DFG funds German licence for Nature archive

All universities and publicly funded research institutions in Germany now have access to the complete Nature archive from 1869-2007 following a national licence agreement. Negotiated between Goettingen University Library (SUB), the German National Library of Science and Technology (TIB), and Nature Publishing Group (NPG), the national licence is being financed by the German Research Foundation (Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft, DFG).

From May 2008, researchers and students across Germany will enjoy free online access to the entire Nature archive back to Volume 1, Number 1. The Nature archive contains more than 400,000 articles from over 6,500 issues, the first 80 years of which (1869-1949) went live on the 7th January 2008. In addition, the national deal includes access to the archives of Nature Biotechnology, Nature Genetics, Nature Medicine and Nature Structural & Molecular Biology up to and including 2007.

Bethan Creighton, consortia sales manager at NPG said: ‘Nature Publishing Group is pleased to agree this license that provides German researchers and students with access to more than 130 years of Nature articles. This is the first large-scale consortium purchase of the Nature archive. We look forward to working with other national consortia to ensure the widest possible access to the quality research that NPG publishes.’