Dear Melvin
The repeated point about bmj.com is irrelevant to the discussion of the
pricing of the specialist journals.
The point they don't address is that this policy is out of line with
most industry practice hitherto, which has not been based on FTEs. In
my view, this model will kill, or least severely retard, the growth in
e-journal provision and use which we all favour.
BMJ are not pricing according to their cost plus a reasonable profit
but according to their perception of the benefit gained by the user
community. Nor are they making any allowance for the community's
ability to pay.
As the publishing arm of a user-community body (ie the British Medical
Association) I would have expected better.
Peter King
On Wed, 4 Oct 2000 15:33:48 +0100 (BST) Melvin Russell Morbey
<[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> Hello everyone
>
> As list owner I want lis-e-journals to be a forum for discussion and
> exchange of views for all those with an interest in electronic journals.
> With this in mind I decided to ask BMJ Publishing Group if they would like
> to respond to the recent messages highlighting price rises for electronic and
> print+electronic for 2001. I copied some of the comments list members had made
> to BMJ but member's anonymity was preserved.
>
> I've just received the following from Eunice Walford, Sales and Marketing
> Director
>
> BMJ Publishing Group Response
>
> 1. bmj.com remains free access to all users even if they do not take a
> print subscription.
>
> 2. For 2 years BMJ Specialist Journals have increased subscription rates
> in line with or below inflation and not added any surcharge for access to
> our highly functional web sites which are hosted by HighWire Press (part
> of the University of Stanford). In 2001 there will be three options of
> subscribing to BMJ Specialist Journals:
>
> a) Print only - the print only rate for 2001 will increase by 5%
>
> b) Online only - the online only rate is effectively a site licence based
> on the number of Full Time Equivalents at the institution. This
> subscription gives unlimited access to the online journal both on and off
> site.
>
> c) Print & Online - the rate for Print & Online is also based on the
> number of Full Time Equivalents with deep discounts on the print and again
> the subscription gives unlimited access to the online journal both on and
> off site
>
> The FTE pricing bands are set up to account for Small (FTE 1 - 2,000),
> Medium (FTE 2,001 - 7,000), Large (FTE 7,001 - 20,000) and Extra Large
> (FTE 20,001+) institutions. For more detailed information on the new
> pricing structure for BMJ Specialist Journals please click here:
> http://www.bmjjournals.com:80/subscriptions/institutional.shtml
>
>
> Just to clarify a couple of points raised in the correspondence:
> 1. "Institutions who choose to take both print and online formats of a
> journal (at the same time) will make a substantial saving" - we offer very
> favourable terms for libraries that want to buy both formats jointly,
> compared to the separate prices for these products.
> 2. bmj.com remains free to all users.
>
> Melvin
>
>
> Melvin Morbey
> E-Journals Co-ordinator/List owner : lis-e-journals
> University of Reading Library
> Whiteknights PO Box 223
> Reading RG6 6AE
>
> Tel : (internal) 8779
> Tel : (external) 0118 9318779
> Fax : 0118 9316636
> E-mail : [log in to unmask]
>
>
>
>
*****************
Peter King
Assistant Director (Information Management)
University of Bristol Information Services
Tyndall Avenue, Bristol BS8 1TJ.
Tel. +44 (0)117 928 8005
Fax. +44 (0)117 925 5334
Email [log in to unmask]
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