Dear Patricia (copied to the list as your message was sent out on it to
all members)
I have read your message, posted to the list a few weeks ago, with
increasing disappointment and concern, and after some consideration would
like to comment on several points.
1. You quote that there is an 'established publishers' standard' that
allows access to online material for the current year plus four archive
years. Not so. The vast majority of publishers include an online archive
back to years in the late 1990s; some are even more generous. Few have
adopted rolling archives, such as the one introduced by INFORMS, and those
who have are more than aware that it is not a practice welcomed by the
library or academic community.
2. You imply that the rolling archive policy was always made transparent
by INFORMS in its online terms and conditions. Not true - if this was the
case it would have been generally known. The fact that, as a previous
message by Randy Kiefer states, INFORMS was unable to enforce this policy
due to technical restrictions, means little if we never knew about it in
the first place! I was also more than a little dismayed to read that the
rolling archive policy had been adopted as 'that is what librarians
want'. Ask any librarian and I really do not think the consensus will be
that the loss of a year's online content each year is what we want. Your
comments on the technical problems previous to the Highwire move being 'a
challenge' hardly help.
3. You state below that 'The rolling access meshes with access to
embargoed content through aggregators such as EBSCO, ProQuest and JSTOR.'
Irrelevant, surely? We are talking about subscribers to your journals,
not subscribers of these databases. Embargo arrangements with databases
are quite different.
4. Now to your third paragraph, and the crux of the matter. You state
that 'INFORMS will indeed be introducing an archival product in the near
future that will cover all issues back to volume 1, issue 1 for all our
journals ... Archive I will include issues from 1985 to the end of the
coverage of a current subscription. Every year, the oldest year in the
current subscription will become part of Archive I. This product will have
a one-time purchase price and a modest annual maintenance fee.' Let me
get this straight in my mind. Each current subscription includes four (or
this year, five) years of back access. At the end of that subscription
the earliest year included in a current subscription moves into a large
archive which has to be purchased as a whole. Call me a bit cynical but
isn't this effectively removing the content from view unless an
institution has the funds to purchase a whole archive?
5. Back to that rolling archive policy. I quote from your message
below: 'Once the archives are available for purchase, our subscription
policy will revert to our current year plus four years access format. This
policy was developed by our board, whose members were primarily academics,
when INFORMS went online in 1999.' Now things become a little clearer.
The policy was developed largely by academics, but not made public to
subscribers. Institutions who subscribe do so to support learning,
teaching and research: i.e. to support the work of academics. I question
whether the INFORMS board clearly understood the implications of their
policy; or was it thought to be of little importance until the access
COULD be technically restricted? Sort of 'what they don't know can't hurt
them?' I can assure you that academics who use the content often think it
appears by magic and feel extremely short-changed if any part of a
subscription is suddenly removed; as they should, as publications are only
purchased and maintained to support their key areas of study.
I'd like to ask if others feel as strongly as I do about this matter. I
have already raised the rolling archive policy change with my senior
colleagues at Leeds and they are considering a discussion at a higher
level at SCONUL on this and other e-access issues which affect the
provision of a high quality, reliable service to our customers.
With best wishes
Louise
Louise Cole
Electronic Resources Team Leader
University of Leeds
Leeds
LS2 9JT
tel: 0113 34 35502
email: [log in to unmask]
co-owner lis-e-journals
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Patricia S. Shaffer writes:
On January 10, Louise Cole of the University of Leeds expressed her
concern abut INFORMS' rolling archive policy. Her concerns are serious and
deserve an explanation, as well as appropriate action on our part.
INFORMS current subscriptions, following an established publishers'
standard, cover access for the current year plus four archive years (2007-
2003). Our online terms and conditions have always stated that INFORMS
provides online service with a service period from January 1st to December
31st of the subscription year. Annual renewals are required for continued
access to the current plus four years. The rolling access meshes with
access to embargoed content through aggregators such as EBSCO, ProQuest
and JSTOR. INFORMS has never restricted participation to specific
aggregators, to ensure the broadest possible access to our archival
content prior to the period covered in current subscriptions.
The challenge has been to maintain those rules of access in place with our
journal hosts; unfortunately, we were largely unsuccessful until we moved
to HighWire.
INFORMS faced a new challenge this year. The recent transition to HighWire
as the host for INFORMS, where these rules are now actually in effect,
would have discontinued access to the 2002 journal year to all 2006
subscribers after our grace period of February 15th. 2007-only subscribers
are limited to issues beginning in 2003. Given the change in hosts and the
inconsistent enforcement of the rules before moving to HighWire, we are
setting a special policy for this year. INFORMS will extend access to
current plus five years for 2007 subscriptions (2007-2002). There will be
no loss of access to 2002 issues for 2007 renewals and new subscribers.
As Ms. Cole points out, INFORMS will indeed be introducing an archival
product in the near future that will cover all issues back to volume 1,
issue 1 for all our journals. This archive will offer hundreds of issues
never before available electronically directly through INFORMS to
libraries. The metadata is being rekeyed and organized to allow more in-
depth searches at the keyword and abstract level. INFORMS plans to
introduce the archives in two parts. Archive I will include issues from
1985 to the end of the coverage of a current subscription. Every year, the
oldest year in the current subscription will become part of Archive I.
This product will have a one-time purchase price and a modest annual
maintenance fee. Archive II will cover issues from 1984-1952, and will
offer the balance of issues from the six oldest INFORMS journals. Archive
II will have a modest one-time fee to cover the administrative costs. Both
archives will be hosted at HighWire and tracked in the usage reports, and
will be available for abstract/keyword searches. Pricing and release dates
are not yet finalized. INFORMS will publish this information when it is
available.
Once the archives are available for purchase, our subscription policy will
revert to our current year plus four years access format. This policy was
developed by our board, whose members were primarily academics, when
INFORMS went online in 1999. The business rules are based on the
observation that our most valuable research material is found in the
current five years of journal articles. As noted above, the backfile
articles are also available from several aggregators.
Feel free to contact us with your concerns. If you have strong opinions
about INFORMS journals, we'll even welcome you to an INFORMS library
panel. Direct your comments to
Patricia S. Shaffer
Director of Publications
Institute for Operations Research and the Management Sciences (INFORMS)
(443) 757-3500 ext. 570
[log in to unmask] <http://www.informs.org>
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