Working Group on Expanding Access to Published Research Findings

A new independent working group has been set up to examine how UK-funded research findings can be made more accessible. The group will propose a programme of action and make recommendations to government, research funders, publishers and other interested parties on how access to research findings and outcomes can be broadened for key audiences such as researchers, policy makers and the general public.

Read more...

Peer review in scientific publications

A response from The Publishers Association to the Science and Technology Committee eighth report of session 2010-12

Read more...

London Book Fair Digital Seminars

All seminars will be held in the Cromwell Room, London Book Fair, Earls Court Exhibition Centre, London SW5

Read more...

Digital Publishing Forum - Building Digital Skills

This DPF, held at UCL on 8 December, focused on digital skills in the publishing industry and was chaired by Alison Jones of Palgrave Macmillan.

Restricted Article (MEMBER ONLY)

Access to this article is restricted to members only. Please login to read more.

Copyright in the Digital Age

This meeting, held at Stationers Hall, London EC4 on 8 November 2010, fell into two parts and the report is concerned with the afternoon or academic session.  There is an interesting site at http://copyright-debate.co.uk/.  It does not seem to be still operative for 2011 but the 2010 content has some useful items.  The site and the event celebrated the Statute of Anne (or Ann), the real beginning of our present copyright regime.  The video is at http://copyright-debate.co.uk/?p=717.

Restricted Article (MEMBER ONLY)

Access to this article is restricted to members only. Please login to read more.

STM e-production seminar 2010

This usual seminar on the last day of London Online, 2 December 2010, attracted over seventy registrants which was probably up on last year. It offered a mix of topics of current importance both to those engaged in content management and those who wish to keep up to date with trends in that area.  It was not really thematic which did not matter. Suzanne Wilson-Higgins (now of Lion Publishing) organised and chaired the programme for the first time and did an excellent job. The seminar was filmed and the videos are available at http://www.stm-assoc.org/event_presentations.php?event_id=57; most of the power point presentations are available in the STM document library. The final programme can most easily be accessed at http://www.stm-assoc.org/2010_11_19_STM_EProduction_Final_Programme.pdf .

Restricted Article (MEMBER ONLY)

Access to this article is restricted to members only. Please login to read more.

Academic Publishing in Europe (APE) 2011

This annual conference, the brainchild of Einar Fredriksson of IOS Press and Arnoud de Kemp, formerly of Springer and now a man of many interests, has settled down to a regular pattern and is a regular fixture for European publishers including those from the UK. This year's event was held 11-12 January in Gedarmenmarkt, Berlin, its usual location.  There are more publishers present, though perhaps fewer small publishers and certainly fewer librarians (which is a pity).  There seems to be less pressure to invite people whose only reason for being asked to speak is their status in some EU organisation with money.

Restricted Article (MEMBER ONLY)

Access to this article is restricted to members only. Please login to read more.

STM Innovations Seminar 2010

There were a record 117 pre-registrants for last year’s seminar which took place in London on 3 December under the title: Flows in Flux – how publishing technologies change the researcher’s life.  It was organised by Eefke Smit, who is in charge of technology and standards at STM, and a committee of three. Most presentations can be found in the document library (powerpoint) or in the record of past events (video) or both. For the former see http://www.stm-assoc.org/document_library.php; this section now seems to be open to non-members. For the latter see http://www.stm-assoc.org/event_presentations.php?event_id=58.

Restricted Article (MEMBER ONLY)

Access to this article is restricted to members only. Please login to read more.

APD AGM 2010

The PA’s APD AGM was held on the morning of 18 November at the Aeonian Centre in Capper Street, W1.  The meeting was chaired by Dick Greener of Thomson Reuter, as Jon Walmsley of Wiley-Blackwell, the current chairman, was unable to attend.  Jill Jones, CEO of Cengage, was confirmed as the successor to Jon Walmsley, and will act as chair for the next two years.

The following are some highlights from the ensuing presentations.

Restricted Article (MEMBER ONLY)

Access to this article is restricted to members only. Please login to read more.

E-journals: their use, value and impact - RIN report

The way into this final report is via the RIN site at http://www.rin.ac.uk/our-work/communicating-and-disseminating-research/e-journals-their-use-value-and-impact; it is worth going there first to understand the history of this important project. The link leads through both to this report and also to an earlier one and related working papers.  The research was done by CIBER and an alternative route with a shorter blurb is at http://www.ucl.ac.uk/infostudies/research/ciber/. CIBER (in this instance David Nicholas, Ian Rowlands, and Peter Williams) has already contributed an article to Learned Publishing under the title E-journals, researchers – and the new librarians.  This title may suggest that the article is not for us, but the take-home message is indicated by the last two sentences of the abstract:  'Journals are a researcher’s lifeblood. Gateway services, hugely popular in science, are re-intermediating the broken chain between publisher and reader; they are the new librarians.'

Restricted Article (MEMBER ONLY)

Access to this article is restricted to members only. Please login to read more.