I'm not sure how many readers of this blog understand German (beyond the title above) but I think this pdf courtesy of Der Spiegel is saying some pretty nice things about Nature, its commitment to innovation and the quality of the team.

Later comment by editor:It turns out that this pdf link will not work outside the Nature firewall and Spiegel Online understandably charges for articles, so here is a taster within 'fair usage':

'Timo Twin irrt leicht orientierungslos über den Strand, dann zickzack den Hang hinauf. „Na endlich, ich wusste doch, dass es hier irgendwo ist“, sagt der Mann im roten T-Shirt. Über einem weitläufigen Platz prangt groß wie ein Bauschild das Logo seines Unternehmens, weiß auf rotem Grund: „Nature“. Timo Twin ist in seinem neuen Reich angekommen, auf einer Insel im Online- Rollenspiel „Second Life“. Der Name der Insel ist Programm: „Second Nature“. Der Avatar sieht dem Timo im realen Leben nur entfernt ähnlich – dieser ist ein großer Mann Ende dreißig mit leicht rundlichem Harry-Potter-Gesicht. Er heißt Timo Hannay. Und er ist so etwas wie der Vertreter der Wissenschaftszeitschrift „Nature“ in der virtuellen Welt.'

The British Department of Trade and Industry has just released figures for 2006 exports of books and a comparison with previous years. It makes fascinating reading on the soon-to-be-revamped Publishers Association website. In spite of all the changes in the global economy and the growth of the English language the traditional English-speaking and Commonwealth markets still dominate. And for all the hooha over China we sell ten times as much to the Republic of Ireland with a population of 4 million as to China with a population of 1.3 billion.

Clearly, however, markets such as China and India will grow and I was delighted to read in the Economic Times of India that territorial protection of copyright has been upheld by a Delhi High Court injunction preventing re-export of low-priced Indian textbooks. Whilst this restricts Indian export sales it allows publishers to produce low-cost editions for the very poor without fear of those editions entering the more affluent American market. In time, of course, global prices will equalise but in the meantime territorial copyright protection is vital for the development of publishing and education in emerging economies. Supporting these developments is the International Publishers Association whose new website has just been launched and where it is good to see that annual Freedom Prize has been awarded to a Zimbabwean publisher.