Cornell University plans to release a publishing software system that will aid university libraries and independent publishers in disseminating academic research, according to The Chronicle of Higher Education. The Digital Publishing System (DPubS) allows electronic publication, a more affordable alternative to print publishing. Initially, DPubS will be available only to non-profit publishers, but Cornell will later consider offering the software to for-profit publishers.

"The intent of this was to provide cutting-edge capabilities for publishers … which are very small and would have a hard time developing those kinds of capabilities themselves," H. Thomas Hickerson, associate university librarian for information technologies at Cornell, told The Chronicle.

DPubS was originally developed to assist Project Euclid, which allowed Cornell Library to electronically publish its mathematics and statistics journals. Cornell decided to publicly release the software when other publishers expressed interest in its capabilities. Funded partly through a $670,000 grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, the beta version's release is scheduled for 2005 and the final version will be available in 2006.

Cornell Library is currently collaborating with University Libraries and Pennsylvania State University to discuss further improvements to DPubS. According to The Cornell Chronicle, the groups have scheduled a conference for the end of this month.