Munich

In response to complaints from researchers about the cost of scientific journals, Germany's largest network of laboratories plans to build a standardized desktop information system for all its scientists.

The Max Planck Society (MPS) has created a Centre for Information Management in Garching, near Munich. Its role will be to enable scientists at its 78 laboratories to publish their work in open-access electronic repositories.

When the centre opens next month, its managers will decide whether the MPS should operate its own server, or get involved in similar initiatives elsewhere. These include E-BioSci, a publication server for the life sciences managed by the European Molecular Biology Laboratory, and PubMed Central, a similar project run by the US National Institutes of Health.

But the centre's main partner will initially be the Los Alamos National Laboratory in the United States, whose e-print archives are the primary means of electronic communication in areas such as high-energy physics, maths and computer science. Richard Luce, head of Los Alamos' 'Library Without Walls' project — which provides digital library resources — is advising the new centre.

There is also concern that German scientists have been generally slow to respond to the information revolution. “No one is forging a clear path,” says Robert Schlögl, scientific director at the Berlin-based Fritz Haber Institute and a member of the MPS steering group on electronic information. “If we let these developments pass us by, we will end up completely dependent on US technologies.”

→ http://www.mpg.de/it/cim/director.html