Hardin Scholarly Communication News

Google is adding a new search service geared toward the needs of academic and scientific researchers, offering a central starting point for scholarly literature like peer-reviewed papers, books, abstracts and technical reports. The new search tool, accessible at scholar.google.com, is the result of collaboration with a number of scientific and academic publishers, including ACM, Nature, IEEE and OCLC. The new service initially will be advertisement-free, but company executives say that will change. "The commercial reason for doing this is that you can target areas with high-quality, high-payback ads," says John Sack, director of Stanford University’s HighWire Press. "An advertisement that goes next to an article on cloning techniques is probably going to be for services that are pretty expensive." SearchEngineWatch editor Danny Sullivan says Google’s latest move is "a significant step forward," adding that Google likely will have competition soon from Yahoo and others. "We will continue to see an explosion of vertical search engines like this," he notes, referring to search services that focus on special collections.
New York Times 18 Nov 2004 <http://www.nytimes.com/2004/11/18/technology/18google.html>

And more news on Google Scholar…

Excerpt from “Google Scholar Offers Access To Academic Information”: ‘Google has worked with publishers to gain access to some material that wouldn’t ordinarily be accessible to search spiders, because it is locked behind subscription barriers….But Google’s made arrangements with publishers to get into these password areas. The advantage is that suddenly, searchers have a much better ability to locate material that may be of interest. However, it also means that actually trying to read the full-text of such documents — which Google does index — will only be possible for those who have relationships with the publishing sites. Google says, by the way, that it does not earn money off of any new subscriptions generated between searchers and publishers…. When spidering the content, Google has worked to understand who the authors of the papers are, as well as the formal titles of the papers and other documents that cite the material. These citations are a key part of the special ranking algorithm used by Google for Google Scholar. Google says the citation extractions allows it to see the connections between papers even if these connections are not made through links. As a result, it can use citation analysis to try and put the best papers at the top of the results….The same paper may be hosted in more than one place, of course. In these instances, Google picks what it believes is the best version and provides links to other versions after the paper’s description. In some cases, the material is not actually online. Google may know about a paper only through references it has seen on other papers. In these cases, a Library Search and Web Search link will appear next to the paper or book’s title.’
Search Engine Watch, November 18, 2004.
<http://searchenginewatch.com/searchday/article.php/3437471>

In a mysterious turn of events, Elsevier, the industry- leading STM publisher, sent out a press release last week touting the return of Dr. James Butcher to The Lancet’s editorial staff after a suspiciously brief (not quite three months) stint as a senior editor at the Public Library of Science’s (PLoS) recently launched journal PLoS MEDICINE. Butcher was previously Editor at The Lancet Neurology, a post he now returns to. While the U.K.’s GUARDIAN newspaper billed the defection as "a blow to the open access publishing movement," the circumstances surrounding the move are still unknown. Neither Butcher nor Elsevier officials commented further on why Butcher left the PLoS so quickly. PLoS officials said only that the move was unexpected. PLoS editor Virginia Barbour told the GUARDIAN that she was "very surprised," but stressed that Butcher’s departure would have little effect on PLoS Medicine. "It’s just one of those things," she told reporters. "People leave organizations."
Library Journal Academic Newswire: November 2, 2004

Thomson Scientific, part of the Thomson Corporation, has released a White Paper that suggests open access journals, while still a relatively small part of the journal landscape, are gaining impact. The paper, entitled OPEN ACCESS JOURNALS IN THE ISI CITATION DATABASES: ANALYSIS OF IMPACT FACTORS AND CITATION PATTERNS indicates that journals published under the Open Accessmodel, despite ranking lower as a group than those published under traditional models, are showing "impressive" growth. Still, OA journals represent a small minority of the published research output–of 8,700 selected journals covered in ISI’s Web of Science, only 239 are OA journals. But while open access as a business model has become something of a cause for many, the paper notes, deciphering or defining what open access means requires some effort. "Open Access at the journal level comprises a complex picture of availability," the paper acknowledges. "The evolving environment of scholarly publishing includes additional avenues for making content openly available. Our findings suggest that over 55 percent of journals and over 65 percent of articles indexed in WEB OF SCIENCE in 2003 are produced by publishers who permit some form of self-archiving, and could be made OA by author archiving."
To read the entire paper, visit: http://www.isinet.com/forms/whitepapers
Library Journal Academic Newswire: November 2, 2004

