Hi,
In response to Claire Grace's comment that "It would be nice to think that
publishers and other suppliers actually
looked at the JISCMail lists from time to time too!" The following is an
example that not only do many publishers (and suppliers) look at the
JISCMail list, but a few actually take care to resolve problems that get
raised on this list from time to time. Unfortunately some problems raised
through this list never result in any contact by the publisher/agents
concerned, which is a real shame as many problems raised illustrate
underlying flaws with subscription management systems.
About a month ago I emailed this list details (see below) of a problem
whereby we lost our institutional online access to the British Journal of
Psychiatry. A couple of other institutions also responded to that email to
say that they were also experiencing the same problem.
Our access problem to this title was sorted out almost immediately by Rob
Edwards, Maney Publishing and I just wanted to thank them for their prompt
attention in this matter.
Lucy Alexander, Sales & Marketing Manager for the Royal College of
Psychiatrists has asked me to forward the following message to this list to
explain the steps they had taken to prevent such loss of access when they
changed their subscription managers.
"Thank you very much for your comments regarding publisher, or subscription
manager, changeover.
When we decided to change our subscription managers we thought very
carefully about how this could be done smoothly with the minimum of
disruption for our subscribers. Our prime concern was how such a change
would affect online journal access. It was crucial to find a subscription
manager who would be able to maintain the existing customer numbers for all
our subscribers. It is the customer numbers that are used by the HighWire
system to identify online subscribers.
Maney and RSM use the same subscription management system. This allowed us,
after a number of technical adjustments, to transfer the subscription
records to Maney's database and still maintain the existing customer numbers
(needed for online access). This meant that our subscribers at the end of
2001 kept the same customer number when they renewed for 2002 and any
potential problems or confusion caused by a change could be avoided.
At the beginning of 2002 we graced access to the online journals for just
over 2 months to ensure that all subscriber details were correct and
renewals (many delayed by a problem with an agent's disk) entered onto the
system. The data, including renewers' unchanged customer numbers, was then
transferred to HighWire to update their system so that online access would
be resumed after the gracing period.
Just when we thought we were home and dry there was an unforeseen problem
with the data transfer to HighWire! When the new data file was FTP'ed to
HighWire it triggered a different processing scheme than the one needed.
The problem was not immediately detected, as the system appeared to be
working normally. This meant that existing customers trying to access the
online journal received the message that their online subscription had
expired on 7 March 2002, which was the end of the gracing period. HighWire
rectified this problem as soon as they were alerted to it so that normal
service could be resumed within a matter of days.
The difficulties experienced by the universities of Hertfordshire, Leeds and
Liverpool have now been rectified. In each case the issues were different
and not directly related to the problem described above.
The Royal College of Psychiatrists and, on our behalf, Maney Publishing
regard the smooth provision of online access to the British Journal of
Psychiatry as a top priority. We worked extremely hard to ensure that the
changeover was as smooth as possible and can only reiterate our apologies to
those who received the expiry message in March. I would be very happy to
discuss this further."
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 Lesley Crawshaw
Sent: 05 June 2002 11:27
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Change of Publisher and Loss of Online Access
Hi,
I thought this problem which arose for me today might be of interest to this
list as it illustrates some of the problems all of us face trying to keep
our online access up and running.
We have a current subscription to the British Journal of Psychiatry to which
I activated our online access through Highwire back in January 2001.
I recently received an email from one of our users saying that "I am unable
to access The British Journal of Psychiatry via our Institutional
subscription (Customer Number C007101). I receive the message that the
subscription
has expired on 07/03/02"
I checked and found that our subscription to this title was renewed and our
agents paid by us back in October/November 2001. However, on visiting the
Highwire site I noticed that the publisher had changed from the Royal
Society of Medicine Press to Maney Publishing. This probably explains why
the subscriber number was no longer valid as it tends to be publisher
dependant. However on other areas of the British Journal of Psychiatry
journal site the old publisher was still being listed!!
I contacted Maney Publishing who were able to provide me with the new
subscriber number, and confirm that our subscription had been paid. In fact
they provided me with two subscriber numbers, one of which was for a lapsed
subscription and one for a current subscription. Since we have only ever had
one subscription I can only assume that this error is between the agents and
the publisher - maybe caused by the change in publisher and the ordering of
the title from the new publisher.
I then went to reactivate our access to the British Journal of Psychiatry
using the new subscriber number via Highwire and was informed that:
"The Customer Number you have given is for a RCP Online Member and
Individual (non-Member) Subscription, not an Institutional Subscription".
I now have to wait for the new publisher of this journal to get our online
access sorted, pity they couldn't have pre-empted this from happening in the
first place!!
I have a number of comments regarding this situation:
1. Surely when journals change publishers steps should be taken to avoid
online access falling over. This could easily be done by an extension of the
grace period so that users are not inconvenienced when journals change
publishers. It would also give the new publisher time to get their records
in order for their subscriptions.
2. I am not aware of any communication by either the Royal College of
Psychiatrists or Maney Publishing to alert subscribers of the journal that
the subscriber number for this title had changed and that they would need to
reactivate their online access using the new subscriber number. Maybe others
on the list have received this information?
3. If this was an online only subscription would we be entitled to a rebate
for the lack of access to this title during the subscription period??
That's all for now folks!
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]
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
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