ebrary, a ProQuest business, has announced a new German-language e-book subscription database for academic libraries. The ebrary Deutsche Sammlung collection includes STM, humanities and arts disciplines. It features more than 4,500 titles from publishers such as De Gruyter, Aarhus University Press, International Monetary Fund, Ohne Verlag and Frank&Timme GmbH.
The collection can be subscribed to on its own, or in conjunction with the Academic Complete collection. Many ebrary customers are said to use subscription databases as affordable, high quality base collections, and then examine their usage statistics to determine where to apply additional budget in patron driven acquisition, short-term loan, and perpetual archive. This acquisition model is seen to provide libraries with a flexible and cost effective way to maximise their budgets while serving the diverse needs of their researchers and students.
The company will be showcasing the new Deutsche Sammlung collection and Academic Complete, at Bibliothekartag, a library conference in Germany, March 11-14, 2013.
Academic publisher SAGE has announced the publication of the fourth edition of its best-selling textbook Discovering Statistics Using IBM SPSS Statistics, by Professor Andy Field, University of Sussex. With previous editions of the textbook selling over 250,000 copies globally, this title has been updated and enhanced to support student learning both in terms of content and through pedagogical developments for the digital environment.
SAGE MobileStudy, which uses QR codes within the printed book, enables smartphone and tablet users to instantly scan and access additional study and revision material such as SPSS movies or answers to end of chapter questions. Faculty members can also choose to use the title alongside WebAssign which enables them to quickly and easily set regular online assignments for their students (using the close to 2000 questions available), test them securely chapter by chapter, and provide them with extra opportunities to reinforce class learning through additional online practice - all backed up with immediate online feedback about their performance.
With its ground-breaking structure and pedagogical approach, Discovering Statistics Using IBM SPSS Statistics is described as one of the most imaginative, engaging and fun-spirited textbooks of the 21st Century, a textbook that has transformed the ways in which students engage with statistics. Andy Field's distinctive teaching style filters into the text combining humour, a host of interesting real-world research examples and characters that play central pedagogical roles all with the intention of making complex statistical theory and SPSS material accessible for students and lecturers alike. The new edition provides better accessibility to its key features and more instructor resources to support the changing ways in which students wish to access material.
Electronic research databases provider EBSCO Publishing (EBSCO), US, has released Arab e-Marefa, an Arabic language full text database that offers hundreds of journals published by many of the Arab world's prestigious academic publishers. Arab e-Marefa is produced by Marefa World Company for Digital Content in Jordan. The database is designed to facilitate communication between researchers across the Arab world as well as increase accessibility to Arabic content on the Web.
Arab e-Marefa is the leading Arabic language research database providing full text for 950 academic journals and statistical reports issued by various bodies in the Arabic world including universities, research centers, public statistical departments, central banks, scientific associations and regional organisations. The database provides international standard bibliographic records for almost 70,000 articles plus the access to these articles. Additional content includes thousands of dissertations and over 7,000 book reviews.
Key subject disciplines covered by Arab e-Marefa include: human sciences, social sciences, medical sciences, economics and business administration, engineering and information technology, natural&life sciences and periodical statistical reports from 18 Arabic-speaking countries in Arabic, English and French.
The growth of EBSCOhost throughout the world and the continued addition of non-English content to databases led to EBSCO's extensive development of multi-language searching in many of its resources. EBSCO provides language-specific searching for more than 45 of the most common languages, including Arabic.
Publisher John Wiley&Sons, Inc., US, has announced a partnership with Rice University-based OpenStax College, which is considered a newcomer from the 'open education resources' (OER) movement. The partnership calls for Wiley to deliver content from OpenStax College's two new biology textbooks via WileyPLUS with its online learning, practice and assessment resources that are reportedly proven to improve learning outcomes. Pilot tests are slated to begin this fall.
OpenStax College uses philanthropic support to produce high-quality textbooks through a rigorous development and review process. All OpenStax textbooks are available free online. Its first two books, introductory texts for physics and sociology, were adopted by educators at more than 100 schools and downloaded more than 30,000 times in their first six months. The pairing with WileyPLUS is projected to reduce costs, personalise education and improve learning outcomes.
WileyPLUS, a research-based online learning environment, seeks to enhance student success. It is already offered with more than 300 Wiley titles and is used in more than 20 countries. Wiley and OpenStax College will work with colleges and instructors to set up pilot tests of the new textbooks and WileyPLUS resources this fall. This community effort is expected to enhance the effectiveness and usability of the final product. Prices have not been set, but inclusion of the free books will significantly reduce costs to students, it is felt.
Publisher John Wiley&Sons, Inc., US, has announced that sixty-six journals will join the publisher in 2013. The titles include 52 journals moving to Wiley from other publishers or self-publication, and 14 new titles, of which eight are open access. The titles joining Wiley represent relationships with over 30 societies and associations.
Included in the 52 titles moving to Wiley are 17 journals from the American Geophysical Union, including Journal of Geophysical Research, Water Resources Research and Reviews of Geophysics. This year also sees several other partnerships such as with the American College of Clinical Pharmacology on their titles Clinical Pharmacology in Drug Development and The Journal of Clinical Pharmacology; with the Society for the Experimental Analysis of Behavior to publish Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis and Journal of the Experimental Analysis of Behavior; with the Obesity Society to publish Obesity; and with the British Educational Research Association to publish the British Educational Research Journal as well as to launch a new title, Review of Education.
2013 sees the launch of a new title in the Advanced Materials family, Advanced Optical Materials, and Stat, an online-only, rapid communication research journal in partnership with the International Statistical Institute. Wiley also acquired six well-respected newsletters for nonprofits from Stevenson, Inc., including The Major Gifts Report, The Volunteer Management Report and Successful Fundraising.
Wiley's open access journal portfolio will grow significantly this year, with ten journals confirmed, including Physiological Reports (in partnership with The Physiological Society and the American Physiological Society), Clinical Case Reports and Immunity, Inflammation and Disease (both supported by several societies). At least a further three new open access titles are expected to launch within the year, and two existing titles switched to an open access model earlier this year. These new journals will bring Wiley's number of open access journals to a total of at least 24 by the end of 2013.
