The Howard Hughes Medical Institute and BioMed Central have announced a membership agreement under which HHMI will pay the article processing charges for all research published by HHMI investigators in BioMed Central journals. Articles published under this agreement will be made immediately and freely available on the web in their final published form, and will be deposited in international archives including PubMed Central (PMC). The agreement between HHMI and BioMed Central takes effect for articles submitted after September 1, 2007.
This agreement complements HHMI’s recently announced open access policy, which requires that the results of research funded by the Institute must be deposited in PubMed Central, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) free digital archive of biomedical and life sciences journal literature, not more than six months after publication.
By P. Kaufman on Open Access (Scholarly Communication Blog)
I just came across this web site and thought I’d pass it on. In need of environmental advisories, sightings of marine turtles in southeast US, distribution of amphibians in the Sierra Navada, solar magnetic field atlas, toxicity of heavy metals in seawater and more? The Global Change Master Directory is a collection of data sets collected by government agencies. The data sets are freely available and downloadable. Arranged in an heirarchical system, it is relatively easy to navigate. Augment your own data! or discover new!
Check it out at: http://gcmd.gsfc.nasa.gov/
The mighty fine editors of Nature have now moved into the 20th century! The mission statement reprinted in every issue since 11 November 1869 has read:
“The object which it is proposed to attain by this periodical may be broadly stated as follows. It is intended, First, to place before the general public the grand results of Scientific Work and Scientific Discovery ; and to urge the claims of Science to a more general recognition in Education and in Daily Life; And, Secondly, to aid Scientific men themselves, by giving early information of all advances made in any branch of Natural knowledge throughout the world, and by affording them an opportunity of discussing the various Scientific questions which arise from time to time.”
The editors have responded to inquiries regarding the mission statement’s bias with the following: “There is a convention within the English language by which writers quoting text can indicate their view that a particular phrase is inappropriate. That is to insert sic, a Latin word meaning ‘thus’, after the phrase — in effect expressing the sentiment ‘alas, dear reader, this is what was said’. This is what we will do in the mission statement from now on.”
Thank goodness for Latin!
To read the complete editorial, go to: http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v448/n7155/full/448728a.html
World Water Week is upon us, an annual fete of all things H2O. The event, held in Stockholm, is the leading global meeting place for experts from businesses, governments, science, NGOs, academe, and United Nations agencies. This year’s event features the launch today of a remarkable Global Water Tool, a free online resource to help companies calculate water consumption and efficiency across a portfolio of facilities around the world.
“To manage your water globally, you need to know the water situation locally.”
The web site, SustainLane Government, was announced on this blog back in June. I just wanted to alert you to the fact that it is now included in our catalog. The web site advances cross-sector sustainable development for state and local government. “Our open-source knowledge base speeds discovery, research and networking with more than 110 best practice documents and a secure directory of participating government officials from over 450 cities, counties and states.”
This site will be of interest to environmentalists, urban planners, etc. Check it out!
http://innopac.library.drexel.edu/search/?searchtype=t&searcharg=sustainlane&searchscope=9&SORT=D
