Nautilus

The NatureJobs Source Event career fair will be taking place in London on 26 September 2008. This dedicated science career fair combines a dynamic exhibition with conference and workshop sessions. The event will promote the UK and the rest of Europe as a great place to pursue a career in science, be it in industrial research, research organizations or academia. It will present the best opportunities from the best organizations: public, private, national and international.
Jobseekers will be able to meet with potential employers who are offering hundreds of vacancies. The plenary and workshop sessions will provide a unique opportunity to meet high-profile scientists and gain careers information and advice.
Several of the invited speakers have kindly agreed to answer career-related questions in advance of the meeting, at Nature Network. The Nature Network Question & Answer session with some of the meeting’s speakers is now "live". The NatureJobs team invites you to ask the speakers about their backgrounds, career paths, advice for getting in to a particular field or sector, relevant or important skill sets, and so on. The relevant speaker(s) will post responses, and factor the questions into their presentations at the event.

The following speakers have kindly agreed to participate:
• Jim Loftus, Research Recruitment Manager, Pfizer
• Matthais Haury, Coordinating Manager, EMBL International Centre for Advanced Training
• Zonya Jeffrey, Biomedical Scientist, Central Manchester and University Hospitals NHS Trust
• Stijn Oomes, Assistant Professor in Human–Computer Interaction, Delft University of Technology
• George Schlich, Chartered and European Patent Attorney & founder of Schlich & Co
• Jonathan Yearsley, Postdoctoral Researcher, Department of Ecology and Evolution, University of Lausanne.

Already in the Nature Network Source Event forum there are questions and answers about moving from academia to industry, what participants hope to gain from the event, which recruitment and other companies will be exhibiting, how to upload your CV, and more.
Please join this free Nature Network group to ask your questions and to obtain further careers advice from the panel of experts.
The Question and Answer sessions are here.

Posted by Maxine Clarke on June 25, 2008
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SciDevNet's Practical Guides offer very useful advice for scientists who wish to communicate their results, not only in journals but in other ways and using other media. Articles include 'How do I become a science journalist?'; 'Planning and writing a science story'; 'How do I apply for a research grant?'; 'Spotting fraudulent claims in science'; 'How do I become media-savvy?'; 'How do I make a science news story for the radio?'; and others. A full contents listing is here.

Posted by Maxine Clarke on June 16, 2008
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Frontiers of cellular, developmental and molecular biology, Nice; 30 August – 2 September 2008.
The seventh international congress of the European Life Scientist Organization (ELSO) returns this year to Nice on the French Cote d’Azur. Promoted for the first time in collaboration with the European Molecular Biology Organization (EMBO), the ELSO meeting offers a broad palette of top-notch international molecular life science mixed with informative and practical events to promote the career development of young researchers.
From the conference information pages: Plenary session speakers this year include: systems biologist Ursula Klingmueller; cell biologist Graham Warren; stem cell biologist Andreas Trumpp; developmental biologist Magdalena Zernicka-Goetz; tissue engineer Donald Ingber, and proteomics expert Matthias Mann. The 21 minisymposia and the poster sessions cover topics ranging from entry of pathogens into cells, through epigenetics to computational biology and all stops en route. Around 180 speakers, 600 posters and 80 commercial exhibitors will provide four full days of exciting and topical life science. Abstract submission deadline is 15 June.
If you are looking for advice on what to do next, whether it be a postdoc or a junior group leader position in another country or a move into a career outside academia, ELSO’s career development events can give you the inspiration to try something new and challenging and the practical help to put your plans into practice. At this year’s meeting there will be mentoring and mobility sessions, first-hand accounts of careers outside academia, as well as a new career enhancement workshop looking at your own personality, CV, interview techniques, and so on. Not to be missed if you are planning a career move soon!

