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Universities want publishing to support and further their research and teaching activities. They are interested in a complex range of issues, including impact, affordability, quality and access, from a variety of perspectives. In a rapidly changing publishing environment, publishers need to work innovatively with new technologies and new business models in order to make sure they are delivering what their customers want. Nizami L, Krasnopolsky, VA, Ibison M. 2004. Publish-or-perish perspectives: dividing co-authors, valuing referees, taming expectations. Physics Today 57(9):11-13. Three separate letters commenting on "opinion" article by Mohamed Gad-el-Hak (ibid. 57(3):61-62) about the problems created by the increase in number of publications and of unedited books caused by the pressures to publish, with reply by Gad-el-Hak. Rix T. 2004. Crisis? What crisis? The university presses. Learned Publishing October;17(4):259-260. University presses have suffered over the last 10 years but have also shown initiative and shown that they have a socially important future. Rowlands I, Nicholas D, Huntingdon P. 2004. Scholarly communication in the digital environment: what do authors want? Learned Publishing October;17(4):261-273. This article reports on a large-scale international survey of authors' perception and experience of the journals system. It explores the factors that inform authors' decisions on where to publish and which groups of readers they perceive to be most important and looks at the values that underlie authors' attitudes towards copyright and emerging business models. It concludes that many aspects of author behaviour are highly conservative and that a significant shift towards open access is, in the short term, highly unlikely. Wang S, Wang H. 2004. Challenges and strategies for Chinese university journals. Learned Publishing October;17(4):326-330. Both the shift from a planned to a market economy system and the advent of the information era pose great challenges to Chinese university journals. The strategy of the Chinese government is to improve the system of university journals by encouraging mergers and partnerships, with the aim of reducing the number of titles while improving their overall quality. The specific case of a geoscience journal is presented. Rajgopal GNJ, Bavdekar SB, Mehta S, Salvi VS, Goel A. 2004. Fifty years of Journal of Postgraduate Medicine: a journey in time. Journal of Postgraduate Medicine 50(3):164-166. Review of the development of the journal over 50 years. Anderson KR. 2004. Comparing print and online readership: matching perception to reality across media. Learned Publishing October;17(4):313-315. This article outlines techniques used at the New England Journal of Medicine to compare the print and online readerships. Findings include: print dominates online for readership; online-only publishing generates a fraction of the readership created by joint print-online publishing practice; review articles are most often used online; the "free" status of articles does not increase the likelihood that they will be used. Clery D. 2004. Mixed week for open access in the UK. Science 12 November;306:1115. US take on the UK government's response to the Science and Technology Committee. House of Commons Science and Technology Committee. 2004. Responses to the Committee's Tenth Report, session 2003-04, Scientific publications: free for all? Fourteenth Report of Session 2003-04. HC1200. London: The Stationery Office. ISBN 0-215-02019-7. Vigorous defence of the Committee's position in response to the Government response to the committee report. Hühn V, Huter M. 2004. The Red Jacket UTB: a model for co-operative textbook publishing. Learned Publishing October;17(4):316-318. UTB is a joint paperback imprint of a number of medium-sized German publishers. Its working is described, together with its financial arrangements. Jackson P. 2004. IEE professional magazines and networks. Learned Publishing October;17(4):281-289. The Institution of Electrical Engineers (IEE) has changed its approach to member publications over a two-year period, with an increased focus on understanding the needs of its broad membership and structuring its portfolio of magazines and web sites to meet members' needs and complement the organization's research publications. The process of market research and product development is outlined in this article and the resulting combination of online and print products is described. Sosteric M. 2004. The International Consortium for the Advancement of Academic Publication - an idea whose time has come (finally!). Learned Publishing October;17(4): 319-325. The Canadian ICAAP initiative provides a unique low-cost, not-for-profit, web-based publication alternative for those seeking to move outside the commercial mainstream of scholarly publication. © Copyright 2008 by European Association of Science Editors Top of Page |
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