National Academies Press - free downloads

As of June 2, 2011, all PDF versions of books published by the National Academies Press (NAP) will be downloadable free of charge to anyone. This includes our current catalog of more than 4,000 books plus future reports published by NAP.*

Free access to our online content supports the mission of NAP--publisher for the National Academy of Sciences, National Academy of Engineering, Institute of Medicine, and National Research Council--to improve government decision making and public policy, increase public education and understanding, and promote the acquisition and dissemination of knowledge in matters involving science, engineering, technology, and health. In 1994, we began offering free content online. Before today's announcement, all PDFs were free to download in developing countries, and 65 percent of them were available for free to any user.

Like no other organization, the National Academies can enlist the nation's foremost scientists, engineers, health professionals, and other experts to address the scientific and technical aspects of society's most pressing problems through the authoritative and independent reports published by NAP. We invite you to sign up for MyNAP --a new way for us to deliver free downloads of this content to loyal subscribers like you, to offer you customized communications, and to reward you with exclusive offers and discounts on our printed books.

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Barbara Kline Pope
Executive Director for Communications and The National Academies Press
*There are a small number of reports that never had PDF files and, therefore, are not available for download. In addition, part of the "Nutrient Requirements of Domestic Animals" series is not available in PDF. Future titles in this series will also not have PDFs associated with them.

100,000th Paper Marks Significant Milestone for AIP Conference Proceedings Series

AIP Publishing, a division of the American Institute of Physics (AIP) (www.aip.org), announces the publication of the 100,000th paper in its AIP Conference Proceedings series, a watershed event in the program's rich history. The proceedings volume that contains the 100,000th article is The IX International Conference on Quark Confinement and the Hadron Spectrum - QCHS-IX. The conference was held in Madrid, Spain on 30 August - 3 September 2010. Along with this milestone comes the appointment of a new leadership team to oversee the program's future activities.

"AIP's Conference Proceedings series has experienced enormous growth in the past decade–more than doubling the number of volumes it publishes yearly," said Darrell Gunter, chief commercial officer at AIP. "The result of this fantastic growth is the publication now of our 100,000th paper, which we consider a testament to the enduring value of this prestigious series, as well as to its continued relevance for today's researchers."

Headed by Dr. Alison Waldron, the new acquisitions editor for AIP Conference Proceedings, the program will focus on strategic development and continuing to serve the research community as we begin publication of the next 100,000 papers. Waldron, who earned a Ph.D. in theoretical physics from King's College, University of London, previously held the position of product manager at AIP, where she oversaw the development of six of AIP's journals, covering a broad range of topics in the physical sciences. In her new role, she will be responsible for development of the AIP Conference Proceedings program and enhancing its service to the research community.

"Today's scientific research is increasingly interdisciplinary, making conferences an important venue for collaboration and networking," said Waldron. "With more and more researchers from different fields using conferences as a forum to cross pollinate their ideas, the resulting proceedings volumes will play a critical role in disseminating their work to the broader scientific community."

AIP Conference Proceedings publishes papers from meetings of the world's most prestigious scholarly societies, delivering in-depth coverage of leading-edge research that is often unavailable anywhere else. Published online rapidly after contributors present their findings, volumes offer the scientific community its first access to breakthrough results. The full backfile of proceedings volumes is available online through AIP's Scitation platform (scitation.aip.org)—more than 1,330 proceedings volumes in all, starting with Volume 1 (1970).

About American Institute of Physics
The American Institute of Physics is an organization of 10 physical sciences societies representing more than 135,000 scientists, engineers, and educators and is one of the largest publishers of scientific information in physics. AIP also delivers valuable resources and expertise in education and student services, science communication, government relations, career services for science and engineering professionals, statistical research, industrial outreach, and the history of physics and other sciences. Offering publishing solutions for scientific societies and organizations in science and engineering, AIP pursues innovation in electronic publishing of scholarly journals. AIP publishes 13 journals (journals.aip.org), two magazines—including its flagship publication, Physics Today—and the AIP Conference Proceedings series (proceedings.aip.org). Scitation, AIP's online publishing platform, hosts 1.6 million articles from 190 scholarly journals, proceedings, and eBooks of learned society publishers. AIP also provides the international physical science community with UniPHY, the first literature-based social and professional networking site; it features pre-populated profiles of more than 300,000 scientists and enables collaboration among researchers worldwide.