Posted by Maxine Clarke on June 09, 2008
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The USCD-Nature Signaling Gateway would like to apply for continued funding from the US National Institutes of Health. If you are a researcher in this field, or if you are interested in this area and have been reading the articles and other content on the Gateway, please show your support by writing a letter to the team via this web form, before 30 May. Your response will help keep the content on the site freely available for all users.
The UCSD-Nature Signaling Gateway is a comprehensive and up-to-the-minute resource for anyone interested in signal transduction. The gateway represents a unique collaboration between the University of California San Diego (UCSD) and Nature Publishing Group, and is designed to facilitate navigation of the complex world of research into cellular signalling. Information and data presented here are freely available to all. It is powered by the San Diego Supercomputer Center (SDSC). It has won the Association of Learned and Professional Society Publishers (ALPSP) Award for Publishing Innovation for ‘a significantly innovative approach to any aspect of publication’.
The Signaling Gateway site has three main components: a data centre (repository and toolkits); Molecule Pages (structured data on key proteins); and Signaling Update (news and comment). The Signaling Gateway is an example of a pioneering business model that allows the scientific community free access to the wealth of cell signaling information through sponsorship, described in an article by Electronic Publishing Services as ‘the door to the future’

Posted by Maxine Clarke on May 07, 2008
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Nature Publishing Group's biomedical journals are being made available to more than 20 additional countries in Africa, Asia and Latin America via INASP’s Programme for the Enhancement of Research Information (PERI). The high impact journals in this collection include Nature, the Nature Clinical Practice series, the Nature research journals and Nature Reviews journals in the life sciences and medicine. The collection also includes more than 40 journals published by NPG on behalf of societies. For further details, please visit the INASP website.
Through PERI, INASP cooperates with publishers in the developed world to facilitate access to their publications within developing and emerging countries. INASP seeks to take a holistic approach to enhancing worldwide access to information and PERI is complemented by programmes at all stages of the communication cycle including library development, and working with local editors and researchers.
NPG journals are already widely available via the AGORA, HINARI and OARE programmes of the United Nations.

Posted by Maxine Clarke on May 05, 2008
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Nature Publishing Group (NPG) has announced five new co-publishing agreements for 2009 in Japan and China. NPG Nature Asia-Pacific, the Asia-Pacific wing of NPG, has partnered in China with the Shanghai Institute of Materia Medica of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, to co-publish Acta Pharmacologica Sinica and the Asian Journal of Andrology (which is also sponsored by Shanghai Jiao Tong University) from January 2009. Together with an existing publishing partnership for the journal Cell Research with the Shanghai Institute for Biological Sciences, this means that from next year NPG will publish three of mainland China’s most prestigious journals in life sciences and chemistry.
In Japan, NPG Nature Asia-Pacific has finalised agreements with the Japan Antibiotics Research Association, the Japan Society for Human Genetics and the Japan Society of Hypertension to publish the Journal of Antibiotics, the Journal of Human Genetics and Hypertension Research.
David Swinbanks, of NPG Nature Asia-Pacific, said: “By building on the reputations of these five international journals and by launching the NPG Asia Materials website we can publish and highlight some of the best research from the region in the life, medical, chemical and physical sciences and communicate it to the relevant communities around the world.” NPG Nature Asia-Pacific is the Asia-Pacific wing of NPG, set up to serve the growing needs of the scientific, engineering and medical communities in the region, and has offices in Tokyo, Hong Kong, Delhi and Melbourne. More about its publishing partnerships can be found here.

Posted by Maxine Clarke on April 29, 2008
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Venture capital is a key part of growing a start-up company, but can be fraught with problems. Nature Biotechnology is gathering together a group of seasoned chief executives, venture capitalists and a venture lawyer at a one-day event 'Bioentrepreneur beware: CEO war stories on investor nightmares', to discuss what can go wrong during the financing process, including term-sheet negotiations that seriously dilute equity, rounds that fall through at the last second, investor activism and hostile takeover of board seats. Take the opportunity to participate in a lively panel discussion that will explore key issues when borrowing other people’s money and ways that you can ensure investor and management goals are compatible with your biotechnology business. The meeting will take place on 20 May 2008 at The Meritage Resort, Napa, California, and is free to attend. The speakers and programme, and more details, can be found here. For information and to register, please send full company name and contact details by email.

