UAMS Library Newsletter #121 No. 121 Sept/Oct 2004 From the Library Director Scholary Publishing Update Personal Digital Assistant (PDA) Support for UAMS Ovid SDI/AutoAlert news iPods Have Landed in Academia PubMed & Classes Outreach News: Spotlight: AHEC Library – El Dorado New Library Acquisitions The View from the VA Current Issue | Archives | Feedback/Subscribe | News FAQ | Library Info | Text-Only Published by the UAMS Library UAMS Library News: Editor, Amanda Saar 4301 W. Markham, Slot 586 Contributors: Abby Holt, Brynn Mays, Edward J. Poletti, Little Rock, AR 72205-7186 Mary Ryan, Rena Sheffer and Susan Steelman (501) 686-5980 http://www.library.uams.edu/newsletter/lnl04/sept_oct/cover.htm[6/17/2011 11:12:24 AM] News #121 - From the Director No. 121 Sept/Oct 2004 FROM THE LIBRARY DIRECTOR In the Spring 2004 issue of this newsletter, I wrote about the Library’s budget and asked for your input concerning the list of journal subscriptions and databases being considered for cancellation (www.library.uams.edu/newsletter/lnl04/spring/cancel.htm). We received very good input and narrowed the list down to $100,000 of database subscriptions and $54,000 of journal subscriptions to cancel (http://www.library.uams.edu/news/journal.aspx). Most of these cancellations will be in effect by January of 2005. We appreciate your help in determining how the limited resources of the Library can best be spent. Since some journals and databases are scheduled for renewal later in this fiscal year, and we do not know what the price increases will be for those products, we do not yet know if more journals will need to be canceled to balance the budget for the 2004/2005 year. One of the databases on our original list of potential cancellations was SciFinder Scholar, the online version of Chemical Abstracts. We share a “three simultaneous users” subscription for this database with UALR, and our share of the cost is $33,050 for 2004/2005. We recently requested funding for this database from the UAMS Tobacco Research Review Committee, and we thank the Committee, Dr. Chuck Winter, and Chancellor Wilson for approving this request. The cost for interlibrary loans has been rising as well, especially the cost of copyright fees which the Library often has to pay when requesting journal articles from libraries or other suppliers. In the past year the Library spent over $20,000 absorbing these costs. In order to help cover the cost of these articles, the Library will start charging a $5 fee per interlibrary loan request filled, effective January 1, 2005. We realize that this will be a burden, especially for those who request a lot of articles which the Library does not own, but we need to institute this fee in order to help balance the budget. The rapidly rising cost of journals and databases is causing major problems for academic health sciences libraries and scientists throughout the world. Several initiatives have been developed to provide better access to scholarly information, a review of which was included in the Spring 2004 (www.library.uams.edu/newsletter/lnl04/spring/comm.htm) issue of this newsletter. An update on the latest developments in scholarly communication is included elsewhere in this issue (www.library.uams.edu/newsletter/lnl04/sept_oct/schpub.htm). One of the most important recent developments in scholarly publishing concerns the NIH proposal requesting that all research articles resulting from NIH-funded research be made available for free via PubMed Central within six months of publication. NIH recently issued a call for comments on the proposal (http://grants.nih.gov/grants/guide/notice- files/NOT-OD-04-064.html) and a web form (http://grants.nih.gov/grants/guide/public_access/add.htm) for submitting comments to the NIH before the November 16th deadline. I encourage you to read the NIH proposal and to give the NIH input on it. While only 11-12% of the articles indexed in PubMed would be affected by this proposal, the implementation of it would be an important step forward in improving access to scholarly information. Mary L. Ryan, UAMS Library Director Current Issue | Archives | Feedback/Subscribe | News FAQ | Library Info | Text-Only http://www.library.uams.edu/newsletter/lnl04/sept_oct/director.htm[6/17/2011 11:12:25 AM] News #121 - From the Director http://www.library.uams.edu/newsletter/lnl04/sept_oct/director.htm[6/17/2011 11:12:25 AM] News #121 - Scholary Publishing Update No. 121 Sept/Oct 2004 SCHOLARLY PUBLISHING UPDATE OCTOBER 2004 Government Activities In July, the US House of Representatives Appropriations Committee approved a provision in the NIH FY 2005 appropriations bill which recommends that all research articles resulting from NIH-funded research be made available for free via PubMed Central within six months of publication, or immediately if the publication fees were paid with NIH funds. The appropriations bill has been approved by the House, and despite heavy lobbying by some groups, including