Nature Publishing Group Open Letter to Customers, 2005

[NPG Library Communications <npglibcomms@natureny.com>]

*Apologies for any cross-posting*

Nature Publishing Group
15 September 2005

Dear customers,

I am pleased to be able to write once again with news of launches,
acquisitions, and important technical and policy developments at Nature
Publishing Group (NPG), reflecting the evolving needs of our customers.

With the launch of the Nature Clinical Practice (NCP) series in late 2004,
NPG confirmed its position as a dynamic clinical publisher. The first four
NCP titles, Cardiovascular Medicine, Gastroenterology & Hepatology,
Oncology and Urology, provide time-short physicians with authoritative,
timely overviews of how key developments can be applied in the clinical
setting. The journals have already been indexed in PubMed. The next four
titles in the series, launching November 2005, will be Endocrinology &
Metabolism, Nephrology, Neurology, and Rheumatology. From January 2006,
NPG will also publish the society-owned titles Kidney International and
the Journal of Investigative Dermatology, both previously published by
Blackwell Publishing.

The launch of Nature Materials in 2002 marked NPG's commitment to
publishing in the physical sciences. The first issue of Nature Chemical
Biology was published in June, and Nature Physics launches in October of
this year. With these launches, NPG aims to provide high-impact,
high-value publications, in line with the needs of authors and readers,
expanding our long-standing service in the life sciences.

NPG's commitment to new and established journals is clear. Our
publications continue to dominate the rankings in the Thomson ISI Journal
Citation Report 2004. Eleven of the top 25 science and technology journals
are Nature journals, all of which have impact factors over 20. Nature is
again the top Multidisciplinary Sciences, with an impact factor of 32.182.
The Nature Reviews series, launched only five years ago, is still
out-performing any comparable reviews series. Nature Reviews Cancer has an
impact factor of 36.557, Nature Reviews Molecular Cell Biology is 33.170
and Nature Reviews Immunology is 32.695. Impact factors are not the sole
indicator of quality, but these figures reflect relevant, novel content
from the best authors, and high levels of usage by customers. The impact
factor of Nature Materials, only three years old, has jumped to 13.531 and
it is now the number one primary research journal in materials science.

These successes reflect our ongoing investments in our journals and our
service to customers. In May, the print and web editions of Nature were
relaunched, with a cleaner, more readable design and expanded content.
This followed a year-long process of research, consultation, design and
development. The new design and content have been warmly received by
readers. The magazine goes from strength to strength, with exciting papers
this year on the historic mission to Mars, and the inheritance of
extra-genomic information. The web edition is now compliant with important
web accessibility standards, to ensure our content is available to
everyone, regardless of physical ability. Feedback from users deploying
screen reader technology has been positive, but improved accessibility
will benefit all users.

The nature.com homepage and subject pages have been redesigned to improve
site navigation, allowing users to find relevant publications easily. In
addition to new designs, NPG has completely rebuilt the nature.com
publishing platform, with new hardware and software. Download times have
been significantly reduced, and server downtimes have been eliminated as
far as possible.

NPG has a tradition of innovation, with experimental publishing concepts
such as AfCS-Nature Signaling Gateway, the JISC-funded open-source Urchin,
the early adoption of RSS feeds, and now with the launch of Connotea.
Connotea (www.connotea.org) allows users to bookmark, index and share
important scientific papers and web pages. Through shared indexing, users
can discover relevant material they might not have otherwise found.

Information about institutional subscriptions, site licenses and pricing
is published at npg.nature.com/libraries NPG's site license policy is
established across most of our titles, and site licenses offer great
value, both in terms of access to high impact research, and low cost per
use. Early studies suggest NPG offers better value, in terms of
cost-per-article downloaded than other major STM publishers (Credit Suisse
First Boston Media; Evolving Threats to STM). Reflecting requests from our
customers, the site license policy is being amended to provide clear
post-cancellation rights to site license customers. All customers with a
license start date in 2006 will be granted post-cancellation rights to the
material they can access via their site license (ie back to 1997 or the
subsequent launch issue). From 2007, the content accessible via a current
site license will be redefined, and libraries will have post-cancellation
access rights to content published during the term of their license,
subject to a title-specific access fee.

To conclude, NPG will continue to invest in journals, increasing quality
and impact, while innovating in new and established markets with novel
products and services, inline with the needs of our customers. Publishers
don't determine what will succeed and what will fail. You, as customers,
do that, and we thank you for your continued support.

Yours sincerely

Annette Thomas
Managing Director
Nature Publishing Group

npg.nature.com/libraries