Posted by Maxine Clarke on April 22, 2008
Categories: Author services, Communication, Conferences, Partners | Permalink | Comments (0)

If you are a scientist-blogger and are interested in a real meeting as opposed to a virtual carnival, please visit the Nature Network bloggers' forum , where Matt Brown reports the good news that The Royal Institution in London has offered to host a European science blogging conference later this year, to be organised by the bloggers. The rationale for the European bloggers' conference is given here.
The first thing to do, Matt writes, is to pick a date, from August 16th, 23rd, 30th, or September 13th, so please head to Nature Network and state your preference.
Another piece of science blogging news concerns microblogging. A microblog is a post of 140 or fewer words. Attila Csordas informs me that there is a new microblog called Biotecher, on the Twitter platform. Biotecher tracks every biotech-, biology-, medicine- and bioinformatics-related 'twitter' (microblog on the Twitter platform) to create a 'biotwitter community'.

Posted by Maxine Clarke on April 15, 2008
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Nature Publishing Group has launched an Asia Materials website, featuring highlights of some of the best research from all fields of materials research published in the Asia-Pacific region. A substantial share of the world’s materials research output comes from Asian countries, and the Asia-Pacific region is making rapidly increasing contributions to global scientific research. In response to these developments, scientists from Tokyo Institute of Technology (members of the Global-Center of Excellence programme on materials science), together with NPG Nature Asia-Pacific, the Asia-Pacific wing of Nature Publishing Group, have launched NPG Asia Materials in preparation for establishing a new research journal devoted to materials research. Each month, NPG Asia Materials will be updated with short, easy-to-understand highlights of research articles recently published by scientists of the region in leading journals covering all fields of materials science. An Editorial Committee manages the site and selects research highlights from the papers recommended by the site's Advisory Board. You can register for regular e-mail alerts for NPG Asia Materials.

Posted by Maxine Clarke on April 02, 2008
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This weekly Nautilus column highlights some of the online discussion at Nature Network in the preceding week that is of relevance to scientists as authors. The Nature Network week column is archived here.

In the science writers' group, Angela Saini asks what science stories would be great for television, given that her non-scientist friends frequently tell her that "there is not enough science on TV". Among the responses so far are suggestions about heirloom tomatoes, better science for children, fun science and a magazine show. Matt Brown , who provides a weekly round-up of UK science TV on the network, comments that his favourite science programme on TV is "the recent BBC4 documentary about the lead singer of Eels discovering his father’s pioneering work on parallel universe theory. In other words, rock star learns extreme physics." Read on, and add your suggestions, at the Network forum.

At the NatureJobs careers forum, Paul Smaglik provides advice on roles in clinical trial programmes and starting a research career.

At the good paper journal club, Linda Cooper asks why so many scientific articles are difficult to read, and Heather Etchevers encourages more suggestions of well-written papers for dissection. Continuing the theme, Richard Grant at his blog The Scientist asks why most scientific papers are so boring. There is a very nice blog post by Mico Tatalovic, providing a student's perspective on students' science-writing skills -- including a round-up of undergraduate science journals.

Anna Kushnir initiates what has turned out to be a very informative debate about PubMed searches, at her blog Lab Life. There are plenty of tips and links in the long comment thread. You can also read an article on Partial Immortalization blog, "How to filter and read PubMed articles through RSS feeds", complete with screen shots, by Attila Csordas.

Jose Manuel Otero has started a Nature Network blog to discuss the difference and similarities between academic and industrial research. He is setting out to destroy some common myths. One such is that industrial research environments are not focused on problem understanding, but instead exclusively concerned with project milestones and product delivery, and therefore, will punish any type of mechanism-based efforts towards enhanced and deeper understanding. Wrong! Unsurprisingly, this blog is attacting stimulating discussion, which doubtless will continue.

John Willbanks writes about creative works, copyrights and publishing, providing some further thoughts after his talk at MIT on the question of how to extricate the “non-creative facts” from the creative, copyrighted work.

Perhaps the most intense and long comment thread for the week is Jennifer Rohn's post and discussion on Mind the Gap, "In which I utterly fail to conceptualize". Initially on the use of Excel spreadsheets to analyse genome-wide screens, the discussion becomes a full-blown debate on the contributions of bioinformaticans and "wet" (laboratory) biologists. And perhaps the most significant Nature Network group that started this week is called Collaboration: bringing Nature Network members together, set up by Bob O'Hara in direct response to this discussion. Can Nature Network create collaborations between its members? How can NN facilitate this process? Here you can discuss these details, and look for other people who are interested in working on the same topics as you are. I encourage you to sign up.

