth, Harvard, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and the University of California at Berkeley – have announced their joint commitment to a compact for open access (OA) publication. A full account of the motivation for the compact can be found in the article ‘Equity for Open-Access Journal Publishing’ published in the OA journal Public Library of Science Biology.

OA scholarly journals have arisen as an alternative to traditional publications that are founded on subscription and/or licensing fees. The economic downturn is observed to underscore the significance of OA publications. With library resources strained by budget cuts, subscription and licensing fees for journals have come under increasing scrutiny, and alternative means for providing access to vital intellectual content are identified. OA journals are seen to provide a natural alternative.

Since these journals do not charge subscription or other access fees, they must cover their operating expenses through other sources. These include subventions, in-kind support, or, in a sizeable minority of cases, processing fees paid by or on behalf of authors for submission to or publication in the journal. While academic research institutions support traditional journals by paying their subscription fees, no analogous means of support has existed to underwrite the growing roster of fee-based open-access journals.

The latest compact supports equity of the business models. This is done by committing each university to the timely establishment of durable mechanisms for underwriting reasonable publication fees for OA journal articles written by its faculty for which other institutions would not be expected to provide funds. Additional universities are encouraged to visit the compact website and sign on.

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The American Chemical Society (ACS) Publications Division has announced full compliance with Release 3 of the COUNTER Code of Practice for Journals and Databases. COUNTER (Counting Online Usage of Networked Electronic Resources) is a global initiative serving librarians, publishers and their intermediaries by instituting standards for reporting online usage statistics in a consistent way across multiple publishers and platforms. ACS Publications has achieved full compliance with the third release of COUNTER, the deadline of which was August 31, 2009.

The highlights of this updated release include incorporating new protocols designed to mitigate the potentially inflationary effects on usage statistics from federated/automated search engines, Internet robots, and crawlers; providing tools that facilitate the consolidation, management, and analysis of COUNTER usage statistics; improving the COUNTER usage reporting for library consortia; and improving the usage report for journal archive content.

The implementation of the SUSHI (Standardised Usage Statistics Harvesting Initiative) protocol will further enable easy access to COUNTER compliant statistics by facilitating the transmission of COUNTER usage reports into local electronic resource management systems (ERMs).

In addition, ACS Publications is fully compliant with Release 1 of the COUNTER Code of Practice for Books and Reference Works. All titles in the newly digitised ACS Symposium Series and Advances in Chemistry series are now available online with fully COUNTER compliant usage reporting.

This online book collection includes all titles from the ACS Symposium Series and Advances in Chemistry book series. The content addition is fully integrated with the ACS Journals website, and expected to allow for a powerful multi-product search experience, spanning across 800,000 original research articles and nearly 20,000 book chapters. Advanced features include related content linking, personalisation tools like saved searches and favourite articles, and dynamic reaction and substance links to SciFinder.

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Market research and data services provider Research and Markets, Ireland, has announced the addition of the ‘The European Scientific, Technical and Medical (STM) Information Market’ report to their offering. According to the report, growth in the European STM information market remains resilient despite the current economic and financial problems. The European STM information market growth in 2008 was 4.5 percent, the weakest year-on-year growth since 2001.

According to the report, the healthcare sector continued to be a main driver of sales with clinical decision support solutions, particularly those at the point of care, leading sales growth. Sales to the pharmaceutical industry remained weak, following declines in drug launches and reductions in promotional spending. The report further states that while the academic market continues to face budget cuts, interest in open access increased substantially in the last 12 months driven by demands for mandatory open access publishing by research funding bodies, more investment in open access publishing models by leading publishers, and increased understanding of open access among STM authors. Also, significant rise in E-books sales was a major contributor to sales growth in the sector. After a number of years on the margins, the supply of, and demand for, e-books witnessed a significant rise in the last 12 month.

It was observed that declines in advertising spending had a limited impact on most STM information segments. The majority of revenues came from subscription services which are seen to be less affected by cyclical trends and downturns.

