Duke University Press STM Initiative

[Donna Blagdan <blagdan@duke.edu>]

For immediate release
August 19, 2004

For more information, contact:
Donna Blagdan, edukecollection@dukeupress.edu
http://www.dukeupress.edu/edukecollection

Duke University Press announces the implementation of a new STM journals
initiative and the hiring of new Journals Acquisitions Editor Erich Staib

Duke University Press, with strong support from Duke University Provost
Peter Lange, is pleased to announce the commencement of a new science,
technology, and medicine (STM) publishing initiative.  Leveraging its
affiliation with Duke University and the Duke University Medical Center,
Duke University Press intends to nearly double the number of journals in
its catalog over the next five years through the acquisition of ten STM
journals (the goal is two per year, launching in January 2006), as well as
additional humanities/social science titles during the same period.

Helping to lead this ambitious initiative will be Erich Staib-formerly the
U.S. Journals Manager at Oxford University Press-who will join Duke
University Press as Journals Acquisitions Editor in August. With over
fourteen years of management and editorial experience at Oxford University
Press, Staib brings to this new position a deep familiarity with every
aspect of STM and non-STM journals publishing, including his extensive
experience in journals acquisitions and invaluable knowledge of publishing
practices and editorial expectations for STM journals.

Lange explains, "I have been encouraged to support Duke University Press's
expansion into the publishing of STM journals both by Duke Librarian David
Ferriero and by SPARC (Scholarly Publishing and Academic Resources
Coalition) Director Rick Johnson. We all hope and believe that Duke can
serve as a model to show how university presses can play a key role in
moving scientific and medical publishing back into the nonprofit sector,
and thus help to counter the trend that has allowed certain large
commercial publishers near-monopolistic control of the journals market, to
the fiscal detriment of academic institutions."

Duke University Press Director Steve Cohn adds, "For many decades we have
published one of the world's great math journals, the Duke Mathematical
Journal, and we have successfully taken on a medical journal,
Neuro-Oncology. We have received solid start-up funding from our
university for creation of the electronic and personnel infrastructures we
will need in order to publish an array of STM journals successfully. We
are now ready to start looking for journals that can benefit from our
publishing expertise, reputation for quality consciousness, and
university-based value system."

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