*Please excuse any duplication.*
 
The following letter has been mailed to all Elsevier customers.  It
describes pricing for journals in 2008.
Kind regards,
Daviess Menefee
Library Relations
 
July 5

Dear Librarian:

During the past year my staff and I have talked extensively with
customers, receiving guidance on a range of issues from products and
pricing to service and support. Underpinning all such conversations has
been the key concept of value. Whether the goal is satisfying
researchers, clinicians, or institutional administrators, librarians and
publishers alike are increasingly challenged to measure and report on
how well our investments perform for our organizations and our patrons.

Elsevier is committed to delivering value for customers by continually
improving our customer service and product functionality in addition to
supporting ongoing growth in the number of articles published and
rapidly expanding online usage. While we may still have a way to go, we
hope that we are making positive progress. 

Since January 2005, we have systematically surveyed customers worldwide
every quarter. Your feedback is invaluable in helping us to understand
how we can improve our customer service. In our most recent survey,
customers ranked Elsevier higher than other publishers in 8 out of 10
categories, an improvement over last year. Your suggestions have also
enabled us to make further value enhancements to the functionality of
our products, such as the h-index that we recently added to Scopus, and
the launch of 4,000 more e-books on ScienceDirect-representing over 2
million additional pages worth of scientific output.

For decades, the number of research articles published each year has
grown by around 3-4% annually. Last year was no exception and in fact,
growth of Elsevier-published articles increased above this long-term
rate. Online usage of Elsevier-published articles on ScienceDirect
continues to increase by more than 20%: ScienceDirect recently passed
the milestone of 1 billion articles downloaded. This spectacular
achievement demonstrates the value that your investment in quality
content makes for your institutional community. Downloads onto the
desktops of over 16 million researchers, clinicians, and students around
the globe now continue at a rate exceeding on average over 700 articles
per minute, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

As we strive to offer more value by improving service and product
functionality as the number of articles published and downloaded
continues to expand, Elsevier is targeting a price increase of just
below six percent on average across our journals in 2008. As usual, you
can expect the 2008 title-by-title price lists to be posted on
Elsevier.com
<http://www.elsevier.com/wps/find/subscriptionpricelist.librarians/subsc
riptionpricelist/description
<http://www.elsevier.com/wps/find/subscriptionpricelist.librarians/subsc
riptionpricelist/description> > in August. Elsevier's price increase has
placed us in the lowest quartile of the industry for the past six years,
and we hope that this year's increase will enable us to remain in this
range. As a point of reference, the 2007 average increase across all STM
publishers was 7.89% in Europe and 8.73% in the U.S.*

We recognise that staying the course is not enough. The need for a fresh
business approach is central to sustaining demonstrable value. Elsevier
continues to participate in pilots that inform new business models.
Customers like you have brought to our attention the need for models
that reflect the value of individual journal content, address the
challenges of fluctuating global currencies, and better reflect equity
among institutions. Please continue to participate in these discussions
with us by staying in close contact with your account manager and
sharing your ideas and opinions.

We are dedicated to continually improving the value we provide to
customers while making genuine contributions to the scientific and
medical/healthcare communities. On behalf of Elsevier, thank you for
helping us improve and for continuing to value our content, products,
service, and staff. I believe that through consistent dialogue, we will
achieve even more by working together in the year ahead of us.

Sincerely,

Frank Vrancken Peeters

Global Sales Director, Elsevier

*Elsevier's 5.5% price increase in 2007 placed us within the lowest
quartile of publishers' average price increases when institutional
journal price data, taken from official publisher price lists, is
compared between 2006 and 2007. The figure of slightly below six percent
for 2008 is an average across our titles. The cost for your
institution's print collection will depend upon your particular mix of
titles, and that electronic subscription fee changes, if any, will
depend upon the terms of your ScienceDirect contract.