Nature SciTable “awarded” for its design

The educational website published by Nature for genetic & biology courses is well rated this month by the Best of the Web in GEN (Genetic Engineering & Biotechnology news)…

“The website is beautifully organized, and there are valuable resources for scientists at all stages of training“.

http://www.genengnews.com/best-of-the-web/scitable/2594/

I already mentioned this source, in early 2010:

http://scienceintelligence.wordpress.com/2010/01/25/scitable-collaborative-learining-space-for-genetics/

Nature: low-cost access experiences

Budget constraints

+

Open Access pressure

+

New usage on mobile devices

=

New business models!

Nature Publishing Group is working to offer new models for  its prestigious scientific content…

a week access on IPhone fpr $3.99, a rental access for 24 hours, etc.

 Not a bad news!!!

IWR News Desk, Information world review 05/01/2011

Re-discover your Nature

A nice new modern design for the famous weekly journal, which is still very successful (1 million of PDF articles downloaded per month!).

“Magazines aren’t dead“! says an editorialist.

http://www.nature.com/rediscover/

See the digital edition:

http://viewer.zmags.com/publication/a557f6af#/a557f6af/1

Science Social Networks: the maturity?

Looking at SAGE FaceBook and Nature Network, David Stuart believes that Social Network in Science have reached the age of maturity.

“The popularity of social networking sites has seen them embraced by many organisations as they search for ways to engage with their stakeholders, including large academic publishers. (…)

Good organisations have always been looking for ways to have conversations with their users … Social network sites allow for more informal communications, in the places and on the topics in which the user is interested. And this has not escaped the attention of academic publishers.

(…)

Unlike many other types of organisation that want to develop a social media strategy, academic publishers are already likely to have a strong web presence that interested parties will visit on a regular basis.

It is increasingly clear that social networking is reaching a level of maturity within academic publishers.

The world of both publishing and social media is constantly evolving, and publishers, like every other type of organisation, need to regularly reassess their communication channels. New technologies rarely fully replace established methods of communication… (…)

But really social media creates new opportunities, and it is up to publishers to add value …

Successful publishers of the future will be those who align their vision of social networking with that of their customers; those who ignore social networking will quickly lose ground.

Stuart, David. Networking sites help align publishers with customers; Research Information, June/July 2010.

Online:
http://www.researchinformation.info/features/feature.php?feature_id=272

Social Networks and Productivity

With the catchword “collaboration & productivity“, Nature Network (whcih claims 25,000 members) has released its new look and new features.

Does that means that collaboration or social networks are not productive sometimes????!!!

Commercial introduction:

“Nature Network is the professional networking website for scientists
around the world. It’s an online meeting place where you and your
colleagues can gather, share and discuss ideas, and keep in touch. It’s
also where you can consult the community for answers to scientific
questions or offer your expertise to help others. Additionally, using
the Workbench, you can collate your online scientific tools or “widgets”
together in a customizable workspace, allowing you to group your most
important tools and information in the way that works best for you.

Scientists can also benefit from interactions at the local level whether
discussing local news, looking for jobs or finding out about events
nearby”

http://network.nature.com/

Nature believes (now) in free access and social media

According a recent press release, “All content hosted on the Nature News site (www.nature.com/news) is now freely available. This includes online news articles, and news and news features articles published in Nature“.

“Nature Publishing Group (NPG) has made this change so that Nature’s news content can be disseminated and discussed as widely as possible, as we develop nature.com as the hub for quality science news and comment. With the rise of social media such as Twitter, Facebook and our own Connotea and Nature Network, we’d like to ensure that discussions about our news and comment can include an accessible link to the article“.

http://www.nature.com/press_releases/naturenews.html

Nature on your Iphone!

The World’s Best Science And Medicine At Your Fingertips

The nature.com iPhone application allows you to access science news stories and the latest published research from Nature Publishing Group on your iPhone wherever you are. As new articles are published they’re pushed straight to your iPhone where you can read the full text immediately or just save them for later.

Tell the app which journals you’re interested in or set up saved searches, which will show you the titles and abstracts of new articles from any journals in PubMed that match your key words.

Keeping abreast of the latest research has never been easier!

Read more on:

http://www.nature.com/press_releases/iphone.html

SciTable: Collaborative learining space for Genetics

Nature Education has launched a learning platform, with lots of tools
and materials around Genetics.
SciTable is defined by its editors as “a scientist-authored,
cutting-edge learning resource you can recommend with confidence“

http://www.nature.com/scitable

Predominant journals

Nature Publishing Group now publishes 16 of the top 50 (32%) journals by Impact Factor, twice as many as any other scientific publisher.

We are proud of this indication of the high quality of our journals, but were particularly honored this year by an award from the library community.

Nature was named the most influential journal of the last 100 years by the BioMedical & Life Sciences Division (DBIO) of the Special Libraries Association (SLA).

Steven Inchcoombe, Managing Director, Nature Publishing Group:
the Librarian Gateway (September 2009).

Nature tries to promote scientific blogs

“More Researchers should engage the blogosphere” advocates Nature…

“Indeed, researchers would do well to blog more than they do. The experience of journals such as Cell and PLoS ONE, which allow people to comment on papers online, suggests that researchers are very reluctant to engage in such forums. But the blogosphere tends to be less inhibited, and technical discussions there seem likely to increase.”

It’s good to blog! Editorial. Nature,  457, 1058 (26 February 2009) | doi:10.1038/4571058a; Published online 25 February 2009. Online:
http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v457/n7233/full/4571058a.html