For immediate release - Apologies for cross-posting

The Berkeley Electronic Press announces new agreements with library groups
in the U.K. (NESLi2), Europe, and China

Wednesday, April 2, 2008 -- The Berkeley Electronic Press (bepress) is
pleased to announce several new agreements and consortium contracts with
library groups around the world: in the U.K. (NESLi2), Europe, and China.

These agreements demonstrate the extent to which libraries around the
world continue to welcome the bepress model of high quality journals at
reasonable prices. And, an expanding international readership adds to the
journals' quality. As Gordon Tibbitts, bepress's CEO, commented: "The new
agreements will expand our international readership and draw more authors
and editors to bepress journals, helping to make bepress journals richer
and more valuable for the worldwide community."


Berkeley Electronic Press journals available as The ResearchNow Collection
through NESLi2

The ResearchNow Collection, including all of the 39 bepress journals, is
now available to U.K. institutions through NESLi2, the premier content
licensing initiative from JISC Collections. NESLi2 is universally
acknowledged for selecting journal publishers who meet criteria for
standards, quality, and accessibility. In addition to the journal
articles, it is ResearchNow's ability to present them in conjunction with
the wealth of both peer-reviewed and grey literature from the
institutional and subject-matter repositories hosted by bepress that is
being recognized for its innovation in presenting scholarly content.

The ResearchNow Collection was selected after thorough evaluation by
JISC's Journals Working Group and other committees. As a part of NESLi2,
the Collection will use JISC's pricing bands and the JISC Model License;
as a result, academic libraries in the U.K. can now obtain the collection
on the best possible terms.

For more information, see the NESLi2 site at:
http://www.nesli2.ac.uk/index.htm, and visit ResearchNow at
http://researchnow.bepress.com.


Consortium contracts in China, The Netherlands, and Switzerland

The Berkeley Electronic Press has entered a three-year journal licensing
agreement with the National Science and Technology Library (NSTL), a
nationwide consortium of five hundred Chinese academic institutions,
research institutes, and government departments. The agreement, brokered
by The Charlesworth Group, includes twelve bepress journals in STM fields,
among them Statistical Applications in Genetics and Molecular Biology,
International Journal of Chemical Reactor Engineering, and International
Journal of Nursing Education Scholarship. This contract represents
bepress's first major countrywide agreement in Asia.

We have also concluded a contract for ResearchNow Full Access with
SURFdiensten, the licensing organization for academic libraries in The
Netherlands. As a result, the bepress collection is available to UKB, one
of the oldest consortia in the world
(http://www.ukb.nl/english/index.html). The members of UKB that have opted
to participate as part of the initial agreement include Erasmus University
of Rotterdam, University of Groningen, University of Tilburg, and Free
University Amsterdam.

And, thanks to a recent agreement with the Consortium of Swiss Academic
Libraries (http://lib.consortium.ch/index.php?lang=2), ResearchNow Full
Access is also now available to its members. A number of cantonal
universities will license the collection, including University of
Fribourg, University of Lausanne, University of St. Gallen, and University
of Geneva.

To find out more about bepress journals, visit
http://www.bepress.com/journals. Sign up for our news feed at
http://works.bepress.com/bepress_journals.


About bepress

Founded by professors in 1999, Berkeley Electronic Press is both a
publisher of peer-reviewed electronic journals and a software developer,
having created Digital Commons, the world's leading hosted institutional
repository that powers the University of California's eScholarship
Repository, and those of over fifty other universities, societies, and
organizations. The company produces tools to improve scholarly
communication via innovative and effective means of content production and
dissemination. Bepress has a portfolio of products and services that
reduce the costs of and barriers to access.

----

Robin Beecroft 
European Representative for The Berkeley Electronic Press
17 Nicholas Road, Bristol BS5 0LX, UK. Phone/Fax: +44 (0)117 902 4506

Journals @ bepress – http://works.bepress.com/bepress_journals
ResearchNow @ bepress – http://researchnow.bepress.com

bepress: The New Standard in Scholarly Publishing since 1999