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Tuesday, September 25, 2012

Entire Field of Particle Physics Is Set to Switch to Open-Access Publishing

A consortium has brokered an agreement with 12 journals to ensure that nearly all particle physics articles are made immediately free on journal Web sites

By Richard Van Noorden and Nature magazine

particle physics, open access, Sponsoring Consortium for Open Access Publishing in Particle Physics Freeview: Experimental results from high-energy physics, such as this fireball of quarks and gluons, should soon be published in open-access papers. Image: CERN

From?Nature magazine

The entire field of particle physics is set to switch to open-access publishing, a milestone in the push to make research results freely available to readers.

Particle physics is already a paragon of openness, with most papers posted on the preprint server arXiv. But peer-reviewed versions are still published in subscription journals, and publishers and research consortia at facilities such as the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) have previously had to strike piecemeal deals to free up a few hundred articles.

After six years of negotiation, the Sponsoring Consortium for Open Access Publishing in Particle Physics (SCOAP³) is now close to ensuring that nearly all particle-physics articles ? about 7,000 publications last year ? are made immediately free on journal websites. Upfront payments from libraries will fund the access.

So that individual research groups do not need to arrange open publication of their work, the consortium has negotiated contracts with 12?journals (see ?Particles on tap?) that would make 90% of high-energy-physics papers published from 2014 onwards free to read, says Salvatore Mele, who leads the project from CERN, Europe?s high-energy physics laboratory near Geneva, Switzerland, and home of the LHC. According to details announced on 21 September, six of the journals will switch their business models entirely from subscription to open access. It is ?the most systematic attempt to convert all the journals in a given field to open access?, says Peter Suber, a philosopher at Earlham College in Richmond, Indiana, and a proponent of open access.

The consortium invited journals to bid for three-year open-access publishing contracts, and ranked them by an undisclosed algorithm that weighed their fees against their impact factors and the licences and delivery formats they offer. Under the deal, the journals will receive an average of ?1,200 (US$1,550) per paper. Physical Review D, the journal that publishes most papers in the field, negotiated a fee of US$1,900 per article ?on the principle that we should maintain our revenue?, says Joe Serene, treasurer and publisher at the American Physical Society, which owns the journal. But the society?s prestigious Physical Review Letters missed out because its bid was too high, says Serene (the journal currently charges authors $2,700 for individual open-access articles). CERN and SCOAP³will continue to negotiate individual open-access agreements with journals not included in the deal, and more could join when the contract is renegotiated in 2016.

Mele says that the goal of SCOAP³ is to switch the discipline?s journals to open access without researchers noticing any effect on their grant funding or on the way they publish papers. The consortium will pay the contracts from an annual budget of ?10 million, which is funded not by authors or research grants, but by pledges from more than a thousand libraries, funding agencies and research consortia across the world. In effect, existing journal subscription fees are being repurposed to provide the open-access funds.

Before any contracts can be signed, however, publishers must reduce the price of their subscription packages to offset the income from SCOAP³ ? a complex calculation to ensure that libraries don?t pay twice for the same content. Then SCOAP³ must collect its pledges ? not a foregone conclusion, as some libraries may be tempted to renege, figuring that their institution won?t lose access to the free papers anyway.

Mele hopes that success could trigger a domino effect in fields such as astronomy and astrophysics. ?I personally believe that once this is demonstrated to work, some variations, fine-tuning and adaptation of the idea will emerge,? he says.

But Serene and others caution that SCOAP³may be hard to replicate. It has unique advantages in that most high-energy-physics papers are published in just a few journals, and that the field can be driven and coordinated by one central organization, CERN.

Suber notes the stark contrast between the quiet brokering of SCOAP³ and the battles playing out over mandates for open-access publication by research funders such as foundations and government agencies (see Nature 486, 302?303; 2012). ?I call it the peaceful revolution,? he says.

This article is reproduced with permission from the magazine Nature. The article was first published on September 24, 2012.

Source: http://rss.sciam.com/click.phdo?i=00592a4021d1939f477d827f31994e02

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Google starts Nexus 7 tablet, content sales in Japan

TOKYO (Reuters) - Google Inc launched its Nexus 7 tablet in Japan, as well as local language movies and books, in what has rapidly become one of its biggest global markets for digital downloads.

Japan is the first country in Asia outside Australia to sell the 16-gigabyte device, which went on sale online Tuesday for 19,800 yen ($250) and will be available in retail stores on October 2. The device is already available in France, Germany, Spain, Canada, the UK and the United States, according to Google.

Japan has rapidly embraced the smartphone, with devices running Google's Android operating system tripling in the past year, according to Google. Google said that Japan now ranks third in terms of downloaded applications from its Play store.

Google makes most of its money from advertising and with the rise of mobile users, is seeing increasing traffic to its YouTube video website. In Japan and South Korea, more than half of YouTube downloads are from mobile devices, some of the highest ratios in the world.

Google's executive chairman, Eric Schmidt, attended the launch and later told a briefing that growth in the smartphone market would lead to a boom in new startup companies in Japan focused on shopping.

"It is the defining platform and the defining battle in our industry," he said.

While Google has long lagged Yahoo Japan in the domestic search market, in launching the tablet and downloadable content, it has stolen a march on Amazon.com Inc, which has yet to launch its own Kindle in Japan. Local player Rakuten Inc launched its own e-reader device, the Kobo, in July.