Further, the report notes that Web 2.0 developments are likely to play an increasing role in the exchange and use of STM information. Interest in STM networking and collaborative sites is beginning to grow. A survey of academic STM researchers noted that relatively few were using these sites at the start of 2009 but a majority are expecting to turn to these sites in the next year or so.

In addition, the report provides an analysis of market trends and issues (with data from 2005-2008), market forecasts for 2009 and 2010, profiles of key STM information providers, a review of emerging STM networking sites, and results of surveys of UK STM researchers and information professionals undertaken in November/December 2008.

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STM publisher Elsevier, Netherlands, has announced a joint development agreement between its flagship product SCOPUS, an abstract and citation database of peer-reviewed literature, and the Third World Organization for Women in Science (TWOWS) and the Third World Academy of Sciences (TWAS). The deal is to develop the Young Women Researcher Awards, the first of its kind in the region.

The need to nurture women scientists as they move through their career has been recognised by academic institutions as well as public and private organisations, alike. The Young Women Researcher Awards will be presented in four major fields of research - Life Sciences, Medicine, Engineering and Technology and Agricultural Sciences. It will be open to most countries in Asia (except Australia, New Zealand, Japan, Korea, Singapore, Hong Kong and Taiwan) with the award ceremony commencing in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia from November 8-10, 2009. The event will be held in conjunction with a two-day symposium in Kuala Lumpur. The first day will be a presentation of the finalists for the TWAS-TWOWS-SCOPUS Young Researchers Awards in the four categories. The second day will engage these women and other participants, including other young researchers and eminent women scientists, policy makers and administrators in a discussion on issues and challenges pertaining to the development of women researchers in science during their career.

Short-listed candidates from each award category will be invited to present their work at the Regional Young Women Scientists Symposium 09, ‘Bridging the Science Gender Gap in Developing Countries’ in Kuala Lumpur. Twelve panellists comprised of prominent scientists in the region will select the winners among them.

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Hazelden, a nonprofit organisation, and the Dartmouth Psychiatric Research Center (PRC) have announced a partnership to develop a variety of resources for the mental health and addiction treatment industries. These resources, including curricula, books, multimedia tools, and staff-development trainings, will be published under a new ‘Dartmouth PRC–Hazelden’ imprint.

This collaboration between Hazelden and the Dartmouth PRC is the result of the success of a project between Hazelden and Dartmouth Medical School - the 2008 publication of the Co-occurring Disorders Program, the first comprehensive, evidence-based programme for the treatment of non-severe co-occurring disorders. This programme has been adopted by several organisations, including the U.S. Navy and the Adult Mental Health Division of the Minnesota Department of Human Services.

The new joint venture between Hazelden and the Dartmouth PRC will launch with the fall 2009 release of A Guide for Living with PTSD: Perspectives for Professionals and Their Clients, a video on the treatment of post-traumatic stress disorder. Future products will compose a continuum of evidence-based resources for working with those who have a mental health disorder or co-occurring addiction and mental health disorders, including an updated, expanded, and serviceable version of the Integrated Dual Disorder Treatment program, which will feature a new relapse prevention component. These products and trainings will be designed to serve a broad range of professionals, including counselors, social workers, nurses and psychiatrists who work in mental health agencies, the military, treatment centers, corrections departments, state governments, and industry associations.

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Print and electronic subscription information provider EBSCO has been selected by the Department of Health, Victoria as the supplier of choice for the next phase of the Clinicians Health Channel. The Clinicians Health Channel is a resource for employees of the Department of Health, Victoria which gives them online access to an array of world class clinical information.

As part of the deal, EBSCO will supply, for the first time, MIMS Online, a leading source of online medicines information published by CMPMedica, to Australian health care professionals. The contract also gives access to MIMS DrugAlert Online, an evidence based drug interaction checker designed to assist with the quality use of medicines and MIMS for PDA.

EBSCO offers access, authentication and management solutions to a variety of customer organisations including individual libraries, library consortia, and state-wide information services. In addition to managing the purchase and delivery of content, EBSCO’s solutions encompass content platforms, searching and linking technologies, resource discovery services, access and identity management and other electronic resource management services.

