*With apologies for cross-posting*
The ALPSP Survey of Librarians on Factors in Journal Cancellation by Mark
Ware of Mark Ware Consulting Ltd (www.markwareconsulting.com) is published
by ALPSP on the 30th of March 2006. The report is an A4 paperback of 72
pages, ISBN 978-0-907341-31-4. Details on how to obtain the report can be
found on the ALPSP website at http://www.alpsp.org/publications/pub12.htm.
The findings show:
. Repositories are clearly not seen by librarians as a substitute for
properly managed journal holdings.
. The large majority of librarians do not know whether the content of
archives overlaps with their holdings, and most do not plan to introduce
systems to measure this.
. Availability via OA archives was ranked a long way behind the needs
of faculty, usage and price in determining cancellations.
. Three times as many respondents thought repositories would have no
impact on holdings as thought they would.
But publishers might find other findings from the survey worrying:
. 54 percent say that availability via OA archives is an important,
or a very important factor in determining cancellations now, and 81 percent
think it will become important or very important in the next 5 years.
. The clear and growing emphasis on measuring usage of journals via
the publishers' or intermediaries' statistics will be a concern for
publishers, because there is some evidence (e.g. from physics and
mathematics) that usage may migrate from the publisher's site to the
archive.
In addition to the priced printed report and combined pdf (see above), ALPSP
has also made available the data from the survey, including the 'free-text'
answers from the respondents at
http://www.surveymonkey.com/Report.asp?U=161585570142.
*******************************************************
Suzy Fotheringham
Membership and Advertising Coordinator
Association of Learned and Professional Society Publishers (ALPSP)
Tel: +44 (0) 20 8351 1658 Fax: +44(0) 870 762 8647 E-mail:
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ALPSP Website: www.alpsp.org
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