the Association of American Publishers and the Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology, it appears that the bill has a good chance of being approved by the Senate. NIH has been instructed to report to the Appropriations Committee by December 1 about how it will implement the policy. The Director of NIH met with different stakeholders to get their input before developing the plan, and issued a call (http://grants.nih.gov/grants/guide/notice-files/NOT-OD-04-064.html) for public comments. NIH has provided a web form making it easy for people to indicate support for the proposal (http://grants.nih.gov/grants/guide/public_access/add.htm), and an email address to which comments can be addressed ([email protected]) before the November 16th comment deadline. A group of 25 Nobel Prize winners recently sent a letter to Congress (https://mx2.arl.org/Lists/SPARC-OAForum/Message/991.html) supporting the proposal, and the National Academy of Sciences issued a statement in favor of the proposal (http://www4.nationalacademies.org/news.nsf/isbn/s09162004?OpenDocument). Approximately 11-12% of the articles indexed in MEDLINE would be covered by the NIH proposal. In December of 2003, the UK House of Commons began a study of scientific publishing to address pricing and availability issues. The report, Scientific Publications: Free for All? (www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm200304/cmselect/cmsctech/399/39902.htm), was published in July of 2004, and recommends storing all articles published by UK institutions of higher education in a network of online repositories that can be accessed free of charge. The report also addresses concerns about open access publishing and concludes that OA publishing would greatly increase access to scientific information and “ensure a fairer global distribution of the costs of publishing research findings.” Specific calls for action include the establishment of a fund by the UK’s Research Councils to support publication in open access journals, and the provision of government funding to encourage institutions and publishers to experiment with open access publishing models. The UK’s Office of Science and Technology will respond to the report and may issue new regulations or requirements concerning scientific publishing. The European Commission launched an investigation of scientific publishing in June of 2004, with results to be available in 2005. The goal is to study the evolution of the scholarly publishing industry in Europe and to determine the “conditions required for optimum operation …and assess the extent to which the Commission can help to meet these conditions.” Cost of STM Publishing In April, Credit Suisse published a financial analysis of the scientific, medical and technical (STM) publishing. A summary is available at http://www.earlham.edu/~peters/fos/newsletter/05-03-04.htm#creditsuisse. In May, the Wellcome Trust published a report entitled Costs and Business Models in Scientific Research Publishing (www.wellcome.ac.uk/assets/wtd003184.pdf) which concluded that open access publishing could reduce the cost of scientific publishing by as much as 30%. Also in May, the American Chemical Society posted compensation data for its top executives on its website (www.chemistry.org). The Chronicle of Higher Education issue for August 18 contained an article about the furor over the salary the American Chemical Society’s executive director was paid for 2002 ($767,834) and $1.4 million in total compensation in 2000. The society has 159,999 members, $420 million in annual revenues, and $1 billion in assets. http://www.library.uams.edu/newsletter/lnl04/sept_oct/schpub.htm[6/17/2011 11:12:26 AM] News #121 - Scholary Publishing Update According to the Chronicle article, “…the current executive director…is not the society’s highest-paid employee. The top-paid employees…are on the publications side.” ACS journals are not published under an open access publishing model and charge subscriptions for access. Impact Factors Reported On June 24th, ISI issued its latest impact factors report (for 2001-2002 journals) and a study which showed that the nearly 200 BMC open access journals currently being tracked compared favorably with other journals (www.isinet.com/oaj). Several BMC journals rank near the top in their disciplines, including Arthritis Research & Therapy, Breast Cancer Research, and Critical Care. Since these journals are only a few years old, the results indicate that open access publishing increases impact and facilitates high visibility for these journals. Expansion of PubMed Central In June, the UK’s Wellcome Trust and the Joint Information Systems Committee entered an agreement with the US National Library of Medicine to digitize the backfiles of several important journals, including the Annals of Surgery, Biochemical Journal, Journal of Physiology, and Medical History. The first titles will be online through PubMed Central early in 2005.