Living Reviews in Relativity

10th anniversary for pioneering project in electronic publishing

January 31, 2008

The electronic journal Living Reviews in Relativity, which was developed at the Max Planck Institute for Gravitational Physics (Albert Einstein Institute), went online ten years ago, on January 26th 1998. Living Reviews in Relativity publishes freely accessible review articles on the Internet. These articles are being regularly updated by their authors (hence the word 'living' in the journal's name) to keep readers continually informed of the latest scientific developments in the various subject fields. 2,500 full text downloads per month, more than 2,500 citations in peer reviewed journals and much positive feedback from its readers, are witness to the enormous success the journal enjoys.

“The founders set out with the goal for the journal to become one of the first places a scientist looks for information about work in the fields of gravitational physics. And we are delighted to have reached the goal of providing this service,” Prof. Dr. Bernard Schutz sums up the first ten years of the journal. The director of the Albert Einstein Institute, Initiator and Editor-in-Chief of Living Reviews in Relativity adds, “the successful adaptation of the concept in other scientific fields is an additional confirmation of our idea.”

On the occasion of the anniversary the AEI is organizing a lecture series with talks by international scientists from the field of relativity, to take place throughout the year. Detailed information will be provided soon here.

In recent years scientists and scientific organizations worldwide, among them the Max Planck Society, have been successfully campaigning for unrestricted (i.e. open) access to scientific information. With ten years of experience in publishing high quality scientific content freely available on the Internet, Living Reviews in Relativity is certainly one of the pioneering projects. Its founders continue to be actively engaged in the ongoing discussion following the “Berlin Declaration on Open Access to Knowledge in the Sciences and Humanities” and related initiatives.

The Living Reviews publishing platform is now part of the Max Planck Digital Library and provides technical infrastructure and know how to all scientific institutions that want to publish similar e-journals in their fields.

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