Science Classic: 1880-1996 -- Academics Throughout Russia Gain Access to the Science Classic Digital Archive

WASHINGTON and MOSCOW, Dec. 22, 2011 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) announces that the Russian Ministry of Education and Science has selected Science Classic, the digital archives of Science (1880–1996), as the first acquisition in a major project to provide national access to scientific archives. Russian students, scientists, and professors can now access 116 years of Science's archive through a local platform provided by the National Electronic Information Consortium (NEICON).

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The Ministry's project, established in Summer 2011 to create a scientific archive within the Russian Federation, will provide 600 non-profit and academic institutes with access to the digital archives. "We are pleased that such a large project is beginning with the acquisition of the Science Classic archive," said Dr. Olga Moskaleva, head of the scientific research department of St. Petersburg State University. "This journal is always in demand and we are happy to have access to the full content since 1880." Through the NEICON Consortium, Russian researchers and academics receive access to both Science Online (1997–current) and Science Classic (1880–1996), the complete catalogue of Science content.

"Students, scientists and educators in Russia will now have immediate digital access to science news and research from our weekly journal," said Dr. Bruce Alberts, Science's editor-in-chief. "I look forward to further contributions from Russia's scientific community to Science."

Science Classic, maintained and preserved by AAAS, delivers more than a century's worth of full-text news articles, commentary, reviews, perspectives, and peer-reviewed research papers from the annals of the world's largest general science journal. With every issue from 1880 to 1996 now available, Science Classic allows readers to access the PDF version of the full-text article, plus bibliographic citations, abstracts, and references. To view the complete digital archive, please visit ScienceOnline.org/archive.

NEICON Consortia
The not-for-profit National Electronic Information Consortium is one of the biggest Russian library consortia. It was created and given juridical registration in 2002 and since that time has been continuously growing. Today, NEICON comprises more than 730 Russian institutions all over the country that represent universities, research institutions, and public libraries. Since 2005, NEICON has been partially funded by the Ministry of Education and Science of the Russian Federation. It provides access to hundreds of databases belonging to dozens of Russian and foreign publishers and information owners.

About AAAS
The American Association for the Advancement of Science is the world's largest general scientific society and publisher of the journals Science (ScienceOnline.org), Science Signaling (ScienceSignaling.org), and Science Translational Medicine (ScienceTranslationalMedicine.org). AAAS (AAAS.org) was founded in 1848 and serves 262 affiliated societies and academies of science, reaching 10 million individuals. Science has the largest paid circulation of any peer-reviewed general science journal in the world, with an estimated total readership of 1 million. The non-profit AAAS is open to all and fulfills its mission to "advance science and serve society" through initiatives in science policy, international programs, science education, and more. For the latest research news, log onto EurekAlert!, the premier science news website, a service of AAAS.

SOURCE AAAS