Blackwell Publishing Revamps Online Delivery Platform

[Gillingham Emily <Emily.Gillingham@oxon.blackwellpublishing.com>]

- Blackwell Publishing Revamps Online Delivery Platform -

January 12th, 2007 - Blackwell Publishing, the world's leading 
society publisher, announced its newly redesigned online delivery 
platform, Blackwell Synergy, went live today: 
http://www.blackwell-synergy.com

Blackwell Synergy enables its users to search 1 million articles 
from over 850 leading scholarly journals across the sciences, 
social sciences, humanities and medicine. The redesign provides 
easier navigation, faster loading times and improved access to 
tools for researchers, as well as meeting the latest 
accessibility standards (ADA section 508 and W3C's WAI-AA).

"The new Synergy is clearer, easier, and faster. I really like 
the new look" said Odile Viseux, Institut National de Recherche 
Agronomique, France.

The new Blackwell Synergy website retains all the essential 
benefits that researchers, librarians and authors value and uses 
the same URL structure. In addition to a new look and feel, 
features have been repositioned to highlight options more clearly 
to users and enable them to make best use of the suite of tools 
available such as most read and most cited articles, citation 
alerts, download to reference manager software, and the ability 
to email the article to a friend.  Full-text online access to the 
journals on Blackwell Synergy is available at thousands of 
institutions worldwide.

"Because Blackwell Synergy hosts such high quality and 
fast-moving research, it is important that access to that 
information is as quick and seamless as possible," said Philippa 
Scoones, Web Publishing Director, Blackwell Publishing.  "The 
improvements to the site were based on user recommendations and 
were designed to make the research process more efficient."

Key site features for researchers include:

- clear search and browse functions and ability to search within 
other databases

- abstracts and sample issues free to all users

- many articles also free after a certain time or as open access 
through the OnlineOpen initiative

- articles available in PDF and full-text HTML

- HTML articles include embedded references, figures and tables

- OnlineEarly and OnlineAccepted articles available online before 
issue publication

- quick links to the most-downloaded and most-cited articles by 
journal

- reference links and citing article links allow users to follow 
the research

- export citations of articles directly into reference management 
software

- receive e-alerts for tables of contents, topic and author 
research alerts, citation alerts and OnlineEarly and 
OnlineAccepted alerts

- all e-alerts available as email or RSS newsfeeds

- personalization features including favorite journals and 
articles, your e-alert settings and more are displayed on your My 
Synergy page

- link to the journal home page to submit an article or find out 
more

- Note for E-Journal Library Administrators -

Please note that we are aware of some initial bugs which have 
emerged since the site went live and which will be resolved as 
soon as possible.  These include an error for users going 
directly to journals from link resolvers and an error in the 
'Show Subscribed Journals' dropdown menu.  We do apologize for 
the inconvenience caused by these bugs and are working to fix 
them quickly.  To overcome the problem with the Subscribed 
Journals listing straight away, you may wish to change your 
setting to 'Show All Journals (A-Z)'.

As this is simply a new design you do not need to make any 
changes to your links or OPACs.  Access rights and existing links 
are unaffected by the change.  Library logos, where you have 
uploaded them to the site, will continue to display on every 
page.  However, with the new site design you may wish to resize 
your library logo to ensure that it continues to look its best. 
The optimum size for institutional logos on the site is 256 x 35 
pixels.  To upload your logo, either in .jpg or .gif file format, 
please log in to the Synergy Administrator Homepage and click on 
the link which says 'Upload your Library's Logo'.

For help with administering your institution's access, please 
contact your usual Blackwell Publishing Account Manager or Sales 
Coordinator, or email customerservices@blackwellpublishing.com

Key features for librarians include COUNTER-compliant usage data, 
IP and Athens access, OpenURL linking, MARC21 records and Z39.50 
compliancy.

To see a list of the features of Blackwell Synergy and to view an 
online demo, visit: 
http://www.blackwellpublishing.com/librarians/journal_information.asp

- About Blackwell Synergy -

The first version of Blackwell Synergy went live in 1999 hosting 
Blackwell Science's STM journals. In 2002 the site was relaunched 
with a new design and in 2003 the STM journals were joined by 
social science and humanities titles following the merger of 
Blackwell Science and Blackwell Publishers. The journals program 
has continued to grow with 49 titles added for 2007. Blackwell 
Synergy is powered by Atypon's e-publishing software platform, 
Literatum (http://www.atypon.com). Blackwell Publishing worked 
with web design agency DesignUK (http://www.designuk.com) to 
provide the fresh new look for the site after working together on 
the redesign of BlackwellPublishing.com early in 2006.

The new design has been developed with feedback from researchers 
and librarians who have provided input during the development and 
testing phases.  Please fill in the Feedback form on the 
Blackwell Synergy website to let us know what you think: 
http://www.blackwell-synergy.com

- About Blackwell Publishing -

Blackwell Publishing is the world's leading publisher for 
societies, partnering with 665 academic and professional 
societies. Blackwell publishes over 800 journals and, to date has 
published more than 6,000 books, across a wide range of academic, 
medical, and professional subjects. The company has more than 
1000 staff members in offices in the US, UK, Australia, China, 
Denmark, Singapore, Germany, and Japan. Blackwell's mission as an 
expert publisher is to create long-term partnerships with clients 
to enhance learning, disseminate research, and improve the 
quality of professional practice. It is in the process of merging 
with John Wiley & Sons, Inc.'s Scientific, Technical, and Medical 
business.  The acquisition by Wiley should be completed in early 
February. For more information about Blackwell Publishing, please 
visit http://www.blackwellpublishing.com or 
http://www.blackwell-synergy.com

- Media Contacts -

Emily Gillingham
Blackwell Publishing, Oxford
Tel: +44 (0)1865 476425
emily.gillingham@oxon.blackwellpublishing.com

Judith Mendoza
Blackwell Publishing, Boston
Tel: 1-781-388-8334
jmendoza@bos.blackwellpublishing.com

Alina Boey
Blackwell Publishing, Melbourne
Tel: +61 3 8359 1046
alina.boey@asia.blackwellpublishing.com