Previous Nature Network columns.

Posted by Maxine Clarke on March 28, 2008
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Corie Lok, Nature Network's Editor, was in Toronto over the weekend attending the world’s first Scibarcamp, where 120 scientists, writers, artists, technologists and business people discussed topics ranging from science '2.0'; science and art; and whether can technology can make us happy. Corie highlights a session led by Eva Amsen on '10 things everyone should know about science'. Eva asked conference-goers to write down their ideas for what everyone should know about science on a board, which is photographed at Corie's blog, together with a list of her favourites.

In a post called The condition of Denmark, Nature editor Henry Gee writes on scientific literacy and how "Selecting papers for publication in Nature is rather like standing in front of a firehose and picking out a few choice drops of water. Even then, Nature’s subeditors remain hardpressed, given that papers these days contain volumes (volumes) of accessory and supplementary material—none of which existed a decade ago. Online publication means that papers are published round the clock, rather than just once a week. And things are unlikely to get any easier."

The Fiction Lab, coming soon to the newly refurbished Royal Institution, will be a reading group dedicated to lab lit and other science-related or inspired literary fiction, introduced by Jennifer Rohn at her blog Mind the Gap. The first book to be discussed is The Sun and Moon Corrupted by Philip Ball, who will also be making a personal appearance.

In response to a question at the NatureJobs career forum from a Network user who has a medical degree and wants to start a job in research, Paul Smaglik advises that "it’s perfectly acceptable to start as a technician, learn a few skills, decide whether or not you like what you’re doing, and, if you do, seek further training. That’s perhaps a more rational approach than in investing seven years in a PhD, a few more in a postdoc, then learning you despise benchwork."

Posted by Maxine Clarke on March 21, 2008
Categories: Communication, Nature Network round-up, Partners | Permalink | Comments (0)

Multiple Sclerosis: From Pathogenesis to Therapy, 6 June 2008, Espace Charles-Louis-Havas, Paris.
Organizers: Eva Chmielnicki (Nature Medicine, USA), Laurie Dempsey (Nature Immunology, USA) and Yves Christen (Fondation IPSEN, France).
Multiple sclerosis is an inflammatory autoimmune disease targeting the central nervous system, leading to demyelination and axon degeneration and to severe disability as the disease progresses. It presents as a clinically heterogeneous disease, which has been problematic for efforts to develop appropriate animal models. Many environmental and genetic factors have been identified that may initiate disease. Various immune and neural cells have been found to play key roles in disease pathogenesis and progression. An Emergence & Convergence mini-symposium organised by Fondation IPSEN, Nature Medicine and Nature Immunology will address open questions in multiple sclerosis research, with the goal of identifying future directions that may lead to therapy. The application deadline is 31 March 2008. Attendance at this meeting is free on acceptance of application (register here); a free conference poster is available here.

Posted by Maxine Clarke on March 17, 2008
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A few useful links and some weekend light reading suggestions via Nature Network:

Who's got an opinion on public engagement with science? asks Nature Network London editor Matt Brown.

An overview of science-related "stuff" at Second Life, by T. Troy McGonaghy of Science in the Metaverse. Via the link, you can see the slides and a video of Troy's presentation at the recent Virtual Worlds: Libraries, Education and Museums conference.

On the Visualization and Science forum, Hilary Spencer posts what she calls a "rant" about powerpoint, public speaking and blog posts. I'd define it as a strongly opinionated article: it contains her reactions to presentations at a recent conference she attended, and provides some useful advice about how to make and how not to make helpful slides. In a post with a related theme, Nuruddeen Lewis at his blog Lab Daze provides a very useful primer about how to give a talk: 'Tips for nailing your next presentation'.

Martin Fenner on his excellent blog Gobbledygook writes on the "complicated" aspects of paper writing: all those policy and format requirements, ethical bodies' requirements, and international nomenclature committees' pronouncements. And Richard Grant, at The Scientist blog, hosts a discussion on writing style: 'On the care and training of students, especially the training.'

Stew at Flags and Lollipops picks up on various recent posts and articles about the lack of take-up among scientists of the online commenting facilities often offered by journals on the papers they publish. Stew takes previous suggestions with a pinch of salt, homing in on the two main reasons he believes inhibit people from writing comments on published papers.

