In their very own words: authors and scholarly journal publishing

This paper presents the results of a major investigation by questionnaire of author attitudes towards scholarly publishing, which was funded by the Publisher's Association. Altogether, the views of nearly 4,000 authors were obtained and this paper concerns just those thousand or so authors who accepted the invitation to write freely about their own personal feelings and experiences. Using QSR N6 textual analysis software, their comments were processed and themes extracted. While the rest of the questionnaire, which was formed of closed‐question, tick‐box type questions, clearly must have had some impact on their thinking, the authors had considerable latitude in regard to what they could say. The paper provides a unique opportunity to hear their views directly. The pressing topics turned out to be (in rough order of concern): the peer‐review system, copyright, journal prices, alternative business models for journal publishing, big deals, Elsevier, electronic publishing and digital journals.     

The nature of geospatial information and security

Somewhere in the vicinity of 80 percent of all governmental information has some “geographic” element, and the vast majority is called “geospatial” because of the nature of describing spatial phenomena of the earth. Geospatial information has been increasing steadily in popularity and use since the advent of geographic information systems in the 1960s. From the early 1990s until the present, research libraries have seen an increase in the availability of geospatial information, and they have also seen a substantial change in the services provided to support the needs of clients seeking that information. However, recent events have altered the “access landscape.” September 11, 2001, and subsequent events, caused many policy shifts to take place as to how, or whether, access to governmental geospatial information should be granted. This paper explores those policy developments with the goal of prognosticating on the future of access to governmental geospatial information.     

The system of intellectual support for making decisions by planning and training

The paper is devoted to the problem of the qualitative training of management specialists. New methods and instruments permitting the quality of accepted decisions to be heightened are described. It is suggested to use an SISDM containing the functions of the system as an instrument for planning decisions and training in decision making with the use of computerized methods for the active teaching of the method for the analysis of concrete situations and management games.     

Analysis of publications of the pilot issue of the data collection of the All-Russia Institute of Scientific and Technical Information of the Russian Academy of Sciences “Industry of Nanosystems and Nanomaterials”

The pilot issue of the data collection of the All-Russian Institute of Scientific and Technical Information of the Russian Academy of Sciences “Industry of Nanosystems and Nanomaterials” gives an approximate view of the state of this field of science at the beginning of 2007. The topics of articles in the pilot issue are analyzed. The directions of development of nanotechnologies are shown. The basic types of nanomaterials, the methods of their production, and their properties and applications are given.