STM publisher Elsevier, Netherlands, has announced the launch of MD Consult Mobile. Optimised for iPhones, BlackBerrys and other smartphone devices, MD Consult Mobile allows clinicians to consult the same MD Consult content available from a laptop or desktop computer. Physicians of any specialty will now be able to access an entire library of quality medical content on their mobile devices.

MD Consult Mobile provides a new interface that is optimised for a small screen, making an extensive collection of books, journal articles, Clinics, and guidelines easily accessed and read from a mobile device’s web browser. MD Consult Mobile users can browse directly to content via Quick Reference links that cover a growing list of medical topics with pre-organised resources; search books, Clinics, journals/MEDLINE, and practice guidelines; view full-text chapters, journal articles and images of all searchable content; and email content links, to themselves for later review, or to colleagues. The service is available at no additional charge to individual subscribers, as well as end-users at institutions with site license subscriptions.

MD Consult brings leading medical resources together into one integrated online reference tool to help physicians efficiently find answers to pressing clinical questions and make better treatment decisions. A service of Elsevier, it combines leading medical reference books, medical journals, and The Clinics of North America with patient education handouts, drug information, medical news, and more.

Search for more such decision support tools in K-Store

Discuss this NEWS

The Joint Information Systems Committee (JISC), UK, has released a report as part of its ‘Research 3.0 – driving the knowledge economy’ activity, which launches at the end of November. The new ‘Open Science’ report trails key research trends that could purportedly have far-reaching implications for science, universities and the UK society.

The report, written by UKOLN at the University of Bath and the Digital Curation Centre, identifies open-ness, predictive science based on massive data volumes and citizen involvement as being important features of tomorrow’s research practice. It is hoped that this document will stimulate and contribute to community discussion in the UK, which is ranked second in the world for its output of quality research. It is also expected to fuel the open science debate on the global stage.

As part of its data management programme, JISC is discussing with UK research funders and libraries on how best to build on recent initiatives, such as the HEFCE-funded UK Research Data Service feasibility study. The aim is to address the considerable challenges outlined in the Open Science report.

The report looks at how technologies can support the open movement to share data, workflows, methods and research outputs. It also illustrates the vital role librarians could have in supporting these new trends and the recognised need to build relationships between researchers and librarians to support the research of the future.

The JISC has been working toward widening the access to scientific resources. Last month, it signed a three-year agreement with the Society of College, National and University Libraries (SCONUL) to bring together the knowledge of UK library professionals with JISC’s expertise in digital technologies. Themes to be explored jointly by SCONUL and JISC will include the changing library systems landscape - ‘a road map for strategic development of UK library systems’; policy and strategic development for digital content and related infrastructure for libraries; access and identity management; the changing scholarly communications process; and supporting the user experience.

Search for more such industry reports in K-Store

Discuss this NEWS

The American Chemical Society (ACS) and the Royal Society of Chemistry (RSC) have announced an agreement to work co-operatively to contribute to global efforts aimed at developing sustainable energy, providing abundant food and clean water, and seeking to address other global challenges that threaten sustainability of planet Earth. The societies have agreed to mutually use their resources to contribute to global efforts that seek out solutions for many of the emerging problems caused by unprecedented worldwide population growth and shrinking availability of the resources needed to sustain life.

As part of the agreement, each Society will utilise its considerable scientific expertise - both as an organisation as well as that of its diverse, active and talented members - to address some of the world's most challenging issues. They will also promote joint scientific seminars in the US and UK, featuring key scientists and policymakers. In addition, RSC and ACS will work together to develop a ‘primer’ to help the general public better understand the basic chemistry underlying the global challenges confronting us and their possible solutions. The two organisations will also collaborate to train chemists to speak compellingly and convincingly, in non-technical terms, about sustainability challenges.

This new collaborative alliance with the RSC is one of many international partnerships ACS has initiated in recent years with scientific organisations in Brazil, Japan, France and other countries worldwide.

Search for more such sustainability related collaborations in K-Store

Discuss this NEWS

Academic publisher Maney Publishing, UK, has announced the acquisition of two quarterly journals from John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. The journals, Cochlear Implants International and Deafness & Education International, together establish a decisive publishing commitment to the clinical treatment and education of the deaf.

Deafness & Education International is the official publication of both the British Association for Teachers of the Deaf (BATOD) and the National Association of Australian Teachers of the Deaf (NAATD). The journal seeks to provide a forum for teachers and other professionals involved with the education and development of deaf infants, children and young people. Submissions fall within the areas of linguistics, education, personal-social and cognitive developments of deaf children, spoken language, sign language, deaf culture and traditions, audiological issues, cochlear implants, educational technology, general child development, and educational and legal issues that impinge on deaf children and young people. The types of submissions considered include research papers, work in progress reports, reviews, survey articles, conference reports and responses to previously published articles.

Cochlear Implants International is an interdisciplinary, peer-reviewed journal designed to meet a need to include scientific contributions from all the disciplines represented in cochlear implant teams: audiology, medicine and surgery, speech therapy and speech pathology, psychology, hearing therapy, radiology, pathology, engineering and acoustics, teaching and communication. The journal, endorsed by the British Cochlear Implants Group, publishes original scientific research, case studies, audits of results, descriptions of original concepts and devices and short reports of work in progress.

Search for more such scientific books/journals in K-Store

Discuss this NEWS

STM publisher IOS Press BV, Netherlands, has announced an agreement with publisher Taylor & Francis for the transfer of four journals to its publishing programme. The journals are: Main Group Chemistry, International Journal of RF Technologies: Research and Applications, Bridge Structures – Assessment Design and Construction and Journal of Neutron Research. IOS will commence publication of these titles in 2010.

Main Group Chemistry is intended to be a primary resource for all chemistry, engineering biological, and materials researchers in both academia and in industry with an interest in the elements from the groups 1, 2, 12 - 18. The Journal will publish rapid, short, Communications, full, detailed Articles, and shorter, less developed Notes. All published research articles in the journal will have undergone rigorous peer review, based on initial screening by the editor and anonymised refereeing by at least two expert referees.

