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Saving for the future

Neil Grindley of JISC describes the importance of preserving digital information and some of the major projects that are helping with this

English translations improve access to Chinese innovation

The number of Chinese patent applications are increasing by around 30 per cent each year. Siân Harris reports back from the Online Information meeting about how patent information providers are helping people around the world to access and use this information

Engineering information improves socially

Social networking, RSS and new open-access options are just some of the developments that have gathered pace in engineering information over the past year, writes librarian Roddy MacLeod

Online access changes citation patterns

A US study reveals that fewer papers are being cited than in the days before the internet, while another concludes that making articles open access does not change their citation count. Rebecca Pool and Siân Harris report.

Doing right with rights

If copyright isn't too complicated, then users are happy to comply, discovered John Murphy, when he spoke to the USA-based Copyright Clearance Center

From search to discovery

Mark Johns, president of USA-based Littlearth, investigates different ways of searching for information and argues that a 'discovery engine' approach is sometimes best

Preserving for future access

Launched in 2005, Portico has now attracted an impressive number of publisher and library partners. Executive director Eileen Fenton tells us why preserving information is important

Repository increases visibility

The Spanish National Research Council has just launched an institutional repository. Agnes Ponsati and Pablo de Castro explain why and how they went about it

Robotics speed up book digitisation

By the end of this year, 20 million pages of the British Library's 19th century books will be available electronically. Siân Harris visited the library to see how it is being done

Chasing the long tail

Arie Jongejan, chief executive officer, and Thomas Snyder, chief commercial officer, of Swets talk about how scholarly information needs are changing

Taking the first steps towards institutional open access

At the start of this year, Italy's Istituto Superiore di Sanita (ISS) of Rome announced an open-access archiving policy. Elisabetta Poltronieri and Paola De Castro of ISS's Publishing Activities Unit explain what this will means to the institute's researchers and the wider research community

Patent information providers take on Asian challenge

Researchers in western companies want to know what their competitors are doing but it can be a challenge when many of those competitors are in countries like China or Korea. Siân Harris finds out how patent information providers are tackling the language barrier

Addressing changing demands on academic publishers

As more different types of research resources become available electronically, Atypon's Nash Pal argues that multiproduct platforms are the best way to ensure efficient access to all the information that researchers need

E-books are here to stay

Electronic books are gaining popularity, especially amongst researchers, but there are still challenges ahead, write Tom Wilkie and Sian Harris

Task force takes on data preservation challenge

Industry representatives are working together to help ensure that future generations can access today's digital information,writes Bob Murphy of OCLC, which is one of the members of the new preservation task force

Chemistry is core to science

Brian Crawford started his career as a biochemist so it made sense that, having gone into scholarly publishing, he eventually found his way to the American Chemical Society. We asked him about his role as
president of ACS Publications

Web evolution changes information access

The changes that the internet has brought to libraries have been dramatic. Now, the web itself is changing. Sian Harris reports back from Online Information about the implications of this for libraries and for the information they provide

New resources help engineers

Roddy MacLeod gives an overview of the latest engineering research information in 2007 and looks at what 2008 promises to offer in this discipline

Making sense of data

The OECD has just launched a service that allows users to navigate across all its databases. Enrico Giovannini, chief statistician (pictured left), and Toby Green, head of publishing (pictured right), explain why

Helping RSS help researchers

Roddy MacLeod reveals how universities, publishers and funding bodies have come together to improve how researchers are informed of the latest journal content.

Biomedical research resources get personal

From the traditional search and discovery tools to the latest in social networks, there's a host of online resources available to bioscience researchers. But do they actually want them, asks Rebecca Pool

Document sharing speeds up research

Tino Hannay & Hilary Spencer of Nature Publishing Group explain why this publishing company has launched a free preprint service for biologists, chemists and earth scientists

Backfile reveals biomedical history

The EMBASE bibliographic database from Elsevier is one of the latest products to have its whole archive digitised. Magdaleine Margaritis, marketing manager of the company's Pharma Development Group, tells Sian Harris why

Different libraries, same issues

At the end of 2007 Ian Snowley, director of academic services at the University of London Research Library Services, will end his time as president of the Chartered Institute of Library and Information Professionals (CILIP). We ask him about his experiences since he took this role earlier this year

Open-access debate gets personal

Tensions between advocates and opponents of open access increase with the launch of a new partnership that is aimed at protecting the integrity of scientific research, reports Nadya Anscombe

Taking the web seriously

Isidro Aguillo explains how university websites can be compared and why this gives meaningful insight into the institutions research output

Keeping independence

Siân Harris investigates a project to bring down the barriers to electronic publishing for small, not-for-profit publishers.

Preservation requires planning and maintenance

In the last issue of Research Information we looked at the processes of ingesting, managing and storing digital information to help organisations preserve data. The next challenges to consider are access, preservation planning and administration, according to Tessella's Robert Sharpe.

Libraries on the agenda

This August the half a million information professionals served by the International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions will have a new president. Claudia Lux, of Zentral und Landesbibliothek Berlin, Germany, tells us her plans for the role

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