LabLit publishes the first installment of Private Investigations, a four-part story about the adventures of a very special scientist-for-hire. The author? He or she is not unknown to Nature Network, as a small amount of detective work will reveal.

What is the best way forward for Eastern Europe's science? asks Mico Tatalovic at Cambridge Student blog, in an article featuring the new life-sciences institutue MedILS at Split, Croatia.

If you are in reach of London, there are some unusual science-related events coming up, listed by Li-Kim Lee (see links for further details): Elizabethan Sea Charts and Maps (behind the scenes); Francis Crick - DNA and beyond; Leonardo's philosophical anatomies; and my favourite, Prince Rupert, Cavalier and Scientist.

Today (14 March, which in the US style is 3.14) is Pi day; see Gobbledygook for links to the Pi day website, but also to some music, including the American Pi song -- as Martin points out, best listened to at 1:59 today.

And finally, again from Matt Brown, Nature Network's ten most prolific bloggers over the past six months, with links to the blogs concerned. They'll give you a good taste of the lively discussion on the network - do join us there.

Posted by Maxine Clarke on March 14, 2008
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The mission of the Euroscience Open Forum (ESOF) is to provide both the European and the international science communities with an open platform for debate and communication. It presents and profiles Europe's leading research trends in the sciences, humanities and social sciences. It is an opportunity to discuss and influence the future of research and innovation in Europe. The scientific programme for ESOF08, "Science for a better life", to be held in Barcelona from 18 to 22 July, has just been finalized, and is made up of 83 scientific sessions from 10 scientific themes, 10 career sessions and 70 outreach activities, with the participation of more than 450 speakers and session organizers from 30 countries. The final scientific programme schedule and list of speakers is available at the ESOF website or can be downloaded here as a 97KB PDF. Among the speakers and organisers of the sessions are Philip Campbell, Editor in Chief of Nature publications and Editor of Nature, who will be talking in the session "Sharing scientific data: who benefits?"; Alison Abbott, Nature's senior European correspondent, who is organizing a session "Looking inside your brain"; and Karl Ziemelis, Nature's chief physical sciences editor, who is organizing the session "An organic revolution".
You can register for the conference here. There is a reduced fee for participants who register before 15 March (tomorrow).

Posted by Maxine Clarke on March 14, 2008
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Starting this month (March 2008), Nature Methods strongly recommends deposition of proteomics data to public repositories before manuscript submission. From the Editorial in the March issue of the journal (Nat. Meth. 5, 209; 2008):
"Several proteomics data repositories are now available that differ in terms of their goals, structure and the formats they accept. They include PRIDE, PeptideAtlas, Global Proteome Machine Database (gpmDB) and the file distribution system Tranche. The newest addition, Human Proteinpedia, is a community-based annotation tool that hosts experimental data (Nat. Biotechnol. 26, 164; 2008).
Importantly, the major database administrators have shown their willingness to work with users and with each other to facilitate data deposition. At this stage, the process can still be labor-intensive, but a repository like PRIDE provides extensive technical assistance. Under the umbrella of the ProteomExchange consortium, the major repositories are also devising ways to share their data in a collaborative fashion, capitalizing on their complementarities to minimize submission hassle while maximizing benefits.
We support these efforts and consider it premature to recommend a particular repository. Rather we will rely on community experience to determine which database or combination of databases emerges as the most useful. However, there are specific features that editors favor. In particular, we like the possibility currently offered by PRIDE and Human Proteinpedia to provide peer reviewers with access to datasets associated with a manuscript before public release, in an anonymous fashion, and to coordinate public release of the data with publication. "

Nature Methods welcomes comments on this Editorial, and the recommendations it makes, at the journal's blog Methagora.
The Nature journals' policies on data and materials availability, including links to editorials on these policies, can be found at the author and reviewers' website.