International Journal of RF Technologies: Research & Applications will establish a forum for exchanging information and research results regarding RF technology deployment, data analytics, and business value creation. Potential technologies that will be covered in the Journal include Radio frequency identification (RFID), Real time location sensing (RTLS), Near-field communication (NFC), and RF-based sensors. Although grounded on solid scientific backgrounds, the Journal will only publish innovative and challenging papers that have a clear applicability to the business world and are focussed on driving business value.

Bridge Structures - Assessment, Design and Construction aims to present the transformation of theoretical knowledge into guidelines and specifications that are compliant with the technical constraints of bridge engineering design. Papers will be solicited from researchers, designers, fabricators and contractors of significant bridge projects, covering a wide range of topics and interests to bridge engineers from all over the world.

The Journal of Neutron Research publishes original research papers of an experimental and theoretical nature in three areas of specialisation in neutron research - Neutron Instrumentation and Techniques, Reactor and Spallation Source Technology, and Engineering Science. While the Editors encourage contributions in the above special fields, research papers and short reports in other areas of neutron science, especially those without an obvious traditional journal home, will also be considered for publication.

IOS Press serves the information needs of scientific and medical communities worldwide. The publishing company (co-) publishes over 100 international journals and about 130 book titles each year on subjects ranging from computer sciences and mathematics to medicine and the natural sciences.

Search for more such STM books/journals in K-Store

Discuss this NEWS

Pharmaceutical and healthcare information provider IMS Health, US, has announced the forthcoming launch of IMS Oncology Quantifier, a comprehensive, clinically rich analytical tool. Available starting in January 2010, IMS Oncology Quantifier enables the company’s clients to assess treatment opportunities and guide commercial decisions in the $48 billion global oncology market.

IMS Oncology Quantifier offers a deeper level of insight into oncology product uptake and treatment patterns, including therapies most often prescribed in leading markets, their effectiveness in treating specific types of cancer, and their impact when used for new or future indications. The offering covers the US, France, Germany, UK, Italy, Spain and Japan, countries that represent more than 90 percent of the global market for cancer treatments.

By integrating IMS’s anonymised patient-level diagnosis and treatment information with product sales data, IMS Oncology Quantifier provides market growth projections and utilisation levels for drugs used to treat 27 types of cancers – organised by tumor type, disease stage, line of therapy and regimen and geography. In addition, the offering measures and assesses the impact of generic and biosimilar oncology treatments, as well as new and future indications for cancer drugs.

IMS Oncology Quantifier combines two of the company’s robust information products, MIDAS and Oncology Analyzer, to accurately measure treatment patterns and advance market research initiatives. The offering is the latest addition to IMS Specialty Solutions, a portfolio of next-generation market intelligence services focused exclusively on specialty pharmaceutical market requirements and challenges. They are a core component of the company’s New Models, New Metrics program, which provides market measurement services to help clients better navigate today’s dynamic healthcare environment.

Search for more such Oncology related products in K-Store

Discuss this NEWS

The Umeå Centre for Global Health Research and publisher Co-Action Publishing, Sweden, have announced the publication of a cluster of articles published in the international peer reviewed open access journal Global Health Action. The article cluster, titled ‘Climate Change and Public Health: linking science and policy’, comes with a forward by Maria Neira of the WHO.

The 23 articles, authored by experts worldwide, focus on two large groups of climate-exacerbated adverse health effects in two clusters: the very direct consequences of heat on human health, including effects upon productivity, and on the indirect effects of climate change upon the spread of infectious diseases.

The articles are seen to provide global evidence of impacts and offer new tools – such as the use of remote sensing to monitor health risks from space. The authors also send an appeal to those gathering in Copenhagen next month to give centre stage to the impacts of climate change upon global health. They argue that these issues are given far too little attention in the mitigation debate, leading among other things to an underestimation of the full economic costs of climate change on human welfare.

What appear on the surface to be rather diverse issues in geographically distinct areas– sugar cane workers’ exposure to extreme heat in Costa Rica, to Rift Valley Fever in Senegal, to increased hospitalisation in Sweden during warm summers, to climate change and health in the Arctic – actually reveal common scientific and policy challenges, say health researchers Birgitta Evengard and Rainer Sauerborn. Based upon these commonalities, the editors call upon the delegations gathering at the upcoming Climate Conference in Copenhagen this December to fill research gaps, develop and monitor adaptation strategies, and above all to ‘Use health as a driver for global climate polices’.

Search for more such environment related books/journals in K-Store

Discuss this NEWS

Information resources and technologies provider ProQuest, US, has announced plans to expand its presence in East Asia. The company has appointed Boe Horton as Senior Vice President and Managing Director, East Asia Pacific, to lead the effort.

Beginning January 1, 2010, Horton will develop ProQuest’s East Asia Pacific strategy, leading sales and operations for the region. He will also be responsible for establishing joint ventures, partnerships, and licensing agreements, as well as identifying new digital products and services for both Asian and Western markets.

Horton has led groundbreaking research on the needs of scholars in Asia and expanded roles librarians on that continent can play in building wider audiences for their research. He presented the findings of his research on Chinese scholars at the 2009 Charleston Conference and the CALIS meeting in China in May. His research on Taiwanese scholars is a highlight of the CONCERT Conference in Taipei later this month. The research is in addition to his role leading ProQuest’s Research Solutions Group – composed of Serials Solutions, RefWorks-COS and Dissertations – which has experienced consecutive, annual double-digit growth since 2007 when Horton began his tenure there.

Prior to this role, Mr. Horton headed strategy and integration during the merger of ProQuest Information and Learning and CSA. He is also former Chief Operating Officer and General Manager for both CSA and Bowker.

