bepress announces new agreements with library groups in the U.K. (NESLi2), Europe, and China

["Irene Perciali" <iperciali@bepress.com>]

For immediate release

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

Monday, March 31, 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.

http://www.bepress.com

Irene Perciali, Ph.D.
Director, Journals
The Berkeley Electronic Press
Phone: (510) 665-1200 Ext. 142
www.bepress.com/journals

bepress: The New Standard in Scholarly Publishing since 1999