AIP and NIST Make Semiconductor Research Freely Available Online

AIP Publishing, a division of the American Institute of Physics (AIP) (www.aip.org), announces that through an agreement with the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), proceedings papers from the entire International Conference on Frontiers of Characterization and Metrology for Nanoelectronics (formerly Characterization and Metrology for ULSI Technology) series are now freely available from both organizations' websites.

"Publishing papers from these NIST conferences is the most effective way to disseminate the breakthroughs in semiconductor research presented at these meetings. To maximize the reach of these papers, we are now offering them to the public free of charge," said John Haynes, AIP vice president, publishing. "We hope that our decision will help to bring this vital information to the desktops of researchers worldwide and speed the rate of innovation in semiconductor technology."

David Seiler, chief of NIST's Semiconductor Electronics Division, characterizes this agreement to make the proceedings freely available as a major breakthrough, as it will help professionals in the fast-paced semiconductor industry get up to speed on unfamiliar measurement and characterization issues. In addition, they can learn about new techniques and equipment being introduced to characterize semiconductors.

"These collected proceedings represent research and overviews of critical topics collected from worldwide experts in the field of semiconductor characterization and metrology," says Seiler. "As there is frequent turnover in the industry, there is constant need for training and retraining of employees. Improved access to this background will ease that process dramatically."

Proceedings volumes are available in PDF format, up to and including the 2009 conference, on AIP's website at http://proceedings.aip.org/semiconductor_metrology, and on NIST's website at http://www.nist.gov/pml/semiconductor/conference/archives.cfm.

About AIP
The American Institute of Physics is an organization of 10 physical sciences societies representing more than 135,000 scientists, engineers, and educators and is one of the largest publishers of scientific information in physics. AIP also delivers valuable resources and expertise in education and student services, science communication, government relations, career services for science and engineering professionals, statistical research, industrial outreach, and the history of physics and other sciences. Offering publishing solutions for scientific societies and organizations in science and engineering, AIP pursues innovation in electronic publishing of scholarly journals. AIP publishes 13 journals, two magazines—including its flagship publication, Physics Today—and the AIP Conference Proceedings series. Scitation, AIP's online publishing platform, hosts 1.6 million articles from 190 scholarly journals, proceedings, and eBooks of learned society publishers. AIP also provides the international physical science community with UniPHY, the first literature-based social and professional networking site; it features pre-populated profiles of more than 300,000 scientists and enables collaboration among researchers worldwide.

About NIST
Founded in 1901, NIST is a non-regulatory federal agency within the U.S. Department of Commerce. NIST's (www.nist.gov) mission is to promote U.S. innovation and industrial competitiveness by advancing measurement science, standards, and technology in ways that enhance economic security and improve our quality of life.

North American Transportation Statistics

 

North American Transportation Statistics

The need for North American Transportation Statistics reflects the increase in global economic growth and greater integration of trade, finance and manufacturing in recent decades. Transportation is vital in the changing global economy, linking people and places, businesses and consumers, facilitating trade and tourism, and contributing to economic development. The North American experience mirrors these worldwide trends. Reduced trade barriers and increased personal mobility have created a heightened need for information on transportation infrastructure and services among Canada, the United States, and Mexico. While the positive contributions of transportation to the national economies and to the daily life of people everywhere are important, transportation also has adverse impacts. Transportation accidents are a major cause of death and injury every year in North America. Transportation consumes significant amounts of energy, mainly derived from petroleum and also contributes to environmental problems.

The On-Line Database provides for the first time a central web based source for North American transportation statistics for all three countries on common subjects. The working group members evaluate each table for data comparability and note all definitional differences among the three countries.  Accurate data, comparable across modes and countries, is important to understand changes in dynamic transportation markets; to evaluate transportation benefits and impacts; and to support critical decision-making in the public and private sectors.