Discuss this NEWS

STM publisher Elsevier, Netherlands, has announced that research tool ‘Reflect’, winner of Elsevier’s Grand Challenge 2009, will be piloted on the research articles in the November 12th issue of journal Cell. The Cell-Reflect pilot is the next step in Elsevier’s ongoing Content Innovation effort with the scientific community to determine how a scientific article is best presented online. This follows Elsevier’s recent launch of an initial ‘Article of the Future’ prototype with Cell, where the traditional linear journal article is displayed in a much more useful format for life scientists.

Developed and maintained at the European Molecular Biology Laboratory, Heidelberg, Germany, and at the NNF Center for Protein Research, Copenhagen, Denmark, Reflect is a free service that can tag scientific terms in any web-page without affecting document layout. The tool is fast and easy-to-use. End-users can install Reflect as a plug-in for Firefox or Internet Explorer; publishers and content providers can access Reflect programmatically to create tagged versions of their content. The tool identifies the proteins, genes and small molecules mentioned in the Cell articles, and generates pop-up windows containing relevant contextual information, with additional links, about those entities.

Inside an article, ‘Reflect’ tags and colours gene, protein, or small molecule names on any web page, usually within seconds, without affecting the article itself or its web page layout. Clicking on a tagged or coloured item opens a popup, showing a concise summary of contextually important features, such as sequence (for proteins) or 2D structure (for small molecules).

The Cell-Reflect pilot can be viewed at http://beta.cell.com/index.php/2009/11/reflect/. Elsevier and Cell Press are inviting feedback from the scientific community on the concept and implementation. User feedback will be collected through user interviews and a survey on the Cell web site. The nature of this feedback will ultimately determine whether and when ‘Reflect’ will be rolled-out across Elsevier’s portfolio of life sciences journals on cell.com and ScienceDirect.

Search for more such Semantic technologies in K-Store

Discuss this NEWS

Scientific publisher Nature Publishing Group (NPG), UK, and the European Molecular Biology Organisation (EMBO) have announced that prices for site licence access to the EMBO Journal and EMBO reports will be reduced by 9 percent in 2010. This is seen to reflect the increased publication of open access (OA) content in 2008. The decision follows ratification by the EMBO Council.

The 9 percent reduction is net of an annual inflationary price increase. Print and personal subscription prices are unaffected.

For the 2011 subscription year onwards, both the site licence price and author fees will be considered in an effort to achieve equitable distribution of the costs of publication. This evaluation will involve an in-depth review of all factors relevant to the publication process, including the proportion of OA content and authors' ability to pay for OA and other publication-related costs.

NPG publishes the EMBO Journal and EMBO reports on behalf of EMBO. An OA option on both publications was introduced in January 2007. NPG has implemented hybrid models across many of its academic journals, and expects those titles to show price reductions in due course, as the volume of OA increases.

Search for more such STM books/journals in K-Store

Discuss this NEWS

STM publisher Springer, Germany, has announced that it is founding a new journal Food Digestion, dedicated to a quickly growing area of research – food science combined with the physiology of digestion. Roger Lentle from the Institute of Food Nutrition and Human Health at Massey University in New Zealand and Peter Wilde from the Institute of Food Research in Norwich, UK, will serve as Editors-in-chief of the journal. They will be supported by an international editorial board.

Food Digestion seeks to bring together the increasing number of researchers who are working at the interfaces between the physical sciences and nutrition and health. The journal will publish two issues in 2010 and increase to four issues in 2011. It will publish original papers and reviews that describe interrelationships between foods and all aspects of the physiological, biophysical, microbial and neurohumoral components of digestion, acquisition and absorption, with particular emphasis on the role of food structure. While the principle area of focus of the journal is in regard to human digestion, the journal will welcome papers that explore these areas in animal and in vitro models and which compare these processes in an evolutionary sense.

Food Digestion will include features such as fast electronic publication in Online First, Cross Reference Linking, and Alert services.

Search for more such Food Science related books/journals in K-Store

Discuss this NEWS

Subscription services provider Swets, Netherlands, has announced that SwetsWise Online Content has been successfully audited for compliancy with Release 3 of the COUNTER Code of Practice. This audit means that COUNTER 3 compliant data can be downloaded directly within SwetsWise Online Content and is also available for analysis within SwetsWise Selection Support and the ScholarlyStats platforms.

SwetsWise Online Content contains an extensive collection of e-journals, with over 32 million searchable references and links to full-text articles. With more than 400 publishers now partnering in the portal and making their content available through it, SwetsWise Online Content has firmly established itself as the electronic gateway of choice among libraries and information centers worldwide.

COUNTER provides a set of standards for providing information about usage of online information products. It defines a set of rules for generating the reports and a set of rigorous tests for checking the compliancy of the implementation. Swets utilises the SUSHI (Standardized Usage Statistics Harvesting Initiative) standard to provide XML usage reports within SwetsWise. This standard has been created by NISO (National Information Standards Organization) and is also known under the name Z39.93. SUSHI protocol allows the user to obtain the reports through a web service in a XML format which must be compliant to defined XML schemas.

COUNTER reports available in SwetsWise Online Content can be downloaded and scheduled. Customers can now download their COUNTER Journal Report 1 directly from SwetsWise Online Content and receive full, COUNTER 3 compliant data valid from October 1, 2009. COUNTER’s Consortium Report 1 has also been added to the existing Journal Reports 1, 3 and 4 already available within SwetsWise Online Content.

Search for more Usage and Metrics related products/services in K-Store

Discuss this NEWS

E-resource access and management solutions provider TDNet Ltd., US, recently announced a new ‘discovery to delivery’ platform for corporate libraries and information centres. The TDOne TDNet platform is projected to integrate access to all of the internal and external information resources available across the enterprise using TDNet's search and browse technology.

Incorporated directly onto the organisation's Internet homepage or web portal, the search solution seeks to allow end users worldwide to easily discover and access content from their local library, information repositories, external e-resources, journal and book collections.