According to a recent statement from the International Coalition of Library Consortia (ICOLC), library consortia "must achieve greater value for their money." In a recent update to its earlier statements on preferred practices, ICOLC takes aim at a familiar target—publisher pricing models in the digital realm. Endorsed thus far by over 50 library consortia in 12 countries, the update is both a snapshot of the difficulties plaguing academic libraries in the e-journal realm and a blueprint for change. "Today’s publishers act globally to provide electronic information," the statement notes. "It is incumbent upon libraries to act globally to express their market positions." While the update addresses a full range of issues in the digital realm, including access, preservation, and usage reporting, it emphasizes economic and pricing matters, which, it notes, "have remained a significant concern" since the first meetings of the ICOLC in 1996. "ICOLC members are concerned that, amid all the changes in scholarly publishing, the annual cost to libraries of maintaining information access continues to rise far more rapidly than either inflation or library budgets, which are, in many cases, flat or decreasing." Specifically, the ICOLC recommends that "non-disclosure language" not be required for any licensing agreement; that libraries should have the option to purchase electronic access without the paper subscription; that electronic access should cost substantially less than the printed subscription price; and that bundling electronic and print subscriptions in "non-flexible multi-year packages" must not be the sole pricing option for libraries. The statement also calls for "breathing room" within bundled deals, allowing libraries to cancel titles within their packages as budgets may dictate. The inflexibility of big deals has been a major sticking point for libraries in the last round renewals for Elsevier’s leading ScienceDirect, sparking a number of high-profile cancellations in 2004. "Package deals have been useful for various consortial customers and will continue to have utility," ICOLC notes, but adding that amid uncertain multi-year budget situations; publishers must also "build reasonable possibilities for orderly attrition" within those agreements. The update suggests that publishers allow libraries to trim unused titles and provide a credit; allow libraries to delete titles and recoup a percentage of the dollar value of the subscription price for those titles; provide cancellation allowances for each year. The ICOLC update also includes a vote of confidence for the role of subscription agents in the digital arena. As publishers have morphed into service providers in the digital realm, the administration of those deals has impacted on libraries. ICOLC notes that the roles of subscription agents may change, but should not be eliminated. "ICOLC members are supportive of changes in the arrangements for purchase of and access to electronic content," the statement reads, "but many continue to wish to work with serials agents and other parties to manage their subscriptions during this period of change." To read the full update, visit: http://www.library.yale.edu/consortia/2004currentpractices.htm
Library Journal Academic News Wire: October 28, 2004

If it was somewhat of a surprise that the UK Parliament’s Science and Technology Committee report on STM publishing called for free access to all government-funded research, the government response was no surprise: not so fast. The official STM report, SCIENTIFIC PUBLICATIONS: FREE FOR ALL?, was published on July 20, 2004. On October 26, the committee received a "distillation of responses from all the Government departments and other Government organizations that have an interest in the report." It includes a detailed appendix titled "response from the government" that takes on, point-by-point, some of the conclusions and recommendations put forth following the committee’s inquiry earlier this year. Despite the bold language of the committee, the response indicates that bold changes to the STM marketplace will likely not come from the government. Specifically, the response indicates that the jury is still out on the author pays model of open access. Like the authors of the committee report, which urged more study of OA business models, the government was dubious of an "author pays" model and would "require clear evidence" before supporting OA further. It added that OA could actually be more costly for the UK, given that it contributes 5.3 percent of the world’s STM articles, but contributes just 3.3 percent of the world’s subscription revenue.

