Hi Peter,

Whilst it is true that the major European publishers do issue email
bulletins or have the information regarding title changes, new title
acquisitions, titles which they no longer publish etc. on their web sites,
one still has to wade through all of this information, as none of it is
bespoke in relation to ones own institutional subscriptions. ScienceDirect
for example issue their monthly SD Titles Alert, but we still have to cross
check ScienceDirect against this list and our own holdings in order to know
which of these title changes etc. affect us. The workload is multiplied for
each publisher which does this.

I don't want to be too negative about the information that many publishers
do provide for librarians on their sites, however whilst it is a step
forward, it is not the perfect answer, but only an interim solution.

I recently found on a visit to the Lawrence Erlbaum Associates site that one
of our subscribed etitles on ScienceDirect, Cognitive Science, is going to
be published by LEA from 2005. Again this was an accidental discovery. I
asked ScienceDirect if there was anyway that I could be informed when
subscriptions of ours changed publisher. Their answer was that I would need
to check their SD Titles Alert to identify such changes. As this is an
important title of ours we are going to have to reorder it through the new
publisher, but the SD Titles Alert is probably not going to inform me of
this change until well after the change has happened. That is of course
assuming that one can keep up to date with all this information in the first
place.

With all this whizzy technology surely there must be a way that the
subscription administrator for these titles can be informed about changes
that affect them and their "subscriptions" only, rather than here are all
the changes, you go and find out which ones affect your institution? This is
what I would have expected from the American Physiological Society - that
they use the subscription administrators to keep them up to date on changes
to this particular title.

One final comment relating to the APS's journals - if it wasn't for John
Sack's email about retrospective conversion projects on Highwire on the 6th
August 2004, I wouldn't have known that the APS had finally completed the
digitization of all their journals. Surely they should want everyone to know
about this, so again why has there been no communication from them about
this? Or did I miss it?

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 Peter King
Sent: 19 August 2004 12:16
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: American Physiological Society's Journal News in Physiological
Sciences (NIPS) has changed titles to Physiology - was the publisher going
to tell anyone about it?


Dear Lesley

As ever, you have highlighted an important issue. I didn't know about the
APS change.

I have been worried for a long time about the difficulty of keeping up with
title changes in an online-only environment. The major European publishers
have largely got their act together (we are all on the same learning curve,
after all) and now issue email bulletins to known e-journal administrators
about all changes affecting their journal lists.

However, non-European publishers and scholarly society publishers are much
less aware of the need (and, indeed, sometimes seem to see requests for
information as a bit of an intrusion into a private party). Those who send
out information by snail mail are not much
better: as we all know, letters have a tendency to go astray. The more we
can all do to educate APS and others, the better.

Peter King

On Wed, 18 Aug 2004 17:01:25 +0100 Lesley Crawshaw
<[log in to unmask]> wrote:

> Hi,
>
> Now that many of our subscriptions are online only it is getting
> harder and harder to spot title changes etc.. Whilst checking our
> renewals lists for 2005 I decided to go and look at the pricing for
> the American Physiological Society's journals as we currently have
> online only subscriptions to several of their titles, and I wondered
> if they had maybe thought of offering an online bundle of their
> journals for 2005. I visited http://www.physiology.org/ and noticed
> that there was a journal called Physiology there which I had never
> heard of. When I selected the link
> http://physiologyonline.physiology.org/ it became clear that
> Physiology was the new title for News in Physiological Sciences (NIPS)
> and had been launched in August 2004. NIPS is one of our
> subscriptions. Our renewals list had no information about this title
> change, so I guess our agents have the same problem as us in keeping
> up to date with such changes.
>
> The point I wish to make is why myself as administrator for this
> online title hadn't had any communication from the APS to inform me of
> this change. Once again the only way to find out about these changes
> is to visit each publishers site (an onerous task) and try and spot
> the changes for ourselves. Maybe they sent it via snail mail instead,
> in which case I am still waiting.
>
> Come on APS, don't you want to keep your subscribers up to date with
> your journal publishing programme? Some 2005 pricing information would
> be helpful too!
>
> Did anyone else know about this title change?
>
> 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]
> ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

*****************

Dr Peter King
Assistant Director (Information Management)
University of Bristol Information Services
Tyndall Avenue, Bristol BS8 1TJ, United Kingdom.

Tel. +44 (0)117 928 8005
Fax. +44 (0)117 925 5334
Email [log in to unmask]