LISNews: Librarian News

Lee Hadden writes: "The Cornell University Library's "Issues in Scholarly Communications"
has an interesting article from November 12, 2003, on what steps the
Cornell University Library is taking to reduce journal costs and price
increases. See the article, "The Elsevier Subscription," and the
accompanying links, at their web site.

See their site at: library.cornell.edu."
Thanks to mcbride for the link as well.

All of Germany's principal scientific and scholarly
institutions, and a fair number of other European ones, have signed this declaration to show their commitment to open access to scientific and scholarly
research.

Berlin Declaration on Open Access to Knowledge in the Sciences and Humanities

madtom writes "Today's Chronicle of Higher Education reports that two scientists at the University of California at San Francisco are urging a worldwide boycott of six molecular-biology journals on the grounds that their publisher, Reed Elsevier, is demanding that the University of California system pay too high a price for electronic access to the publications.

The scientists are Keith Yamamoto, chairman of the department of cellular and molecular pharmacology, and Peter Walter, a professor of biophysics and biochemistry. In a letter circulated this week, they say that Reed Elsevier is asking the university system to pay more than $90,000 a year for the journals' online editions. The California Digital Library, which negotiates journal contracts for the university system, rejected that price, and is now pushing Reed Elsevier to reconsider its licensing terms that will take effect in January, says Daniel Greenstein, director of the Digital Library.

Mr. Walter and Mr. Yamamoto are asking scientists to retaliate against Cancer Cell, Cell, Developmental Cell, Molecular Cell, Immunity, and Neuron by refusing to submit articles to the journals, resigning from their editorial boards, and declining to review manuscripts for them. The publications are considered among the most prestigious in molecular biology."

See the Chronicle article (subscription required) and related materials from the California Digital Library and the UC Academic Senate

mcbride writes "PLoS Biology has launched, and from the immediate passing view, has the look and feel of Science, complete with news, editorial, synopses of all research articles ("All PLoS Biology research articles are accompanied by a synopsis written by a professional science writer for a general audience.") and is available electronically in multiple flavors. Synopsis, Full-text (Web), Figures only, Print PDF (larger file, and Screen PDF (smaller file). The issue can also be downloaded as one BIG (65MB) file. As of 6amPST, the web server (including downloads of PDF) has been slashdotted. PLoS Biology is also available in print for those of us that like glossy covers."