The government response concurs with a number of the committee’s conclusions as well, such as those regarding the importance of access to research, and preservation. It makes clear, however, that government’s role is "to focus on a competitive marketplace." Whereas the committee’s report urged action and suggested the current market was broken, citing inflexible big deals, high profit margins of major STM publishers, high inflation for libraries, and shrinking budgets, the government response took a more sanguine view. "The government is not convinced there is an impending crisis in journal provision," the response said. "If anything the reverse seems to be the case, as increasing amounts of material become more accessible from the researcher’s desktop." As for excessive profits, the committee report suggested Office for Fair Trading (OFT) produce biennial reports monitoring the STM market. In its response, a brief statement also appended to the published report, OFT said it would not commit to biennial reports, but would "monitor market developments." A third appendix to the committee report from the UK’s Consortium of University Research Libraries (CURL) and the Society of College National and University Libraries (SCONUL), supported the original report’s finding that publicly funded research be freely available, and shared the committee’s "unease at the current workings of the journals market." The library community offered to work with the government to "implement the report’s recommendations." To read the government’s response, see:
http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm200304/cmselect/cmsctech/1200/120002.htm
Library Journal Academic News Wire: November 11, 2004

William M.K. Trochim, who teaches research methodology and policy analysis at Cornell, says that textbooks of the future should be smaller, more customized and globalized. "Professors should be able go to the Web, look at a list of contents, click off the sections they want, indicate what order they want them in and create their own tailored, personalized textbook in any major language they need. Students should then be able to interact with this text on the Web, access it in a uniquely customized printed form, or both." He says that traditional publishers are too limited by the old-fashioned stereotypical textbook model, and that more agile publishers such as Atomic Dog <http://www.atomicdogpublishing.com> are where these textbook innovations are likely to start, because they are "willing to try new things and use technology in new and different ways, helping make the latest vision of textbook publishing a reality."

(Campus Technology 19 Oct 2004) <http://www.campus-technology.com/article.asp?id=9893>
ShelfLife, No. 179 (October 21 2004) <http://www.rlg.org>

Report of the CUL Task Force on Open Access Publishing Presented to the Cornell University Library Management Team:
http://techreports.library.cornell.edu:8081/Dienst/UI/1.0/Display/cul.lib/2004-3

“While the traditional subscription model has certainly been abused by some publishing interests, our Task Force is convinced that subscription can still serve as an equitable model for disseminating scholarship under some circumstances, particularly when administered by scholarly societies, university presses, and academic libraries. We have concluded that the Open Access and subscription models can coexist and are in fact likely to do so for the foreseeable future.”

ABSTRACT: The Task Force on Open Access Publishing was convened by Ross Atkinson in January 2004. The purpose of the Task Force is to study the information available on Open Access publishing and to provide the Cornell University Library Management Team with a report that addressed specific questions. Alternative publishing models that would offer free and unimpeded access to scholarship promise both a more affordable system for academic institutions and their libraries and a more democratic one for readers and authors. The present Report examines both aspects of the Open Access promise and offers recommendations for CUL’s involvement in the arena of Open Access publishing.

Neuro-Oncology, the official journal of the Society for Neuro-Oncology, published by Duke University Press (with support from SPARC Publisher Partner Program), has earned an official ISI Impact Factor of 3.365 for 2003. After only its second year with Duke University Press, the journal’s newly released ranking, up from its 2002 ranking of 2.717, firmly places Neuro-Oncology as the foremost journal in the field, with its nearest competitor, Kluwer’s Journal of Neuro-Oncology, garnering an ISI Impact Factor of 1.568. The substantially improved ranking also places Neuro-Oncology at number 34 among 120 ranked oncology journals.

UI faculty, staff and students (and others with subscriptions) can read the journal:
http://www.dukeupress.edu/neuro-oncology/

Joseph Henry Press
Joseph Henry Press is an imprint of the National Academies Press. As is the case with literally thousands of books published by NAP over the last couple of decades, the vast majority of JHP books are freely available online.

