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We had similar problems with Lippincott, Williams & Wilkins (LWW).
We used to supply some of their titles electronically to our external
Fellows and Members.
As you say, the titles were well respected. Then LWW increased the fees
for electronic access
beyond a point which we would pay. We made a decision to only take the
print version.
This disappointed many of our users. Especially those abroad. But in my
replies to them
I emphasised that the fees had risen to a point beyond which our budget
would allow.
Cutting access to other journals was considered but not taken up.
I think that the "Open Access" method is gaining momentum but they will
struggle
with specialist journals. I believe that the prices publishers charge
and the amount they
increase them by each year is scandalous. How much of that money comes
back, in our case, to the
medical field?
(A personal view)
Stephen Cook
Assistant Librarian: Systems & Technical Services
The Markland Library
Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists
27 Sussex Place
Regent's Park
London.
NW1 4RG.
Tel: 020-7772-6309
Fax: 020-7262-8331
Website: www.rcog.org.uk
"Setting standards to improve women's health"
-----Original Message-----
From: An informal open list set up by the UK Serials Group
[mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Nicholas Lewis
Sent: 23 July 2004 10:06
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: Nature Monthlies/Reviews Price Increase - the bigger
picture
Lesley and colleagues should be commended for taking a stand on this
issue. It's a challenge to the whole community, though, in terms of how
we move forward because actions from universities like Hertfordshire
(Nature) or Cornell (Elsevier), for example, are only going to have a
minor impact. Consider this from David Ball's paper (thanks to Ian for
alerting us to this earlier):
"If the library price of the well respected journal is doubled, some
subscriptions will be lost, but since the title is well respected, by no
means 50 per cent: other journals will be cancelled instead. By raising
the price the publisher will increase profitability and market share.
The disconnection already noted of user, the only true judge of value,
from price paid has fed the rampant inflation seen in hard-copy journal
prices. The same commercial logic applies in electronic publishing. It
makes no sense for the publisher to offer discounts to the individual
library, still less to the consortium. By so doing he would simply and
immediately decrease both profit and market share." from 'What's the
"big deal", and why is it a bad deal for universities?' David Ball,
Interlending & Document Supply 32(2) 2004, p.121.
http://www.emeraldinsight.com/vl=1101492/cl=15/nw=1/rpsv/cgi-bin/linker?
ini=emerald&reqidx=/cw/mcb/02641615/v32n2/s7/p117 [subscription
required].
So how can we address this? It seems to me that in the same way that we
are engaging positively with publishing community as a consortium (e.g.
through nesli2), we may also have to consider how to engage COLLECTIVELY
in a more negative way by terminating unreasonable subscriptions, much
as the University of Hertfordshire has had to do. What do other list
members think?
Again, their approach has been exemplary in involving Faculty in the
decision process. This is the other key responsibility that should
devote more time to as David recommends in his paper:
"Another interesting characteristic of the financial side of scholarly
publishing is that the user or consumer in general does not pay for the
information used [2]. Payment is made from an institutional budget,
generally delegated to the librarian. The user is therefore insulated
from considerations of cost and the effects of inflation: unlike most
products price does not affect demand because the user is not obliged to
place a value on the product consumed." p. 120
We must ensure that the end user is more involved, not in the tedious
aspects of the administration, but in engaging with the current market
situation. And we may also have to look at ways of making the
institutional funding less 'invisible' to the end user, so that they
feel the same sense of outrage as librarians do when prices increase so
disproportionately.
Open access initiatives are only going to be part of the story...
This year we will no doubt see new electronic resource and e-journal
initiatives from major publishers - will we continue to sign up for
these, perhaps with preferential rates for a couple of years, and then
be hit with massive price rises again? Or have we learned from our
experiences over the last five years? What do you think?
[The views expressed here are personal ones]
Regards
Nick
Nicholas Lewis
Electronic Resources Librarian & Subject Librarian
The Library, University of East Anglia,
Norwich, Norfolk, England, NR4 7TJ
Tel: +44(0)1603-592382 Fax: +44(0)1603-591010 [log in to unmask]
------------------------------------------------------------------------
---
Like many others we were outraged by the massive increase when we got
our quotes from NPG for the Nature Monthlies and Reviews, especially
since there was no information attached to the quote indicating that a
change in pricing had taken place and the reasons for it. We were left
to work it all out for ourselves. We did send an official letter of
protest regarding these increases to Global Head, Site License Business
Unit in New York. Although we did finally receive a reply from Geoff
Worton, it failed to address any of the concerns we had raised in our
initial letter. Instead it talked about investment in their online
platform and the need to comply with COUNTER. In the meantime (i.e.
whilst we were waiting for a reply) I was able to get NPG to use a much
lower FTE figure and get into a lower pricing bracket, which did reduce
our initial price increase of 74% to an increase of about 30%, based on
what we paid last year.
However, we feel that even an increase of 30% is unwarranted. Instead,
we have just made a decision here at the University of Hertfordshire not
to renew our subscription to these titles and have today informed NPG of
this decision. As part of this process we have consulted academic staff
and researchers on this issue, and whilst there have been several
expressions of regret and concern at losing these important resources,
our academics and researchers are giving us their support in this
matter. We thank them for this.
Instead we are going to throw our weight behind the national NESLI2
negotiations taking place with NPG, thereby supporting one of the
Conclusions and Recommendations - No. 39 from the House of Commons
Scientific and Technology Committee - Scientific Publications: Free for
All?
http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm200304/cmselect/cmsctech/399/
399
.
pdf.
We have had a subscription to these publications for several years now,
but tomorrow we lose all access to these titles, as the license still
has no provision for access to the "subscribed" content after
termination of the contract, another aspect that the above committee
responded to.
NPG only have themselves to blame. They have only chosen to listen to
what they wanted to hear, and have remained deaf to the criticisms of
their FTE pricing model for many years. Maybe some of us (including
myself) gave them succour when we gave in to their price increases for
EMBO Journal/EMBO Reports for 2004 and took out a site license.
Rather than expanding their customer base by fair and realistic pricing,
they have chosen to alienate many of their customers. I know of a number
of institutions in the UK that had finally got the money together to
take on licenses to some Nature branded journals, then suddenly found
the money that they had spent time and effort gathering together was no
longer enough. When we first got the money together to take our
subscriptions to the Nature Reviews/Monthlies several years ago we felt
that these were expensive products then. Little did we know that NPG
considered them undervalued!
NPG talks a lot about working with its customers, what it needs to do is
start to listen and understand the differing needs of all its customers.
What have other institutions decided to do? Comments on list or off list
will be very welcome.
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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