Lesley,
Following up on your note about publisher perspectives on the issue, I sent
your note on to the publishers with whom we work. Two publishers answered
my inquiry quickly (it was the start of a holiday weekend here in the US),
and I append these replies here, from Meg McGough of the Journal of
Histochemistry and Cytochemistry, and from Rich Dodenhoff of the American
Society for Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics:
------from Rich:
The renewal process gets even stickier when an institution changes
subscription agents. We search our database for existing records for
every order we receive, but sometimes it is impossible to find a match
with the information we get from the agent. Sometimes we are given the
name of the library but not the institution, or we receive a variation
on the name that differs too much to make a match. We would much rather
continue an existing subscription record than create a new one--it saves
time and effort--but we can only work with the information we receive.
Rich
Richard Dodenhoff
Journals Director
American Society for Pharmacology and
Experimental Therapeutics
9650 Rockville Pike
Bethesda, MD 20814-3995
301.634.7997 (p) / 301.634.7061 (f)
<[log in to unmask]>
-----from Meg:
When librarians change agents, the new agent does not always include our
account number in their "new" or "transferred," order, likewise if the order
is a remail, the end-user information is not always included upfront. Swets
always send that information in a separate mailing, after the fact. In the
initial remail order from Swets, we only receive the remail address in New
Jersey. My requests for the information upfront have fallen on deaf ears. I
have actually gone to the trouble of when I found out a "new" account from
Swets was already in our system and activated, gone back to Swets and told
them I was changing the account number back to the old account number so
that the library would not lose access. It's very time consuming.
Within an agency, if an account changes from print/online to online only,
some agents treat this as a new order and it is up to the publisher to make
sure they catch that and not treat it as a new order.
Lastly, the following are the lengths I have gone to to make sure that new
subscriptions are not already in our system.
Try to match up the institution name, address in the database.
Use the email address of contact to see if already activated account on
HighWire.
Use the IP addresses to see if already activated account on HighWire.
All of the above takes lots of time and that does not even include checking
the renewals as they come in to make sure that the end-user user contact
information including contact name, telephone and fax numbers, and IP
addresses are current.
Meg
Meg McGough
Marketing and Subscriptions
Journal of Histochemistry and Cytochemistry
P.O. Box 85630
University Station
Seattle, WA 98145-1630
[log in to unmask]
Telephone: 206-616-5896
Fax: 206-616-5842
---------
I have cc'd them on this post. I do not believe they regularly monitor
lis-e-journals so if I see direct replies that they are not copied on I
will forward them on.
John
--On Friday, January 14, 2005 3:44 PM +0000 Lesley Crawshaw
<[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> Hi,
>
> I wanted to thank Stephen Welch, for explaining to this list on the 5th
> January 2005 (and in more detail to myself in a separate email) how the
> University of Hertfordshire had lost access to CHEST because of variations
> in our address sent by agencies from one year to the next. I believe this
> is one of the first times that a publisher has been so open to this list
> about how such problems can arise, which I personally found very
> refreshing. Yet, having seen several larger publisher-generated lists of
> our subscriptions on an annual basis, I know that this is a problem
> shared by all of us, whether we are agents, publishers, intermediaries or
> subscribing organizations. Are there other publishers out there who might
> like to "come out" and give their perspectives on the problems that they
> face in matching subscriptions from year to year and how this whole area
> can be improved?
>
> Institutions are also implicated in these problems, because so many of us
> are constantly undergoing reorganizations (including my own) which may
> lead to changes in addresses which may lead to loss of access because
> subscriptions aren't matched up.
>
> 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 Stephen Welch
> Sent: 05 January 2005 18:05
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Subject: CHEST Subscription Gracing
>
>
> Hi, my name is Stephen Welch. Iım the Executive Editor for CHEST. My ears
> are burning! I hope participating in this list will help me get some
> additional appreciation for the types of problems you all experience with
> e-journals.
>
>
> Lesleyıs experience is unfortunate, and complicated by the fact that when
> the agency sent us information for her 2005 subscription, the address was
> different, including the city (2005 was Hatfield UK, 2004 was
> Hertfordshire UK).
>
> Because of the discrepancy we treated the 2005 info as a new account
> because it did not match what was in our system from 2004. That is why
> Lesley's organization received a new ID number for their 2005 account,
> which is why our activation of the grace period didn't solve her access
> problem and then she had to activate an entirely new account. We sure
> apologize for the inconvenience sheıs experienced.
