--On 26 November 2004 11:08 +0000 "Lewis Nicholas Mr (LIB) l002"
<[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> I expect it's part of
> the Springer/Kluwer merger issue which seeks to standardise the approaches
> for both publishers.
Quite. This reminds me of when Blackwell Science merged with Blackwell
Publishers to become Blackwell Publishing. One company included online
access in the price of a print subscription (like Springer Verlag did); one
charged extra for online access to your print subscriptions (like Kluwer
Academic did). In both cases the merged company has had to try to merge two
different pricing models into one - and the result is pretty similar too!
Springer's new model has the Blackwell Publishing Standard/Premium option
written all over it.
Personally, I think this pales into insignificance compared to Nature
Publishing Group's new policy for Academic & Society journals whereby
(most) of these journals (the ones without Nature in the title) are moving
from online access included with a print subscription to online access
requiring a site licence with pricing based on FTE numbers (very much like
the EMBO Journal situation...)
Terry Bucknell
Electronic Resources Manager
Harold Cohen Library
University of Liverpool
PO Box 123 Liverpool L69 3DA
Tel: +44 (0)151 794 5408 Fax: +44 (0)151 794 5417
Email: [log in to unmask]
|