Posted by Maxine Clarke on March 10, 2008
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The International Society for Nephrology (ISN) Nephrology Gateway is being completely redesigned this month (March 2008), with many new interactive features. Since its initial launch in 2005, the gateway has become an important online resource for nephrologists worldwide, including many educational projects, and providing links to news and literature, ISN contact information and membership highlights, a conference centre with announcements, and career resource links. The ISN is one of Nature Publishing Group’s valued society partners, with more than 8,000 members worldwide. The gateway also supports the ISN's membership service activities, connecting nephrologists with information and each other to improve patient care.
The latest addition to the site is the ISN Network, where nephrologists can log in, create a profile, set up discussion groups and participate in online forums. There is already a special discussion group on the ISN Network for all those involved in editing and publishing the journal Kidney International.
More enhanced search features within the gateway will soon follow these initial features.

Posted by Maxine Clarke on March 03, 2008
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Via the Nature Network blog Science in the Metaverse:

"The popular BBC Radio show The Naked Scientists will be broadcasting live into the virtual world Second Life starting this Sunday, 2 March at 18.00 GMT (10:00 AM PST). They have an island with a nice mansion and lots of comfortable chairs where you can listen to the show with other science enthusiasts and discuss whatever comes to mind. It’s in the middle of the sim named ‘SciLands’. If you already have a Second Life account, here’s a direct link to their mansion."

The background to the event is told by Dave Taylor at Knowlege Transfer Innovations:
......"last November I contacted Dr Chris [of The Naked Scientists] and asked him if he would be interested in having a studio audience in the SciLands. By happy coincidence Chris had been thinking along the same lines and so the idea of Naked Scientists in Second Life was born. This weekend Gordon Clark and I headed to Cambridge while colleagues in Second Life tested the audio link. The resulting podcast included an interview with us both. I described the ISM’s tour of the planets and our joint nuclear experiments with University of Denver while Gordon spoke about his recent trip through a biological sim. You can read the transcript or download the podcast here. During the show I said that innovations often come out of different disciplines meeting and having corridor discussions."

Joanna Scott, Nature Publishing Group's expert on Second Life, is usually at Second Nature (Nature's island on Second Life) between 4 and 5 p.m. GMT (8 - 9 a.m. SLT) , so please log in and join her then if you'd like to tell us what you are doing in Second Life, and what you think Nature Publishing Group might do there that would be useful for you. She looks forward to meeting you.

Posted by Maxine Clarke on February 29, 2008
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At Nature Publishing Group, we are often in a position of celebrating birthdays across a full range of ages, from Nature itself (139 on 4 November this year) to our youngest anniversarian, Nature Network, one year old today. In its brief span, the network has become host to a huge range of forums, groups, blogs and event notifications, some created by staff but the vast majority by users -- scientists, students, and (to quote the Editor Emeritus of Nature, Sir John Maddox) camp-followers.
Today, my shapshot shows me that the most vibrant discussions are on the role of money in Indian science; the quality of writing as a factor in the peer-review process; and nanotechnology trends predicted for this year. Tomorrow, these will be different, but equally stimulating. And fun -- check out Stripped Science, the blog of PhD student Viktor Poór, for a regular dose of science cartoons, this week with a birthday theme. Anyone can join the network, it is all free, so please do visit and meet others in a similar field, or with similar interests, to yourself.
Nature Network shares anniversaries of various kinds with the element Lawrencium, Dolly the sheep, Alexander Graham Bell, James Cook and, of course, St Valentine. The network almost, but not quite, shares a birthday with a person very closely connected with Nature in its earliest days -- Charles Darwin (who would have been 199 on Tuesday of this week, 12 February). In celebration of that anniversary, and of Nature Network's own much younger achievement, I reproduce a small part here of Matt Brown's lovely blog article about a walk through Darwin's London (complete with Google map):

"Walking up Lower Regent Street you might want to take a detour into Leicester Square. In Darwin’s day, No. 28—on the eastern side of the square—was the headquarters of the Zoological Society of London and the site of a zoological museum. On 4 January 1837, Darwin handed over 80 mammals and 450 birds collected during his Beagle trip. These included the now-famous Galapagos finches, specimens that ornithologist, artist and taxonomist John Gould was quick to describe as 'an entirely new group, containing 12 species.' "

I highly recommend reading the whole of this delightful combination of essay and guided tour. Happy birthday, indeed, Nature Network. I look forward to 199 (or more) lively years of your existence.

Update: See this posting at Nature Network for a brief history and some highlights of the first year.

