Current financial conditions are causing businesses worldwide to reconsider and restructure their strategies. At a time when other industries are pulling back on investment spending, it is crucial that we continue to invest in science, health and research and that the science publishing industry explores new ways to support health practitioners and the academic and scientific community.

In this issue, we focus on the continuity of investment. We hear from experts about wise publishing investments in the digital age and the direct relationship between e-journal expenditure and usage. We explore CiteAlert, a new citation-reporting tool that can help increase collaboration, and show how Elsevier’s investment in information philanthropy is paying off for editors, authors and publishers alike. Lastly, we reveal the results of our EU Readership Survey, and hope to hear even more from you, our readers, in the future. I hope you enjoy this new issue, and I look forward to your comments. 

Christy Collins
Academic Relations Manager

Scientific Investment: Balancing optimism and pragmatism
The recent economic downturn has caused disruption for many industries. But despite the frightening financial situation, experts are saying investments in science remain vital to financial recovery. Paul Evans, Senior Vice President of Publishing and Research Relations at Elsevier, explains.

SUPPORTING EDITORS

The true value of e-journals
What is the specific relationship between readership, expenditure and research outcomes? A preliminary report into e-journal usage at UK universities aims to find out.

Mapping STM investments in the digital age
The introduction of electronic and online tools has helped to simplify and accelerate almost every step of the publishing process. Ian Russell, CEO of the Association of Learned and Professional Society Publishers, explains why continued investment is needed for scholarship to get the maximum benefit from these tools.

SUPPORTING AUTHORS

CiteAlert: collaboration through citation reporting
CiteAlert is a unique service that automatically generates citation notifications and sends them – free of charge – to the authors who have been cited, as long as the cited journal is one of the 16,450 that have been indexed by Scopus.

The science of serendipity
With the recent boom in online information, are search engines removing serendipitous moments from the information discovery and research process? We spoke to Kevin Cohn, Director of Product Management for Atypon, about ways to ensure the serendipity of information is not lost to the Internet ether.

STRATEGIES & POLICIES

Bridging the information (philanthropy) gap
Research4Life gives developing countries free or low-cost access to scientific literature. These programs are helping to enhance the work of scientists in some of the world’s most underdeveloped nations, allowing them to introduce innovations that have a real impact on people’s lives.

Forum results: Results of the EU Readership Survey
We’ve heard from a small portion of our readers about ways in which Editors’ Update is already helping, and additional ways it can be improved. The results of our first official Readership Survey have formed the basis for additional discussion and exploration.