Berkeley, CA, April 13, 2007 – The Berkeley Electronic Press ("bepress") is very pleased to announce that ResearchNow Full Access, its collection of 36 peer-reviewed electronic journals and "grey literature" from a variety of scholarly sources, has been selected by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) (German Research Foundation) for a nationwide license. The bepress collection was selected at the initiative of the German National Library of Economics, and will contribute to the DFG's efforts to make premier-quality digital publications available to all German libraries and German citizens.
The DFG's criteria for selecting bepress reflect what is already at the heart of bepress's mission: high-quality and forward-facing scholarly content, a reliable and innovative technical format, an unmatched price-to-quality ratio, and extensive coverage of a variety of technical and non-technical fields. The Berkeley Electronic Press also shares with the DFG a commitment to provide cutting-edge scholarly work to all scholars, students, and citizens at large, as reflected in bepress's library-friendly pricing and its scholar-friendly guest access policy.
The Berkeley Electronic Press is the youngest publisher selected to work with the DFG, joining Elsevier, Wiley, Springer, and the Oxford University Press and others in serving its complete electronic content to the German academic community and public.
According to Horst Thomsen, Director of the German National Library of Economics, "The German National Library of Economics has prepared the purchase of bepress journals for the DFG. As a National Library with one of the largest collections of economic literature worldwide, we are pleased to help provide electronic content on a broad base within Germany. With the bepress journals, we can offer high quality journals of relevance for the research community."
The license is far-reaching in its scope: it includes access for all public and private German universities, as well as the extensive German State library system. In an important provision unique to this agreement, individual German citizens also qualify for direct access to the collection.
"We are very pleased to work with the DFG to provide such extensive access, not only to members of academic institutions, but to citizens and independent researchers across Germany. We commend the DFG on its forward-thinking approach to supporting scholarly knowledge: allocating resources to purchase resources in this coordinated manner and making them accessible to all citizens," said Aaron Edlin, President and CEO of bepress.
Working with the DFG adds another dimension to bepress's existing consortium customer base in North America, which includes major consortia such as the Ontario Council of Research Libraries (OCUL) and the Council of Prairie and Pacific University Libraries (COPPUL) in Canada, as well as many U.S. consortia such as the California Digital Library, OhioLink, the Florida Center for Library Automation (FCLA), the Greater Western Library Association, and the NorthEast Research Libraries.
About The Berkeley Electronic Press
Founded by academics in 1999, The Berkeley Electronic Press ("bepress") is both a publisher of peer-reviewed electronic journals and a software developer, having created the institutional repository platform that powers Digital Commons as well as the University of California's eScholarship Repository. 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 reduces the costs of and barriers to access.
For additional information on bepress, please see: www.bepress.com.
About the German Research Foundation (DFG)
The DFG is the central public funding organization responsible for promoting research in Germany. Its activities focus on funding research projects carried out by scientists and academics working at universities or research institutes and on selecting the best projects in a process of fair and transparent competition. The work of the DFG serves all branches of science and the humanities to reflect its role as the self-governing organisation of German science and research. Its legal status is that of an association under private law. DFG membership is made up of German universities, non-university research institutions, scientific associations as well as the Academies of Science and Humanities. The DFG receives its funding from the federal (Bund) and state (Länder) authorities, which are represented on all decision-making bodies, whereas scientists and academics hold the majority.
For additional information on the German Research Foundation (DGG), please see: http://www.dfg.de/en/.