Re: Another e-print service: BioMed Central

["Anthony Watkinson" <anthony.watkinson@btinternet.com>]

These services are very interesting indeed but someone somewhere is paying
for them and it does not seem to be either the authors or the readers. Is it
the advertiser i.e. the pharmaceutical company, or is it someone or
something else? Preprint/e-print services so far have been paid for in the
main by the US government but BioMed Central and clinmed.netprints are not
US-based as I understand it. All of us in the information chain must welcome
new constructs especially when backed by such bodies/people as this but it
is important that this is a long-term plan rather than an attempt to gain
short-term advantage and that the economics are sound - or so it seems to me

Anthony Watkinson

----- Original Message -----
From: Ann Okerson <ann.okerson@yale.edu>
To: <liblicense-l@lists.yale.edu>
Sent: Monday, January 24, 2000 1:20 PM
Subject: Another e-print service: BioMed Central


> This service joins two other new services in the biomedical arena:
>
> o The NIH's PubMed Central, with which it synergizes:
> http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov
>
> o British Medical Journal and HighWire Press:
> http://clinmed.netprints.org/home.dtl
>
>
> ---------- Forwarded message ----------
> Date: Mon, 24 Jan 2000 12:51:48 +0000
> From: John Peel <john@biomedcentral.com>
> To: SEPTEMBER98-FORUM@LISTSERVER.SIGMAXI.ORG
> Subject: BioMed Central: Freedom of Information for the Science Community
>
> BioMed Central - Freedom of Information for the Science Community
>
> A new web initiative for biomedical researchers was announced today by
> one of the key players in the web publishing revolution. BioMed Central
> (www.biomedcentral.com) will give researchers the tools they need to
> publish their data quickly and easily on the web. 'The publishing model
> of BioMed Central is different from the current forms of science
> publishing,' stated Vitek Tracz, Chairman of the Current Science Group.
> 'At present, scientific publishers make a large proportion of their
> revenue from highly-priced 'archival' journals, which are bought almost
> exclusively by libraries. The research reports themselves are
> highly-formalized articles whose form reflects the limits of the
> printed-paper format. We believe that new technologies can make the
> publishing process so much more efficient and flexible in both format
> and economic terms. BioMed Central believes that research reports
> should:
>
>     1. be published electronically
>
>     2. take advantage of technology to allow more flexible presentation
>     of scientific data thereby improving accessibility and use and
>
>     3. be available to all - globally, free and without barriers to
>     access'
>
> BioMed Central is currently embarking upon a period of intense
> discussion with the scientific community to better understand its needs
> and requirements.
>
> As of May 2000 BMC will:
>
>     provide authors with the most effective method of disseminating
>     their work by providing specially-designed aids to submission
>
>     use web technologies to speed up the peer review process so that it
>     will take days rather than months
>
>     make all articles published through BMC available immediately and
>     in full, through the PubMed Central research archive
>
>     allow groups of researchers to publish their own niche journals
>     online, servicing a need that would not be commercially sustainable
>     in traditional print-based publishing
>
>     publish submitted research provided it has been carried out
>     according to accepted scientific  criteria, from the pharmaceutical
>     trial to the most fundamental biophysical research
>
>     participate in a parallel pre-print/e-print archive that will be
>     closely integrated with the proposed PubMed Express e-print
>     archive.
>
> "This is about putting tools into the hands of scientists which will
> enable them to publish their research," comments Dr Matt Cockerill, BMC
> Technology Director. 'With the technology now available, we can speed
> up the process of publication and make it much more efficient. What we
> want to do now is get input from researchers into what they would like
> to see in this service.
>
> BioMed Central will put the needs of the author and reader back at the
> forefront of science publishing'.
>
> BioMed Central is currently under development. It will launch in May.
> Authors and groups of researchers who would like more information on how
to
> use BioMed Central should email BioMed Central at  info@biomedcentral.com
>
> NOTE TO EDITORS
>
> BioMed Central is part of the Current Science Group of companies that
> also includes Current Controlled Trials Ltd, Current Drugs Ltd, Current
> Medicine Inc., Current Science Ltd, Science Press Ltd and Praxis Press
> Inc. The group has corporate offices in London, New York, Philadelphia,
> and Tokyo. The Current Science Group has been responsible for the
> creation of some of the leading brands in biomedical research
> literature including Current Biology, the Current Opinions series and
> the world's largest scientific web portal, BioMedNet.
>
> PubMed Central is the barrier-free NIH repository for peer-reviewed
> primary research reports in the life sciences. PubMed Central has been
> the source of some controversy within the scientific publishing world
> as it aims to redefine the economic rules of the industry. It was
> proposed last spring by Harold Varmus, M.D., director of the National
> Institutes of Health, and his colleagues. Currently under development,
> PubMed Central will begin accepting journal articles in January 2000.
>
> Web links
> www.current-science-group.com
> www.biomedcentral.com
> <http://pubmedcentral.nih.gov>
>
>