Biomedical Digital Libraries
Fulltext v1+ (2004+)
http://www.bio-diglib.com/home/
http://www.pubmedcentral.gov/tocrender.fcgi?action=archive&journal=276
eISSN: 1742-5581
This online journal publishes papers on all aspects of digital library content and usage in biomedical settings, including academic medical centers, research and development institutes, and health care institutions.

CytoJournal
Fulltext v1+ (2004+)
http://www.cytojournal.com/home/
http://www.pubmedcentral.gov/tocrender.fcgi?action=archive&journal=271
eISSN: 1742-6413
This online journal publishes papers on all aspects of diagnostic cytopathology including complimentary applications such as molecular pathology.

Emerging Themes in Epidemiology
Fulltext v1+ (2004+)
http://www.ete-online.com/home/
ISSN: 1742-7622
This open access, online journal publishes papers on all aspects of theoretical and methodological epidemiology, promoting debate and discussion on specific topics.

Epidemiologic Perspectives & Innovations
Fulltext v1+ (2004+)
http://www.epi-perspectives.com/home/
http://www.pubmedcentral.gov/tocrender.fcgi?action=archive&journal=275
eISSN: 1742-5573
This online journal publishes papers on all aspects of epidemiology, defined in the broadest sense.

Immunity & Ageing
Fulltext v1+ (2004+)
http://www.immunityageing.com/home/
http://biomedcentral.com/1742-4933/
ISSN: 1742-4933
The journal publishes material in the realm of immunosenescnence and all aspects of ageing examined from an immunological point of view.

Journal of Autoimmune Diseases
Fulltext v1+ (2004+)
http://biomedcentral.com/1740-2557/
ISSN: 1740-2557
JAD is devoted to clinical and experimental research in the field of autoimmune diseases.

Journal of Biomedicine & Biotechnology
Fulltext v1+ (2001+)
http://jbb.hindawi.com
http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/tocrender.fcgi?journal=94&action=archive
ISSN: 1110-7243
Journal of Biomedicine and Biotechnology is an international journal publishing original work in all areas of Biomedicine (carcinogenesis, epidemiology, gene therapy, mutagenesis, pathology, pharmacology, toxicology, etc) and biotechnology (microbial, animal and plant biotechnology).

Journal of Experimental & Clinical Assisted Reproduction
Fulltext v1+ (2004+)
http://www.jexpclinassistreprod.com/home/
http://www.pubmedcentral.gov/tocrender.fcgi?action=archive&journal=274
eISSN: 1743-1050
This online journal publishes papers on all aspects of research into reproductive endocrinology, infertility, bioethics and the advanced reproductive technologies.

Journal of Inflammation
Fulltext v1+ (2004+)
http://biomedcentral.com/1476-9255/
ISSN: 1476-9255
This peer-reviewed journal will cover the full range of inflammatory mechanisms at the cellular and molecular level and the healing process from a clinical perspective. Anti-inflammatory therapeutics and pharmacology are also within scope.

Journal of NeuroEngineering and Rehabilitation
Fulltext v1+ (2004+)
http://biomedcentral.com/1743-0003/
ISSN: 1743-0003
JNER focuses on the intersection of neuroscience, biomedical engineering, and physical medicine and rehabilitation.

Nutrition & Metabolism
Fulltext v1+ (2004+)
http://www.nutritionandmetabolism.com/home/
http://www.pubmedcentral.gov/tocrender.fcgi?action=archive&journal=272
eISSN: 1743-7075
This journal publishes papers on all aspects of nutritional biochemistry and related clinical fields.

Virology Journal
Fulltext v1+ (2004+)
http://www.virologyj.com/home/
http://www.pubmedcentral.gov/tocrender.fcgi?action=archive&journal=273
eISSN: 1743-422X
This online journal publishes on all aspects of virology research.