>
> The good thing to come out of this is that we found out our subscription
> gracing had not been activated and we have since corrected that problem.
> In the immortal words of Homer J. Simpson, "D'oh!"
>
> However, we're not sure how to circumvent account info that differs from
> one year to the next. We will discuss with our agencies to see if there
> is a way we can try to prevent this in the future.
>
> If any others experience similar problems with CHEST, please don't
> hesitate to contact me.
>
>
> Best regards,
>
> Steve
>
> --
> Stephen J. Welch
> Vice President, Communications
> Executive Editor, CHEST
>
> American College of Chest Physicians
> 3300 Dundee Road
> Northbrook IL 60062
>
> T: 847-498-8305
> F: 847-498-5460
> E: [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 January 2005 15:31
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Subject: Re: Publishers Cutting Off Our Access Even Though They've Been
> Paid!! - Adopting a Gracing Period Could Have Avoided All the Pain
>
>
> Hi,
>
> Our problem with CHEST has now been sorted out. I've been contacted by the
> excutive editor for CHEST saying that "CHEST normally does set 30-day
> grace periods and for some reason there was an oversight this year. We
> will fix it immediately."
>
> However, whilst this would have sorted our initial access problems for the
> grace period, we would still have had problems at the end of the grace
> period as I've just found out that we have been given a new subscriber
> number for CHEST and I've had to use this to reactivate our access to
> CHEST through Highwire. Why we have acquired a new subscriber number I
> have no idea, but it wouldn't be the first time that we've acquired
> multiple numbers for the same journal from the same publisher, but that's
> another can of worms. Like Louise's examples, how were we meant to know
> that this journal (which we've had a subscription to since 1992) had
> acquired this new subscriber number? Was anyone going to tell us or am I
> expected to sit in the post room waiting for the magic number on the
> envelope containing the journal to arrive?
>
> The good news is that this journal is now sorted for 2005 at least, now to
> the next problem wherever it may be!
>
> 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 Louise Cole
>
> Sent: 04 January 2005 17:44
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Subject: Re: Publishers Cutting Off Our Access Even Though They've Been
> Paid!! - Adopting a Gracing Period Could Have Avoided All the Pain
>
>
> Hello
>
> I'd like to echo this. We haven't lost either of these (yet) but I did
> find four providers with problems this morning. One had the age-old
> excuse that we hadn't reactivated with their new subscription number (no,
> because we didn't know what it was!).
>
> Very frustrating, especially those that happily expired between Christmas
> and New Year.
>
> Why do they still do it?
>
> Louise
>
> Louise Cole
> Electronic Resources Team Leader
> University of Leeds
>
> -----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: 04 January 2005 17:08
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Subject: Publishers Cutting Off Our Access Even Though They've Been
> Paid!! - Adopting a Gracing Period Could Have Avoided All the Pain
>
>
> Hi,
>
> It's only my first day back at work and already we've found that we've
> lost electronic access to a number of our subscriptions. At present we
> don't know the scale of the problem. Whilst many publishers/learned
> societies have adopted gracing periods to avoid customers losing access
> whilst renewals are processed by publishers etc., many publishers/learned
> societies still don't appear to have got the message about the need for
> gracing, especially in the eonly world where loss of access can mean
> losing access to all available online material (depending on the
> subscription model of the journal).
>
> What makes it even more frustrating is that in the two cases I've just
> been looking at - not only did our access get cut off on the 31st
> December 2004, but the cheques from our agents to these publishers for
> our subscriptions have already been cashed. So in these two cases payment
> has been made, but we have still lost access. There is no justice in this.
>
> For information here are the two journals concerned.
>
> 1. Chest - published by the American College of Chest Physicians 2.
> Mycologia - published by the Mycological Society of America
>
> Both of these publishers/societies could have avoided these problems (or
> at least give time for these problems to get sorted out) by having a grace
> period.
>
> How do we get the message across to those publishers/societies who haven't
> adopted gracing periods that this is something that is essential today?
>
> 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]
> ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
-------------------
John Sack, Director
HighWire Press, Stanford University
Phone: 650-723-0192; fax: 650-725-9335
http://highwire.stanford.edu/~sack
[log in to unmask]
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