For Immediate Release
January 10, 2005
For more information, contact:
Alison Buckholtz, SPARC, alison@arl.org
Susan Tackett, OSTI, tacketts@osti.gov
DOE/OSTI's E-PRINT NETWORK SELECTED AS SPARC
PARTNER
Provides Research Communications and
Full-Text Searching of Science Websites and Databases
Washington, DC -SPARC (the Scholarly Publishing and Academic
Resources Coalition) today announced that the E-print Network, a free service of
the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Office of Scientific and Technical
Information (OSTI), has been chosen as a SPARC Scientific Communities
partner. The selection recognizes the contribution of the E-print Network
to expanded availability and use of open-access scientific and technical
research on the Internet.
The E-print Network (www.osti.gov/eprints)
reveals a wealth of valuable research mainly in physics but also in chemistry,
biology and life sciences, materials science, nuclear sciences and engineering,
energy research, computer and information technologies, and other
disciplines. The E-print Network utilizes a unique deep Web search
capability that combines full-text searching through PDF documents residing on
e-print Web sites with a distributed search across e-print databases. The
web search pulls to the desktop documents that are often hard to find.
Users of the E-print Network, which was first launched as
PrePRINT Network in January 2000, can perform full-text searches on over 16,000
Web sites and in 39 major databases of e-prints from around the world. All
this content - close to 20 million pages of full text - is available to users at
no charge. The E-print Network also offers a weekly alert service that
provides patrons notification of new documents, as well as links to 2,300
scientific societies.
"The E-print Network takes all these isolated islands of
information and pulls them into a searchable whole," said Dr. Walter
Warnick, director of OSTI. "The result is enhanced search, expanded
audience, ease of scientific collaboration, and advancement of science. We
are pleased to become a partner in SPARC's endeavor to encourage scholarly
communication and to disseminate research."
"The E-print Network is a pioneer in harnessing open-access
research across the Internet," said Rick Johnson, director of SPARC.
"Besides contributing to more efficient information sharing and accelerated
discovery, the E-print Network gives us an eye-opening glimpse of the vast
extent of open archiving today."
The resources available via the E-print Network are located on a
wide range of sources residing at academic institutions, government research
laboratories, scientific societies, private research organizations, and the Web
sites of individual scientists and researchers. The Network facilitates
access to these resources as well as communications between researchers.
When a document is displayed or downloaded, the patron actually downloads the
e-print directly from the Web site where the document resides. The
document is not stored or maintained by the E-print Network. From the
author Web site, the user can rapidly access supporting documents, background
material and contact information.
E-prints are scientific or technical documents circulated
electronically to facilitate peer exchange and scientific advancement. To
find out how to add e-prints to the E-print Network, contact Dr. Dennis Traylor
at traylord@osti.gov , at phone
865-576-3327, or by mail at Office of Scientific and Technical Information, U.S.
Department of Energy, P.O. Box 62, Oak Ridge, TN 37831. Having
e-prints in the network increases awareness of research and promotes the
dissemination of information to a broader audience.
About OSTI
OSTI's mission is to advance science and sustain technological creativity by
making R&D findings available and useful to DOE researchers and the American
people. OSTI has been delivering science information since 1947.
With its suite of Web tools (www.osti.gov),
OSTI has proved to be a leader in government science search.
About SPARC
SPARC and SPARC Europe are alliances of academic and research libraries working
to unleash the potential of the Internet to enhance scholarly
communication. SPARC partnerships, advocacy, and educational activities
encourage expanded dissemination of research and reduced financial pressure on
libraries. Worldwide membership currently includes over 300 institutions
and organizations. SPARC is located on the web at <www.arl.org/sparc>.
SPARC Europe is at <www.sparceurope.org>.
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