Hi Maureen and Michael,

I share your concerns. We have renewed our Blackwell Publishing deal,
but through the Swets Blackwell Open Consortium, as the JISC (NESLI's
succcessor) still hasn't made details of the Blackwell Offer for 2003
available to UK Further and Higher Education Institutions. Like you I
think we will look very carefully at any renewal option for 2004,
especially if there are additional "hidden" costs, due to over the top
journal inflation on titles that can't be cancelled if one is signed up
to the deal. 
 
Your email prompted me to go and look at journals price increases for a
number of publishers to see how they compared with those you quoted for
Blackwell Publishing. We haven't yet had our 2003 journal invoices, so
I've chosen the period 1998-2002 for comparison. I've also included a
figure for all subscriptions irrespective of publisher. Please note that
this information only relates to those subscriptions I manage for the
Faculty of Natural Sciences, it doesn't include all my institution's
subscriptions. The information presented below confirms that the largest
increases in journal prices over a period from 1998 - 2002 have been
those published by Blackwell Publishing. Blackwell Publishing journals
were always known in the past for "reasonable" journal pricing - this is
no longer the case. A number of other publishers though aren't too far
behind. 
                                                                % Price
Increase 1998-2002
Blackwell Publishing (22 titles)                        113%
Elsevier (38 titles)                                    42% 
Cambridge University Press (5 titles)           31%
Institute of Physics Publishing (5 titles)      82% 
Oxford University Press (5 titles)                      25%
Royal Society of Chemistry (15 titles)          36%
Springer (5 titles)                                     12%
Taylor & Francis Group (10 titles)                      88%
Wiley (10 titles)                                               74%
All Publishers (206 titles)                             34%

Many of the "Collection" deals we've signed over the last few years have
included a price cap which has tended to control high journal inflation
rates on our existing subscriptions. It's a pity that the Blackwell
Publishing deals over several years didn't include a price cap on our
existing subscriptions and therefore protect us from what is an
unacceptable level of inflation over several years. 

The situation has been further complicated this year by the introduction
of a Standard Print/Online option - with access only to two year
backfiles + no access rights on cancellation, a Premium Print/Online
option at an additional charge of 10% of standard price - with full
access to available backfiles +with access rights on cancellation, and
Premium Online Only option - at 90% of standard price - with full access
to available backfiles + access rights on cancellation. 

Since we have to maintain our existing expenditure, moving to online
only is made difficult for institutions who have subscribed to the
various Blackwell "NESLI" deals. Since online only is available for 90%
of the standard subscription rates, if you move your subscriptions to
online only, you then need to make up the deficit in expenditure by
ordering titles up to the value of the "savings" one has made by going
online only - this assumes that you can reclaim the VAT through your
institution.  

I also remain to be convinced that publishers that maintain too complex
a pricing structure actually have the subscription management systems in
place to continue to provide the access to that we have a right to
access. 

Cheers
Lesley
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Lesley Crawshaw, Faculty Information Consultant, 
Learning and Information Services, 
University of Hertfordshire, Hatfield, AL10 9AB UK
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
e-mail: [log in to unmask]
phone:  01707 284662      fax: 01707 284666
web: http://www.herts.ac.uk/lis/subjects/natsci/ejournal/
list owner: [log in to unmask]
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 

-----Original Message-----
From: An informal open list set up by the UK Serials Group
[mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Maureen Richardson
Sent: 19 November 2002 08:56
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Blackwell Journals


We have had the Nesli Blackwell Science deal since it started. We only
had 12 subscriptions to BS journals and of course we have continued to
maintain these print subscriptions ever since. I am concerned about the
big increase in some of these journals - increases where we would almost
definitely have cancelled the journals if not tied up with a Nesli deal.
The most expensive jnl in our BS collection is Freshwater Biology which
started off in 2000 at £970 and in 2003 costs us £1754 - a percentage
increase over the 3 years of 80%. Another "culprit" is Journal of
Biogeography which has gone from £920 in 2000 to 1557 in 2003 - an
increase of 69.2% in three years. These are the highest but the average
increase for our BS jnls from 2000 to 2003 is 52.7% which is well above
the average. We also subscribe to the Blackwells HSS journals and these
have increased in price over the 3 years by 48.5% I have not done this
same exercise with other Nesli deals where print cancellations are not
allowed. I was wondering if any sites have decided not to renew any
"Nesli" (I do not know what to call them now) deals because of the big
increase in the print jnl subscriptions. I have renewed the print now
for 2003 and the online deal for 2003 but will have to look very
carefully for 2004.

Maureen

Maureen Richardson
Journals and Electronic Resources Manager
Learning Resource Centre
Edge Hill
St Helens Rd
Ormskirk
Lancashire L39 4QP

[log in to unmask]
Telephone: 01695 58 4596
Fax: 01695 58 4550