TDNet offers a full suite of customised e-resource library search management and access options to maximise the growing investment in electronic and other information resources while containing staff and administrative costs.

Search for more such search tools in K-Store

Discuss this NEWS

Publisher John Wiley & Sons, Inc., US, has announced that two researchers have been selected as the recipients of the seventh annual ‘SPSJ Wiley Award’. The award is sponsored by Wiley in conjunction with the Society of Polymer Science Japan (SPSJ).

Masami Kamigaito from Nagoya University won the prize based on her paper, ‘Discovery and Development of Transition Metal-Catalyzed Living Radical Polymerization’. Ryo Yoshida from Tokyo University was the other award winner, for his work in the paper, ‘Development of Polymer Gels with Autonomous Responding Function’. The winners each received a cash prize and gave a lecture at the SPSJ Macromolecular Symposium.

Now in its seventh year, the SPSJ-Wiley Award seeks to recognise and promote the development of creative and outstanding research in the field of polymer chemistry or physics. Aimed at chemists aged 45 years or younger, the award is given to two researchers each year, one each from the Chemistry and Physics areas of polymer science.

The award winners were nominated by the SPSJ Polymer Science Award Committee in June this year.

Search for more such STM books/journals in K-Store

Discuss this NEWS

TechWeb, a division of United Business Media, US, has announced the appointment of Sarah Milstein as General Manager and Co Chair of Web 2.0 Expo brands, including the annual events in San Francisco and New York. In her new position, she will lead the content, strategy and execution of Web 2.0 Expo, working closely with TechWeb's partners at O'Reilly Media.

Milstein, co-author of The Twitter Book with Tim O'Reilly, is a speaker, writer and consultant specialising in social media for business. Previously, she was on the senior editorial staff at O'Reilly Media, where she founded the Tools of Change for Publishing Conference (TOC) and led development of the Missing Manuals, a best-selling series of computer books for non-geeks.

The Web 2.0 Expo, scheduled for November 16-19, 2009, at the Javits Convention Center, will showcase the latest Web 2.0 business models, development paradigms and design strategies for the builders of the next-generation Web. The event will feature influential keynotes and speakers, detailed workshops, a multi-track conference, an ‘unconference’ programme called Web2Open, a first-time New York Launch Pad start-up programme, a major tradeshow and many rich networking opportunities and events.

Discuss this NEWS

The latest edition of blogspeak is now online. Featured are Philip Davis (Open Access Memberships: Are Libraries Paying Too Much?); Joe Wikert (Is the eReader Financial Model Upside Down?); Kent Anderson (Breaking the Chain of Inquiry — When Journals and Journalists Fall Short); and Joshua Kim (Audiobooks, E-readers and Accessibility). 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

The Boston Consulting Group (BCG) has released a study, according to which media companies could counter the effects of the advertising slump and benefit from a major boost in profits if they start charging for online news.

A new research, released by BCG, shows that consumers are willing to spend small monthly sums to receive news on their personal computers and mobile devices. In a survey of 5,000 individuals conducted in nine countries, BCG found that the average monthly amount that consumers would be prepared to pay ranges from $3 in the US and Australia to $7 in Italy. The other countries included in the study were France, Norway, Germany, Finland and Spain.

While more than 60 percent of Internet users in several Western European countries said that they would be willing to pay for access to news online, only 48 percent of Internet users in the US said they would pay. When asked how much they would pay, Americans averaged just $3 a month, tying with Australia for the lowest figure. For Italians, this average stood at $7. The question is seen to be of great interest to the American newspaper industry, which is scouting for options on how to put toll gates on its websites, to make up for sinking print advertising. Americans were also found to be much more likely to pay for admission to sites that offered online access to multiple papers.

Interestingly, across all countries, avid newspaper readers - who already pay the most to read news - are also the most willing to pay the maximum sum for online access to news.

Search for more such study reports in K-Store

Discuss this NEWS

Internet search services provider Google, Inc., the Authors Guild (AG) and the Association of American Publishers (AAP) recently released their revised book settlement proposal in an attempt to revise the existing legal agreement.

According to Open Book Alliance co-chair Peter Brantley, the initial review of the new proposal discloses that Google and its partners are performing a sleight of hand; fundamentally, this settlement remains a set-piece designed to serve the private commercial interests of Google and its partners. None of the proposed changes appear to address the fundamental flaws illuminated by the Department of Justice and other critics that impact public interest, he points out. Brantley further charges that by performing surgical nip and tuck, Google, the AAP, and the AG are attempting to distract people from their continued efforts to establish a monopoly over digital content access and distribution; usurp Congress's role in setting copyright policy; lock writers into their unsought registry, stripping them of their individual contract rights; put library budgets and patron privacy at risk; and establish a dangerous precedent by abusing the class action process.

Last week, the Open Book Alliance issued a set of requirements that the new settlement proposal must adhere to in order be true to these principles. Most critically, the settlement proposal must not grant Google an exclusive set of rights (de facto or otherwise) or result in any one entity gaining control over access to and distribution of the world's largest digital database of books.

The Open Book Alliance is a coalition of librarians, legal scholars, authors, publishers and technology companies created to counter the proposed Google Book Settlement. The Alliance is now reviewing the new settlement in depth and will provide additional feedback shortly.

Discuss this NEWS

STM publisher Elsevier, Netherlands, has announced that it will assume publication of the journal Annals of Allergy, Asthma & Immunology, beginning with Volume 104 (2010). The journal is the official journal of the American College of Allergy, Asthma & Immunology (ACAAI).

The Annals of Allergy, Asthma & Immunology, published since 1942, will continue under the leadership of Editor Gailen D. Marshall and a distinguished editorial board. The journal provides peer-reviewed coverage of current clinical science (both research and practice-based) that is readily applicable to both the clinician and the researcher in the fields of allergy, asthma, and immunology.

Each monthly issue also provide opportunities to participate in accredited continuing medical education activities to enhance overall clinical proficiency.

