ACS Mobile - a new iPhone application delivering fast-breaking research reports and science news

[Jonathan Morgan <j_morgan@acs.org>]

WASHINGTON, March 15, 2010 - The American Chemical Society (ACS) 
today introduced a new mobile software application for users of 
Apple's iPhone and iPod Touch devices.

The new information delivery service, ACS Mobile, provides 
readers with an up-to-the-minute live stream of peer-reviewed 
research content published across the Society's preeminent 
portfolio of scholarly research journals, and is augmented by 
'Latest News' from Chemical and Engineering News (C&EN), the 
Society's industry-leading magazine and preferred source of 
online news for its more than 161,000 member professionals.

"In keeping with our mission as a provider of indispensable 
information to chemistry professionals worldwide, I am delighted 
that the ACS Publications Division and our Society's IT experts 
are able to present ACS Mobile as a new information access option 
for our global audience of authors, reviewers, editors, customers 
and readers," said Dr. Brian Crawford, President of ACS 
Publications.  "Journals have a well-deserved reputation for 
high-quality, high-impact content as a result of rigorous 
scientific peer review and technical editing standards. Our 
XML-based publishing via an end-to-end digital workflow from 
submission to publication enables online publication times that 
are unrivalled, and this mobile capability now complements the 
Society's award-winning web delivery platform for the benefit 
of the scientists we serve."

The introduction of the new ACS application comes at a time when 
the use of the Internet on mobile devices is soaring.  For 
example, a 2009 Morgan Stanley research study reported a 50-fold 
increase in traffic on AT&T's mobile data network between 2006 
and 2009, much of which was attributed to the rapid adoption of 
Apple's iPhone and iPod Touch devices in the consumer market. 
"At ACS, we have made a deliberate decision to deliver a dynamic 
real-time index of published journal article content to mobile 
devices," said Brandon Nordin, Vice President of Sales, 
Marketing, and Web Strategy for ACS Publications. "ACS Mobile is 
informed by our knowledge of current user behavior and 
preferences, and our understanding of the needs of today's 
time-pressed research scientist."

Nordin added that "the majority of our web users are between the 
ages of 20-40, and we find that one-third of those readers now 
use mobile devices to access the Internet. As ACS continues to 
move beyond the print format, our focus is on timely access to 
research and alternatives that help individuals to discover, 
filter, read and share information."

Readers of ACS Journals will benefit from the following features 
of ACS Mobile:

* Up-to-the minute access to ACS ASAP Articles published online, 
personalized from across the entire portfolio of 38 
peer-reviewed ACS Journals. (http://pubs.acs.org). Tailored on 
the fly' filtering options for viewing content from selected 
ACS titles.

* Dynamic delivery of an indexed list of more than 35,000 
research articles published annually, and easy pathways for 
free reader access to the graphical and text abstracts of those 
articles.

* "Latest News" feed from C&EN Online.

* Saving of favorites within the application in a personal folder 
designed for convenient offline reading.

* Interface to full-text article access and display (via wireless 
or Virtual Private Networks) for authorized users at 
institutions that license ACS Journals content. Alternative of 
ACS ID and password-based access for individuals who elect to 
subscribe to the web editions of ACS journals as part of their 
suite of ACS member benefits.

* Quick Search across the more than 850,000+ scientific research 
articles and book chapters archived on the ACS Web Editions 
Platform - discoverable by author, keyword, title, abstract, 
DOI or bibliographic citation.

* Sharing of links and snippets to alert friends and colleagues 
to new ACS ASAP Articles via e-mail and social networking sites 
(Facebook and Twitter).

"This iPhone application is a logical extension of our 
award-winning ACS Web Editions Platform, as there are significant 
differences in user behavior between performing scholarly 
information discovery in a laptop/desktop setting, versus 
consuming information on a mobile device while on the go," said 
Jonathan Morgan, Assistant Director, Web Strategy & Innovation. 
"We don't anticipate that researchers will engage in hours-long 
sessions on ACS Mobile; rather, we want to help them use 5-10 
minute opportune windows of time to stay abreast of new 
discoveries that ACS pushes live to the Web. ACS Mobile was built 
with traditional reader habits in mind - such as browsing and the 
goal also of reinforcing the value of serendipity in information 
discovery. ACS Mobile can make a scientist'ss daily commute, 
business travel, or time away from the desk or laboratory a more 
rewarding and productive experience.  Our team at ACS 
Publications is already working on next stage development efforts 
that will extend the availability of this initial iPhone 
application to the recently announced Apple iPad, as well as to 
additional mobile operating systems and devices."

A video demonstration of the features and functionality of ACS 
Mobile can be accessed at <http://pubs.acs.org/r/acsmobile> The 
application is now available for individual purchase and download 
via the Apple iTunes Store for the introductory price of $2.99.

The American Chemical Society is a nonprofit organization 
chartered by the U.S. Congress. With more than 161,000 members, 
ACS is the world's largest scientific society and a global leader 
in providing access to chemistry-related research through its 
multiple databases, peer-reviewed journals and scientific 
conferences. Its main offices are in Washington, D.C., and 
Columbus, Ohio. The ACS Publications Division currently publishes 
38 leading peer-reviewed journals in the chemical and related 
sciences, C&EN, the Society's weekly newsmagazine.

Contact:
Jonathan Morgan 
202-872-4084
j_morgan@acs.org

Michael Woods 
202-872-6293
m_woods@acs.org