Terry and others interested in free back content,

Following on Terry's comment about FEBS Letters...

Probably many on this list already know about the 'free back issues' program
that many of the publishers and societies for whom Stanford's HighWire Press
works already participate in.   But I don't think it is entirely
self-promotion for me to toot the horn for these publishers/journals,
especially since they are making something accessible for free.  Stanford and
the journals try to get the word out about this program in any affordable way
we can.

Of the 300+ journals HighWire works with, there are 114 journals that release
back content free after some delay -- ranging from six months to two years,
most at around a year -- and eleven sites that are totally free (such as the
BMJ and the J Clin. Invest.).  Nearly 400,000 full-text items are free under
this program and that grows by 5,000-10,000 articles/month; much of it is life
sciences, but not all (e.g., Science making its back research content free
after a year; PNAS making its back content available after six months).

The list of journals participating in this program is at
        http://highwire.stanford.edu/lists/freeart.dtl

For those interested in how things get rolling: the program started five years
ago, in 1997, when the Journal of Biological Chemistry, Proceedings of the
National Academy of Sciences, and Rockefeller University Press -- three
pretty different publishers! -- all agreed that releasing older content would
be an excellent way to support educational uses of research materials.  The
program grew rapidly from there.  I email updates as new journals participate;
if anyone would like to be added to that email list, please reply to me.

One of the recent trends is that a good number of societies are doing
retrospective conversion projects to place more full-text back content online
(usually 10-20 years).  And so far they have made this content accessible
through free back issues as well.  The Journal of Biological Chemistry, and The
Journal of Immunology have just about completed their retrospective projects,
and another two dozen journals HighWire works with are in various stages of
planning and running similar projects.

I know there are several other societies and publishers beyond the above
HighWire-specific list who make back content free.   I'd better not try and
toot *their* horn, because I'd undoubtedly get some of the details wrong.

John

PS: Since the FEB Letters occasioned Terry's interest, I should mention that
The European Journal of Biochemistry, the "other" FEBS journal, which HighWire
hosts for FEBS, began releasing back content after a year, starting last
August.   But I will admit it doesn't go back to 1968 in full text!


On Thu, 21 Feb 2002 13:58:30 -0000 Terry Bucknell <[log in to unmask]>
wrote:

> Apologies for cross-posting.
>
> I've just been told by Elsevier that the backfiles of FEBS Letters (back to
> Vol. 1 in 1968) are available for free on ScienceDirect:
>
> http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/journal/00145793
>
> The reason is that FEBS Letters is a society journal, and FEBS decided to
> make the full text and abstracts available for free for everybody.
>
> Any other societies reading this? Hint, hint!
>
>
> Terry Bucknell
> Electronic Resources Manager
> Harold Cohen Library
> University of Liverpool
> PO Box 123 Liverpool L69 3DA
>
> Tel: +44 (0)151 794 5408  Fax: +44 (0)151 794 5417
> Email: [log in to unmask]

----------------------
John Sack, Director
           HighWire Press, Stanford University
           Phone: 650-723-0192; fax: 650-725-9335
           http://highwire/stanford.edu/~sack
           [log in to unmask]