The primary challenge has been persuading local content providers to share content. Google said that in addition to the movies for rent it has offered Japanese consumers, it would for the first time sell movies from Sony Corp and Paramount.

In addition, Google will begin providing Japanese-language book titles on Google Play. The Android system allows users to read the same titles and pick up where they lift off on another device.

The global tablet market is dominated by Apple Inc and its iPad, which represented about 70 percent of global sales in the second quarter, and also includes Barnes & Noble Inc's Nook and Samsung Electronic's Galaxy Tab.

($1 = 77.8750 Japanese yen)

(Reporting by James Topham, Kevin Krolicki; Editing by Chang-Ran Kim and Matt Driskill)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/google-starts-selling-nexus-7-japan-250-035954351--sector.html

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Monday, September 24, 2012

?Social Security disability payments are at an all time high? President Obama sa...

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Source: http://www.facebook.com/cnsnewscom/posts/287617931352431

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Sunday, September 23, 2012

Fab Sale Round-Up: GILT Baby & Kids, Nomie Baby and More!

Check out our round-up of this week's best mommy and baby deals.

Source: http://feeds.celebritybabies.com/~r/celebrity-babies/~3/i2GxhXq_4vw/

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Florida's conflict over health-care law divides voters

5:15 a.m. EST, September 23, 2012|By William E. Gibson, Washington Bureau

WASHINGTON ?

? Phyllis Kaufman is a lifelong Democrat in Tamarac who might vote for Republican Mitt Romney in November, partly because she shares his belief that the new health-care law is a costly giveaway to freeloaders.

Sandra Sullivan is a Republican in Orlando who might vote for President Barack Obama, mostly because the new law covers cancer survivors like her, as well as other patients with pre-existing health problems.

Moving in opposite directions, these two Floridians reflect voters' conflicting opinions about health care in this election year. It's an especially important issue in a state where 3.9 million residents are uninsured, 3.5 million are covered by Medicare and 3.2 million depend on Medicaid.

Voters have a clear choice between Obama, who counts the Affordable Care Act as his signature legislative achievement, and Romney, who vows to try to repeal the law starting "on day one" while retaining some of its most popular provisions.

Florida itself embodies that conflict: The state so far has refused any steps to implement the new law yet could be among its biggest beneficiaries.

Florida led a lawsuit by Republican-run states that challenged the constitutionality of the Affordable Care Act, which was ultimately upheld by the Supreme Court. And Gov. Rick Scott has turned down millions of dollars of federal grants to create a state-run "exchange" ? an online shopping site ? to help consumers compare insurance plans and prices.

Scott and some Republicans in the Legislature also plan to block a dramatic expansion of Medicaid coverage under the law ? which the high court allowed states to refuse ? though the federal government would pay all the added costs for three years and more than 90 percent in later years.

Many voters side with Scott's and Romney's opposition for fear that the so-called "Obamacare" will prove costly, despite some projections that it will save money in the long run.

"It's nice Obama wants to give everybody health care, but it's going to cost a fortune. Can we really afford that?" said Mary Palermo, 80, a retired banker in Boca Raton. "He is just spending too much money, money, money."

At the same time, health-care advocates in Florida are fervent promoters of the law, noting that their state would benefit enormously because of its older population and big gaps in insurance coverage.

Florida ranks third nationally in the number of uninsured individuals and families, with more than one in five residents lacking insurance.

The new law emphasizes preventive care and requires everyone to buy insurance, while providing subsidies and tax credits to try to make it affordable. Supporters say that strategy will save money on insurance premiums in the long run.

"Now you have all these people running around with no insurance. So they have no health care, and whatever their problem is gets worse," said Cheryle Davis-Darrell, 54, a former preschool teacher in West Palm Beach. "By the time they go to the emergency room they have to run all these tests. A lot of things that could have been prevented become more expensive, and everyone ends up paying anyway."

Romney and his running mate, Paul Ryan, hope to repeal the law or cut funding, including money for expanded prescription drug coverage for Medicare patients that Obama says saved the average senior $641 through August of this year. Ryan's budget plan ? which passed the U.S. House this year ? also would cut Medicaid by a third and continue the current reliance on emergency-room care to treat people with low incomes.

Romney said recently that he does want to retain provisions in the law that allow adult children up to age 26 to remain on their parents' policies and require insurers to cover patients with pre-existing health problems. He did not say how he would ensure that such coverage is affordable.

The pre-existing provision has proven popular with many voters, including Sullivan, 53, an Orlando Republican and a thyroid-cancer survivor who is weighing how to vote.

"I have heard a bunch of people go Democrat over that health plan, because they've had cancer," she said. "I do think the Affordable Care Act is not about politics, it's about my health. It's about my family. Nobody in this country should have to go bankrupt over medical bills."

But many voters, including some Democrats, say Obama is too quick to give away benefits and spend money.

"Let them get jobs and pay for their own," said Kaufman, 67, a Tamarac Democrat and retired market researcher. "He [Obama] is going to give us this and that for free. A lot of people will take advantage and want a lot of things for nothing."

Romney implied much the same when he told a group of donors in Boca Raton last May that 47 percent of Americans don't pay taxes but depend on the government for health care and other needs.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/orlandosentinel/news/~3/BtUU_D8zkS8/fl-health-care-presidential-issues-20120918,0,71367.story

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