Search for more such healthcare related books/journals in K-Store

Discuss this NEWS

The Joint Information Systems Committee (JISC), UK, has launched its investment plan for the academic year 2009/2010. JISC will invest over £7 million to advance the innovative use of digital technologies in UK colleges and universities.

Over the next nine months JISC will be investing in a range of projects across universities and colleges to support innovation in research, teaching and learning to aid the management of institutions. Projects will range from 12 months to three years in duration.

Among the areas JISC will be funding are: cloud computing for research; learning and teaching innovation grants; business modelling and sustainability for online content and collections to develop best practice; a ‘digipedia’ prototype to bring together resources, standards, best practise and expertise on the digital content lifecycle; shared best practice for university researchers working with business and community groups; and access and identity management.

Search for more Funding services in K-Store

Discuss this NEWS

E-Resource Access and Management Services (ERAMS) provider Serials Solutions, US, has announced the development of a new E-Books Metadata Normalization process for Serials Solutions KnowledgeWorks knowledgebase. As a result of this new process, KnowledgeWorks will now be able to deliver the best possible access to e-Books through 360 services and OPACs.

E-Book metadata is normalised in the KnowledgeWorks knowledgebase to provide more accurate and consistent e-Books holdings information to improve access and management of e-Books. To enable normalisation of e-Books metadata, Serials Solutions metadata librarians have developed innovative and trustworthy algorithms that efficiently aggregate and authoritatively link data from all available sources. For each e-Book in the library’s collection, KnowledgeWorks aggregates holdings data from all subscribed databases and normalises them into a single record. This makes it easier for patrons to find and access the e-Books in the collection, thereby increasing usage and return on investment in e-Books content.

Serials Solutions acquires E-Books metadata from all available resources without preference or exclusion. E-Book records harvested by Serials Solutions populate the KnowledgeWorks knowledgebase, and are distributed to patrons through the patron-facing interfaces of Serials Solutions 360 access services and the library’s OPAC via 360 MARC Updates. Each Serials Solutions 360 service shares the same KnowledgeWorks data and administrative interface to eliminate redundancy and increase the efficiency and effectiveness of each service.

The new e-Books normalisation process will be implemented in Serials Solutions KnowledgeWorks knowledgebase in January 2010.

Search for more such reference tools in K-Store

Discuss this NEWS

Life sciences software provider CambridgeSoft Corporation, US, has announced that it has completed a private equity investment by Health Evolution Partners and a follow-on investment by Goldman Sachs. In connection with the investment, Adam Grossman will represent Health Evolution Partners on the CambridgeSoft Board of Directors. Raheel Zia, vice president of Goldman Sachs, will continue serving on the Board, based upon Goldman Sachs’ original investment in 2008.

CambridgeSoft noted that its software as a service (SaaS) cloud computing offerings have continued to gain broad customer acceptance, beyond their initial launch almost five years ago. Users of CambridgeSoft’s ChemBioOffice Cloud benefit by joining a growing community of customers who share infrastructure and IT costs, resulting in lower management overhead, little up-front investment and immediate access to the full range of the latest, scientist-tested ChemBioOffice Enterprise applications.

CambridgeSoft is a supplier of discovery, collaboration, and knowledge management research IT enterprise solutions, desktop software, scientific databases and consulting services for the pharmaceutical, biotechnology, and chemical industries. Its integrated product suite seeks to improve the productivity of researchers in the discovery, development and commercialisation of chemical and biological compounds. Products include Cloud, Enterprise, Workgroup and Desktop versions of Chem & Bio Office, including Chem & Bio Draw and E-Notebook, providing knowledge management, chemical and biological informatics, and scientific database solutions.

Search for more such software solutions in K-Store

Discuss this NEWS

Healthcare publisher Lippincott Williams & Wilkins, part of Wolters Kluwer Health, US, has announced that the Hospice and Palliative Nurses Association (HPNA) has appointed Dr. Betty Ferrell as the new editor of The Journal of Hospice & Palliative Nursing.

With more than 32 years of oncology nursing experience, Dr. Ferrell has focused her clinical expertise and research in pain management, quality of life, and palliative care. She is a Professor and Research Scientist at the City of Hope National Medical Center, Duarte, CA, a fellow of the American Academy of Nursing, a member of the National Cancer Policy Forum and chairperson of the National Consensus Project for Quality Palliative Care. Dr. Ferrell has over 300 publications in peer-reviewed journals and texts, and has authored five books on pain management and palliative care.

Published by Lippincott Williams & Wilkins, The Journal of Hospice & Palliative Nursing is the official journal of the HPNA. Focusing on the clinical, educational and research aspects of care, the journal offers current and reliable information on end-of-life nursing.

Search for more such Oncology related books/journals in K-Store

Discuss this NEWS

STM publisher Elsevier, Netherlands, has announced that the physician-members of Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF), or Doctors Without Borders, will receive free access to MD Consult (www.mdconsult.com), its electronic clinical decision support (CDS) tool. The move is part of Elsevier’s ‘All You Need to Make a Difference’ campaign. MSF had bagged the Nobel Peace Prize in 1999.

Elsevier will donate a free subscription to MSF for each annual individual MD Consult subscription purchased between November 16 and December 18, 2009. Based on its projections, Elsevier estimates that the month-long campaign could provide 400 subscriptions to MSF's volunteer physicians. Based on average monthly sales, Elsevier estimates that the licenses donated to MSF's volunteer physicians could be worth as much as $140,000.

MD Consult is expected to help volunteer physicians diagnose and treat conditions associated with armed conflict, malnutrition, natural disasters and lack of access to care, and other epidemics. With a world population of close to seven billion people, some 32.9 million have HIV/AIDS, 13.7 million have tuberculosis and 247 million have malaria, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation's Global Health Facts.

MSF aid workers operate programmes in more than 60 countries. Elsevier, which has 7,000 employees working in more than 70 offices worldwide, has various partnerships with global science and health communities across the word. According to Elsevier estimates, clinicians in more than 139 countries use its CDS tools.

