The Royal Society partners with HighWire Press

[Bonnie Zavon <bzavon@stanford.edu>]

For Immediate Release
February 6, 2008

THE ROYAL SOCIETY CHOOSES HIGHWIRE AS ITS NEW ONLINE HOST

Stanford, CA USA and London UK

HighWire Press and the Royal Society are pleased to announce a 
new partnership in the provision of the independent scientific 
academy's publications online.  All content of the Society's 
eight periodicals, some dating back as early as 1665, will be 
live on HighWire's premier ePublishing platform beginning in 2009 
as the Royal Society joins HighWire's respected community of 
scholarly publishers.

The publishing division of the Royal Society has carefully 
planned the best way to achieve its vision for its international, 
peer-reviewed journals and is excited to make this move well in 
advance of the Society's upcoming 350-year anniversary in 2010.

"HighWire has an excellent reputation and a well-designed and 
very well-developed platform," said Charles Lusty, Senior 
Manager, Publishing Operations at the Royal Society. "Their high 
competence, forward thinking, and deep understanding of our 
publishing business won us over in selecting an online host. 
HighWire's new platform offers great potential for growth which 
is essential for us to stay at the cutting edge of scholarly 
communications."

The Royal Society will launch on HighWire's next generation 
platform, H2O.  HighWire built H2O to enable a Publishing 2.0 
site.  This new XML-based electronic publishing environment makes 
use of standards beyond just the input and display to include all 
layers of the technology.  The platform infrastructure is highly 
permeable, flexible and modular so that it can interact easily 
with many other systems and Web 2.0 applications, and enabling 
HighWire's publishers to transform a traditional website into a 
truly dynamic marketing web presence.

"The all-XML standard that HighWire has created with its H2O 
platform is exciting news, reported Matthew Llewellin, Production 
Manager at the Royal Society.  "It meets all our hopes for the 
future of the publishing service as a whole. With this move to 
HighWire's premier platform, we will help ensure that the Royal 
Society remains centre stage of scientific discovery.  We think 
this partnership will be of immense benefit to our readers and 
authors."

"HighWire is honored to work with The Royal Society and its 
venerable collection of seminal works from authors such as 
Michael Faraday, Isaac Newton, and Stephen Hawking," said John 
Sack, Director of Stanford's HighWire Press. "The prestigious 
community of HighWire-hosted publishers will be further enriched 
by this new partnership."  Added Sack, "It is exciting to be part 
of the research workflow from students to Laureates who use this 
literature.  We have designed H2O to facilitate the cycle of 
discovery and discussion."

# # #


About the Royal Society

The Royal Society, the national academy of science of the UK and 
the Commonwealth, is at the cutting edge of scientific progress. 
Founded in 1660, the Royal Society is dedicated to promoting 
excellence in science. The Society plays an influential role in 
national and international science policy and supports 
developments in science, engineering, and technology in a wide 
range of ways.

The Royal Society publishes seven peer-reviewed journals and one 
annual: Biology Letters (short, high-quality letters from across 
the biological sciences), Journal of the Royal Society Interface 
(cross-disciplinary journal highlighting research at the 
interface between the physical and life sciences), Notes and 
Records (articles in the history of science), Philosophical 
Transactions A (key topics across the physical sciences, dating 
back to 1665), Philosophical Transactions B (key topics across 
the life sciences, dating back to 1665), Proceedings A (research 
in the physical sciences), Proceedings B (research in the life 
sciences). Biographical Memoirs,published annuall, features 
memoirs of important names in science.

More information can be found at: http://royalsociety.org/
Royal Society's Press Officer Clare Kingston (+44 20 7451 2508).

About HighWire Press

HighWire Press, a division of the Stanford University Libraries, 
provides online site development and hosting solutions to the 
scholarly publishing community. HighWire produces the definitive 
online versions of high-impact, peer-reviewed journals and other 
scholarly content in many disciplines. Since 1995, HighWire has 
partnered with influential societies, university presses and 
other publishers to create a vast database of the finest, fully 
searchable research, medical and social science literature 
available on the Internet. The HighWire community shares ideas 
and innovations in publishing through regular meetings, 
discussion forum and through the service of its unique blend of 
highly qualified staff.  http://highwire.stanford.edu


Contact:
Bonnie Zavon
Public Relations Coordinator
HighWire Press-Stanford University
1454 Page Mill Rd. Palo Alto, CA  94304
bzavon@stanford.edu