The company is currently the major supplier of clinical health content and related technologies to Victorian health libraries, as well as most state and/or national consortia in Australia and New Zealand.

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Symyx Technologies, Inc., a US-based provider of technologies for R&D, has announced that it has joined SAFE-BioPharma Association, a non-profit association that created and manages the SAFE-BioPharma digital identity and signature standard for the pharmaceutical and healthcare industries. The membership enables Symyx to implement the SAFE-BioPharma digital signature standard for records signing to safe-guard critical scientific data. The membership also enables Symyx to participate in SAFE-BioPharma working groups to further secure the electronic laboratory environment.

Symyx customers can utilise SAFE-BioPharma digital signature within Symyx Notebook, an enterprise electronic lab notebook (ELN). Symyx Notebook supports multiple scientific disciplines including biology, chemistry, formulations development, and analytical laboratories where protecting intellectual property, avoiding patent interference, and satisfying regulatory agency submissions are critical activities. It enables scientists to plan, execute and analyse experiments across the spectrum of research, development and analytical QC labs while providing data and document workflow transparency to life sciences and chemicals businesses.

Symyx Notebook experimental entries provide key documentation for the intellectual properties of Symyx’s pharmaceutical and biotechnology customers, establishing the date of record for invention which is vital to patent claims and patent defense litigation. The Symyx Notebook platform also enables scientists to connect with their existing laboratory instrumentation and software tools to gain compliance protection without redeveloping operational business practices.

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NextDocs Corporation has announced enhancements to their partnership with Thomson Reuters, a source of intelligent information for businesses and professionals. NextDocs provides Microsoft SharePoint-based document and quality management solutions for life sciences companies.

Together, the companies have developed and demonstrated effective integration between the NextDocs Document and Quality Management System and the Thomson Reuters Liquent Regulatory software platform, providing a comprehensive solution for managing regulatory content from authoring to publishing and submission. In addition, the two companies also announced that NextDocs will support the Liquent SmartScribe set of document templates from Thomson Reuters.

The integration between the NextDocs Document and Quality Management System and the Liquent InSight Platform allows the two systems to work from a common set of SharePoint-based documents. With SharePoint as a common repository, NextDocs system and the Liquent Regulatory Software are able to seamlessly interact with one another.

As part of the enhanced partnership, NextDocs will be offering Liquent SmartScribe from Thomson Reuters. These templates enable users to create common technical documents quickly, efficiently and in a constant standard. The user friendly templates help to ensure all documents comply with format requirements.

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B2B publisher PennWell Corporation, US, has announced that its Electronics Media Group is launching a new website, www.ElectroIQ.com, focusing on electronics and electronics manufacturing. The new site provides a gateway to the content of five different PennWell brands - Solid State Technology, Photovoltaics World, Advanced Packaging, Small Times and SMT. Each brand powers one of the five sections of the new site - semiconductors, photovoltaics, packaging, nanotech/MEMS, and surface mount technology.

Users can easily navigate through these branded sections and associated topic centers to find a wide variety of content, including technical articles, industry news, product updates, videos, white papers, webcasts, blogs, podcasts, upcoming events, magazine archives, and more. The site also features search and advanced search functionality that allows users to find relevant content across all five brands.

With topically aligned content, ElectroIQ delivers information readers need to make decisions about selecting new technologies, products and suppliers. The site runs on PennWell's Platform 7, a next generation content management system and web platform, consisting of a modular set of functionalities, as well as best practice processes. Other recently deployed portal sites within PennWell include OptoIQ.com, DentistryIQ.com and PennEnergy.com.

Coinciding with the new launch, PennWell's Electronics Media Group has restructured and expanded. Debra Vogler, based in San Jose, will handle technical feature content and submissions for four semiconductor brands: Solid State Technology, Advanced Packaging, Photovoltaics World and Small Times. Steve Smith has taken on Managing Editor responsibilities. Heading up SMT editorial efforts is Meredith Courtemanche, who continues to handle editorial submissions and inquiries, for SMT feature articles, technical content, and news.

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