Search for more such decision support tools in K-Store

Discuss this NEWS

Academic publisher SAGE has announced a major upgrade to its SAGE Journals Online (SJO) platform. More than 560 SAGE journals will be available on the next generation platform, supported by HighWire Press’ 2.0 technology (H2O), by the end of 2010.

With most readers now accessing content directly at the article level, this advanced technology brings SJO new functionality designed to keep readers in context as they conduct their research. All journal pages will offer a flexible three-column design that makes features available without taking attention away from the substantive article content. The changes include journal and society branding; browse, advanced search and alerting features; abstract preview; tag-along navigation; feature hideaway; popular-articles list; agile, robust content architecture; and redesigned SJO portal.

SAGE journal sites have already begun the move to SJO’s next generation technology. The first sites to incorporate the new functionality were launched in early 2009. Additional titles will be migrated over during the next year, with the completion of all 560 plus sites estimated for late 2010.

Search for more such web-based information services in K-Store

Discuss this NEWS

Wiley-Blackwell, the STM and scholarly publishing business of John Wiley & Sons, Inc, US, has announced a publishing partnership with the Royal Pharmaceutical Society of Great Britain (RPSGB). Under the deal, the global publisher will publish the Journal of Pharmacy and Pharmacology, International Journal of Pharmacy Practice, Focus on Alternative and Complementary Therapies, as well as the new title Journal of Pharmaceutical Health Services Research. The journals, previously self-published by the Society’s publishing division Pharmaceutical Press, will be transferring to Wiley-Blackwell from January 1, 2010.

Journal of Pharmacy and Pharmacology, the Society’s flagship monthly journal, publishes original research papers, critical reviews and communications on the latest developments in the pharmaceutical sciences. International Journal of Pharmacy Practice publishes original research and review articles on all aspects of medicines management, policy, practice and education. Focus on Alternative and Complementary Therapies is a quarterly review journal that aims to present the evidence on complementary and alternative medicine in an analytical and impartial manner. Slated for launch in 2010, Journal of Pharmaceutical Health Services Research aims to become a focal point for the publication of all aspects of research within the field of health services research that relate to pharmaceuticals.

The journals are known for their high quality content and professional and efficient service for authors and subscribers. Although aimed primarily at an academic audience, healthcare practitioners, industry researchers and government bodies are also important contributors and readers.

Search for more pharma related books/journals in K-Store

Discuss this NEWS

The Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) has announced that it has agreed to participate in the Federal Library and Information Network (FEDLINK) of more than 1,000 US Government member libraries to facilitate their access to the ACM Digital Library (DL) (http://portal.acm.org/dl.cfm). FEDLINK is the business subsidiary of the Federal Library and Information Center Committee (FLICC).

The agreement enables FEDLINK members to subscribe to the DL at a discounted price and to streamline their access to the DL’s vast online collection of resources, which are used by over 1 million computing professionals and students worldwide. Also, the deal enables ACM to expand efforts to offer the online computing content of its DL to a critical part of the library market. Among the federal libraries that are eligible under this agreement are those maintained by many of the major science, energy, health, defence and intelligence agencies as well as several legislative committees.

This initiative is part of ACM’s ongoing investment in content, features, performance, and the worldwide reach of its Digital Library, which comprises an online collection of more than two million pages of full-text articles from ACM publications as well as one of the most comprehensive bibliographic databases in the computing field. The ACM DL includes an index of more than 7 million references, 1.25 million citations, and over 500,000 journal articles. ACM’s full-text database consists of many of the highest impact titles in the computing field dating back to 1954, and includes content from ACM’s wide range of journals, magazines, conference proceedings, ACM Special Interest Group (SIG) newsletters, technical reports, and multimedia files.

Search for more such digital libraries in K-Store

Discuss this NEWS

The Association of Research Libraries (ARL) E-Science Working Group surveyed ARL member libraries in the fall of 2009 to gather data on the state of engagement with e-science issues. An overview of initial survey findings was presented by E-Science Working Group Chair Wendy Lougee, University Librarian, McKnight Presidential Professor, University of Minnesota Libraries, at the October ARL Membership Meeting.

Lougee’s briefing explored contrasting approaches among research institutions, particularly in regard to data management. The briefing also summarised survey findings on topics such as library services, organisational structures, staffing patterns and staff development, and involvement in research grants, along with perspectives on pressure points for service development. To better explicate the findings, Lougee reviewed specific cases of activities at six research institutions.

Audio of the briefing along with slides and a handout are available as part of the Proceedings of the 155th ARL Membership Meeting. ARL has also compiled a set of resources provided by survey respondents. A full report of the survey findings is being prepared and will be published in 2010 by ARL through its Occasional Papers series.

Search for more such study reports in K-Store

Discuss this NEWS

Open access publisher BioMed Central, UK, has announced a partnership with Quertle LLC to add over 60,000 published articles into the latest version of Quertle’s online biomedical search tool. Quertle is projected as a query site for more effective searching of scientific literature. Its semantic search approach is claimed to help researchers find the most relevant documents.

According to Quertle, its search tool goes beyond simple term matching to identify the most salient information in the literature. Using a combination of linguistic methods, Quertle seeks to find facts defined within documents, creating its own database of nearly 200 million relationships, and is able to report the ones that are relevant to the user’s query.

Quertle's approach is stated to be based on a thorough understanding of biology and chemistry, and built from the ground up to address the needs of researchers who depend upon this technical literature.

Search for more such search services in K-Store

Discuss this NEWS

Library solutions provider Ex Libris Group, Germany, has announced that the Bavarian State Library has selected the Rosetta digital preservation system, which will preserve and provide access to the extensive and rapidly growing digital collections of the Bavarian State Library. The Ex Libris Rosetta digital preservation system enables institutions to manage, preserve, and provide access to institutional documents, research output in digital formats, digital images, Web sites, and other digitally born and digitised materials, for perpetuity.