Posted by Maxine Clarke on February 14, 2008
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From Nature 451, 619 (2008):
African researchers have just been connected by a high-speed Internet link to Europe's research network, GÉANT2. The deal has been struck between GÉANT2 and UbuntuNet, an alliance of African national research networks created in 2005. It will speed up communications and data transfer not only between African scientists and the estimated 30 million GÉANT2 users in 34 European countries, but also with scientists worldwide — through GÉANT2's connections with the United States and other research networks around the world.
UbuntuNet is not related to Ubuntu, the popular free version of the Linux operating system. But both namesakes help bring affordable quality information technology to African scientists.

The science and development network Scidev.net reports the formation of a new network, Scientists Without Borders, an initiative of the New York Academy of Sciences, which will "integrate the efforts of the scientific and health community to address global health, agriculture and energy challenges in accordance with the Millennium Development Goals." Ghana will be the first country in the scheme, from where a range of information is being collected to create a collaborative database and website, followed by others in the African continent.

Posted by Maxine Clarke on February 11, 2008
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Nature Publishing Group is now publishing the American Journal of Hypertension (AJH). The journal publishes high-quality, peer-reviewed articles in the fields of hypertension and related cardiovascular disease under the editorship of Michael Alderman, MD, and now has a new look, both in print and online. In celebration of the move to NPG, the online content of the journal is free site is free until 31 January. AJ H provides a forum for scientific inquiry of the highest standard and publishes articles on basic sciences, molecular biology, clinical and experimental hypertension, cardiology, neurophysiology and more. Visit AJH online to read the full aims and scope of the journal, including the guidelines for authors and for peer-reviewers.

Posted by Maxine Clarke on January 31, 2008
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In another partnership initiative, Goettingen University Library, the German National Library of Science and Technology and Nature Publishing Group (NPG) have announced that all universities, government institutions and publicly funded research institutions in Germany will obtain access to the complete Nature online archive, from 1869 to 2007. The national licence is financed by the German Research Foundation (Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft) as part of its national licensing project.
For more about the Nature archive and links to history resources available online, see this Nautilus post from 8 January 2008.
See here for the NPG press release (PDF) announcing the partnership.

Posted by Maxine Clarke on January 21, 2008
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Nature Publishing Group (NPG) has announced a partnership with an online, knowledge-sharing community called Sermo, a website that is freely available to all licensed physicians in the United States, to facilitate the discussion and interpretation of content in NPG's medical journals. NPG will add ‘Discuss on Sermo’ links to the online versions of articles in 12 of its medical journals, including Nature Medicine, Nature Clinical Practice Cardiovascular Medicine , Nature Reviews Cancer and Leukemia. These links will allow physicians reading the journals to create or join discussions of the articles with Sermo's 50,000 members. NPG will make the full text of these selected articles freely available to registered users of Sermo. Physicians use the site to aggregate their observations from their daily practice, then challenge or corroborate each others' opinions. The goal is to accelerate the emergence of trends and insights on medicines, devices and treatments, together resulting in better outcomes for patients.
See here for NPG's press release (PDF) announcing this partnership. More information about Sermo is available here.

Posted by Maxine Clarke on January 21, 2008
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The Neuroscience Gateway has moved to a new URL, www.neuroscience-gateway.org. Building on the success of the gateway, developed in collaboration with the Allen Institute for Brain Science, Nature Publishing Group is now expanding the gateway in new directions. Please update your bookmarks to the Allen Brain Atlas.
The site will continue to provide updates about the latest research, news and events, and will soon be including new features reflecting recent trends in neuroscience research. We hope you'll continue to find the Gateway a useful tool to track progress in neuroscience, and we'll provide more news about the site's development in the coming months.
We welcome suggestions and feedback from the neuroscience community, both at the Neuroscience Gateway and at Action Potential, NPG's neuroscience blog. We also encourage neuroscientists and others interested in the field to join the free neuroscience group on Nature Network, in which editors Noah Gray and Kathryn Devaney run an interactive journal club and host other discussions on what’s new in neuroscience research and publishing.

Posted by Maxine Clarke on January 11, 2008
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Nature Publishing Group (NPG) and BioCentury Publications, Inc announce a new electronic publication, SciBX, that will distill and analyse newly published life-science research to help the translation of aca