Elsevier

Remember the Elsevier boycott by academics I mentioned on Febuary 1? Even though the publisher has backed down, it continues to complain about “inflexible [government] mandates” that could “undermine the peer-reviewed journals that serve an essential purpose in the research community.”

Mike Masnick writes: That’s pretty ridiculous actually. None of these mandates "undermine" these journals in any way — unless you consider their insane set up (free writing, free editing, full copyright ownership, and subscriptions that cost tens of thousands of dollars) some sort of divine right.

To publish or not to publish? That is the question medical and science academics are asking after 6,000 of their colleagues boycotted one of the world's largest publishers. The "Cost of Knowledge" campaign was started by an international group of researchers in January after a blog post by Cambridge University math professor Timothy Gowers. He criticized the Dutch-based publisher Elsevier for charging "very high prices" for access to its articles, using a "ruthless" approach to negotiations with academic libraries and supporting legislation that could hamper the move to more open access to published research.

In a concerted action, a global group of publishers and publishers' associations achieved an important success in the fight against copyright piracy on the Internet. Overcoming significant technical and legal obstacles, the publishers were able to locate the alleged operators of two high-traffic rogue Web sites, the sharehoster service, www.ifile.it, and the link library, www.library.nu, and to serve judicial cease-and-desist orders to them. These sites have now shut down.

Academics have called for a boycott of publisher Elsevier, saying it is involved in "the exploitation of a monopoly position" in overcharging for its online journals. But the publisher has said they have got their facts wrong and asked them to reconsider.

Elsevier, a world-leading provider of scientific, technical and medical information products and services, today announced the availability of the Lipid Structures (beta) app on SciVerse Applications. The app was developed in collaboration with LIPID MAPS, a multi-institutional consortium aimed at increasing understanding of lipid metabolism, and the SciVerse Developer Network.

With so many book apps on the market tailored for kids, Book Business wanted to get to the heart of some more adult apps.

The ASHP today announced the launch of a new online platform for making available its popular educational titles in eBook format.

Ingram Content Group Inc. today announced that Vital Source has grown its e-textbook offering with the acquisition of VPG Integrated Media.

E-books provide a great opportunity for providing the visually and otherwise impaired with access to books which they would otherwise not have access.

Sesame Workshop, the non-profit organization that produces Sesame Street, and Impelsys today announced the launch of the Sesame Street eBookstore iPad app.