Rosetta supports the acquisition, validation, ingest, storage, preservation and dissemination of digital objects from many sources and formats, while keeping this information secure and allowing institutions to implement multiple digital preservation policies and strategies. Built on a scalable, distributed architecture, Rosetta's sophisticated preservation processes continually track file formats and update the digital objects in the system. Based on the Open Archival Information System (OAIS) model and conforming to trusted digital repository (TDR) requirements, Rosetta has been developed in partnership with the National Library of New Zealand.

The licensing of Rosetta by the Bavarian State Library is supported by significant special resources of the Bavarian State of Sciences, Research and the Arts. The inclusion of selected digital collections from university libraries in Bavaria is already earmarked for the first project phase. Rosetta is planned to be the long-term preservation solution for all state libraries within the library consortium in the Free State of Bavaria.

Search for more such preservation services in K-Store

Discuss this NEWS

Construction information provider Reed Construction Data (RCD), US, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Reed Elsevier, has announced updates for two of its leading BIM solutions, SmartBIM Library (SBL) and SmartBIM QTO, to help Autodesk Revit users increase efficiency and organization in the design phase.

SmartBIM Library is a Revit family cataloging tool for architects, designers and engineers that provides search and management capabilities. The release of version 3.8 offers users improved thumbnail creation for all Revit families and adds support for publishing curtain wall panels in user-created catalogues. SmartBIM Library version 3.8 comes pre-loaded with over 22,000 high-quality Revit family types and includes a content update service that publishes families on a continual basis from a growing list of building product manufacturers.

SmartBIM QTO allows architects and engineers to rapidly perform quantity takeoffs from a Revit project and generate design-level cost estimates using RSMeans cost data. As a project changes, architects also have the freedom to run estimates for different design options to facilitate ‘what-if’ scenarios. After an estimate is created, any line item can be edited manually allowing users to input their own costs or further refine the estimate using the RSMeans CostWorks database. SmartBIM QTO 1.3 has improved functionality for exporting a quantity takeoff to Microsoft Excel.

Search for more such reference tools in K-Store

Discuss this NEWS

The Association for Progressive Communications (APC) and Dutch funder Hivos have published the 2009 edition of the annual report, Global Information Society Watch (GISWatch). This year’s edition is titled Access to online information and knowledge – advancing human rights and democracy.

The report states that accessing information and knowledge online is not as simple as switching on a computer, and that the wealth of information available on the Internet today is by no means guaranteed for tomorrow. Whether it is a new legislation designed to control online content; the blocking of websites; or restrictive copyright laws that prevent poor nations and people with disabilities from accessing information; what was once a free and open space for sharing knowledge, is in many ways being shut down, says the report. Key issues impacting access to online information and knowledge are examined in the report, including discussions on intellectual property rights, knowledge rights, open standards and access to educational materials and libraries.

The report also offers an institutional overview and a reflection on indicators that track access to information and knowledge. Forty-eight country reports – 10 more than last year’s report – analyse the status of access to online information and knowledge in various countries. These range from Congo to Egypt, Mexico, Switzerland and Kazakhstan. Regional overviews offer a bird’s eye perspective on regional trends in North America, Latin America and the Caribbean, Africa, the Middle East, South Asia and Europe.

For the first time, this year there is a section that visually maps global rights as seen through the lens of Google searches, as well as a visual analysis of Twitter messages sent out during the recent Iranian political crisis. The two research projects presented are attempts at web studies where the tool used is part of the analysis, with some fascinating results.

GISWatch 2009, published in print and online by APC and Hivos, collects the perspectives of ICT academics, analysts, activists and civil society organisations from across the globe. The report was launched at the Internet Governance Forum in Egypt on November 16.

Search for more such industry reports in K-Store

Discuss this NEWS

A group of 41 Nobel Prize-winning scientists, including 16 chemists, are urging the US Congress to require the results of federally funded research to be made freely available online. In an open letter to lawmakers the Nobel laureates endorse the Federal Research Public Access Act of 2009. The legislation would mandate that 11 US government agencies with annual extramural research expenditures over $100 million make journal articles resulting from their grants freely accessible. These manuscripts would be housed in a digital archive and be available at no charge within six months of publication in a peer-reviewed journal.

Proponents of the legislation argue that the taxpayers who underwrite this research, at tens of billions of dollars annually, have a right to access its results. But opponents say publishers deserve compensation for the value that their peer review process brings to government-funded research. American Chemical Society (ACS) spokesperson Glenn Ruskin says the bill would simply take this value conferred by publishers without compensation, and make it much harder for scientific journals to sustain operations.

Robert Curl, who won the chemistry Nobel in 1996 and signed the letter to Congress, agrees that 'knowledge should be freely transmitted.' But he also acknowledges that mandatory open access is a 'big problem' because it would greatly reduce the revenue stream to cover publication expenses.

Curl suggests that institutions could pay a substantial annual fee for a licence for their employees to publish in existing open access journals. But this wouldn't make it any less expensive for individuals or research institutions to gain access to the information in the peer reviewed journals of ACS and other scientific organisations.

Search for more new publishing models in K-Store

Discuss this NEWS

Scholarly publisher Edinburgh University Press, UK, has announced an agreement with JISC Collections to provide EUP journals to the UK academic community via the NESLi2 SMP initiative in 2010.

NESLi2 SMP features e-content from 22 publishers around the world which are licensed by more than 190 higher and further education institutions and research councils. It seeks to provide its members with high quality e-journal content from publishers not covered by the original NESLi2 agreements. The collection is projected to offer the benefits of negotiated JISC banded subscription pricing and the security of the NESLi2 model licence.

Edinburgh University Press has offered several options from the range of social science and humanities journals it publishes. Institutions may subscribe to all Edinburgh University Press journals in the EUP Complete Collection or to one or more of the subject collections which include EUP Humanities Collection; EUP Social Science & Science Collection; EUP Literature & Philosophy Collection; EUP Literature, Language & Philosophy Collection; EUP Language & Culture Collection; EUP Historical Studies Collection; and EUP Politics & Law Collection.

Edinburgh University Press is one of the leading university presses in the UK. It seeks excellence in its chosen subjects combining high quality scholarship and commerciality to produce academic works of lasting value.

Search for more such Academic books/journals in K-Store

Discuss this NEWS

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) has released the World Ocean Database 2009, a collection of scientific information about the oceans with records dating as far back as 1800. This product is part of the climate services provided by NOAA.

The 2009 database, updated from the 2005 edition, is significantly larger providing about 9.1 million temperature profiles and 3.5 million salinity reports. The 2009 database also captures 29 categories of scientific information from the oceans, including oxygen levels and chemical tracers, plus information on gases and isotopes that can be used to trace the movement of ocean currents.

Climate scientists use the World Ocean Database to track changing conditions which adds to the international science community's understanding of global climate change. Forecast centers, such as NOAA’s Ocean Prediction Center, also use the information for quality control of real-time oceanographic information.

The database is projected as a reliable source of oceanic information, and a crucial part of the Integrated Ocean Observing System and the Global Earth Observation System of Systems. The information was compiled by scientists at the Ocean Climate Laboratory, part of the NOAA Satellite and Information Service.

Search for more such environment related reference tools in K-Store

Discuss this NEWS

Healthcare information provider Wolters Kluwer Health (WK Health), US, has announced that Tufts Medical Center has selected ProVation Order Sets, powered by UpToDate Decision Support, to automate the creation, maintenance and system-wide deployment of evidence-based order sets. Tufts Medical Center, a 451-bed academic medical center, will also serve as a reference site for the electronic order set solution.

ProVation Order Sets, powered by UpToDate Decision Support, is an easily customisable order set authoring and management solution that provides flexible integration into clinical processes to streamline the delivery of standardised care for improved patient safety, outcomes, clinician performance and regulatory compliance. Built upon ProVation Medical’s clinician-designed technology platform, ProVation Order Sets offer automatic linking to the clinical decision support content of UpToDate, the resource of choice for more than 360,000 physicians.

UpToDate covers more than 7,700 topics in 14 medical specialties and includes more than 80,000 pages of text and graphics, as well as links to Medline abstracts, more than 260,000 references and a drug database. Content is continuously reviewed and updated by physician editors and authors. In addition to integrated links to UpToDate and other trusted sources of medical evidence, ProVation Order Sets offer the flexibility to link additional clinical resources based upon client needs and preferences. Further, to help facilities achieve the highest possible degree of automation, ProVation Order Sets feature vendor-neutral mapping and export capabilities that allow for flexible integration into any facility or vendor EMR or CPOE system.

Search for more such Decision support tools in K-Store

Discuss this NEWS

Social publishing company Scribd, US, has announced an agreement with academic dissertations and theses publisher ProQuest to make selected graduate dissertations and theses available for purchase on Scribd (www.scribd.com/ProQuestUMI). The agreement will provide Scribd readers access to tens of thousands of original research and papers from leading academic institutions.

ProQuest UMI has over 2 million doctoral dissertations and master's theses in its library with more than 700 active university partners and over 70,000 new graduate works published each year.

Scribd seeks to make written works available for people to read and interact with, any time and on any device. Its document reader technology enables anyone to easily upload their files - including PDF, Word, PowerPoint and other document types - and share on Scribd.com or embed on thousands of other websites. Research organisations already publishing on Scribd include the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, Harvard University Press, Institute for Public Policy Research (UK), The MIT Press, World Bank and World Economic Forum.

Search for more such content discovery services in K-Store

Discuss this NEWS

Digital content products and technologies provider ebrary, US, has announced that it has created a publicly available research center featuring highly interactive, searchable database of documents pertaining to the H1N1 influenza pandemic. Available at http://h1n1.ebrary.com, the new site contains a growing selection of reports, papers, newsletters, posters, and other important materials from government agencies and other trusted sources.

ebrary’s new H1N1 (Influenza) Searchable Information Center provides extensive research capabilities including multiple options for searching, navigating, and browsing; ebrary InfoTools, which turns every word into a portal to additional information on the web; notes and highlights; ability to copy/paste and print text with automatic citations and URL hyperlinks back to the source; and personal bookshelves with moveable folders that can be emailed to others.

ebrary offers corporations and government organisations a number of integrated products and services including full-text e-book, handbooks, manuals and other trusted content in key business and engineering subject areas. The company also offers content hosting services, which turn corporate PDF documents of any type into searchable and highly interactive databases. All ebrary products and services feature powerful research capabilities including InfoTools, which turns every word into a portal to additional knowledge within the organisation and on the web.

Search for more such healthcare related services in K-Store

Discuss this NEWS

WebWorks.com, part of publishing platform solutions developer Quadralay Corporation, US, has announced the 2009.3 release of its ePublisher platform.

Content developers and corporate publication teams can now apply the same degree of control and customisation to their print documents that they have been able to bring to their online deliverables, directly from within the ePublisher Pro design tool. By combining the intelligence needed for online delivery with the tight typography control needed for print, ePublisher offers an unparalleled capability to convert content and deploy it to different destinations such as print, online help, mobile devices and wikis.

For existing ePublisher customers, the 2009.3 release includes a reduced footprint along with a faster and more automated installation process. The 2009.3 release brings a new level of upgrade security and backward compatibility with the ability to run publishing projects created on earlier versions of ePublisher.

ePublisher supports input from all versions of FrameMaker from version 6 upwards as well as input from Microsoft Word (up to and including Word 2007) and any DITA-XML compliant editor. Output to over 15 different delivery formats is available.

Existing WebWorks customers with active maintenance or subscription contracts will be automatically shipped a copy of ePublisher 2009.3 at no additional cost.

Search for more such STM products in K-Store

Discuss this NEWS