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I attach the reply from my Journal Subscription Agent who I asked to make my views known about the increase in subscription to the Publisher of The American Journal of Psychiatry. My comments are attached at the end of the reply Pat Dear Pat I have just spoken to the Supervisor in charge of Customer Service for the above journal who assured me that they had undertaken a customer survey last year and found that customers would be willing to pay more if it included free internet access (thereby missing the point of free access, I feel) and they also discovered that their journal was considerably underpriced when placed alongside similar journals, hence the price increase. I pointed out that our customers were unhappy about this increase, especially those unable to use the free internet access but she said that the price remains and there are no discounts. This one is not a moveable feast apparently but I did try Regards 1. I do not know how or who they surveyed but we were not conscious of it. It was probably an insert in the journal which as Librarians we do not read. 2. They have also missed the point that they are requesting a back payment half way through the year when I have already settled the bill and closed my last years finances. 3. Their readers are divided into several catagories Dec 1999 Jan2000 Rise Institutional $165 $310 $145 Individual $108 $116 $ 8 Student $ 54 $ 58 $ 4 Overseas Institutional $219 $375 $156 Individual $165 $176 $ 11 Student $82.50 $88.50 $ 6 Single copy $21.00 $21.00 $ 0 It seems that the Institutional subscriber has been hit the hardest Taking the American rates in 1999 the Institutional was approx. one third more than the individual. In 2000 the Institutional is more than twice the individual! I expect that Individual members who is probably working in the field would not mind paying $8 about £4 in English money to have the journal online. Also an IP address might not be a problem for them as they might have access to an IP address at either work or home and therefore be able to keep the printed version at the other place. Also they might be able to register two IP addresses. Some of us can not register an IP address. It is also likely that they could claim the subscription against tax therefore a 40% tax payer would only pay 60% of the increase. Getting the journal this way they also do not pay VAT as they are paying a printed paper rate not an e-journal rate. The Institutional Library is being forced to pay rises for many journals. If all publishers were to raise their prices by 71% to give ejournals to their readers, or because they thought they were charging less than other journals! then many libraries would have to cancel a large number of subscriptions. There is no extra money coming into my budget for ejournals.or for raised subscriptions. 4. If they felt they were undercharging compared to others why is the single issue price $21 this year and last, no change! Is this because the single issue purchase would not get access to the ejournal? If so it almost proves that the increase is because of the ejournal not because they felt they were undercharging. 5. Why should we let them get away with this? It was probably Librarians who have had the largest rise that never knew about the survey and how many did reply out of those asked we as Librarians know that with a questionnaire the percentage return is very low. Probably only those really interested in having the ejournal replied and were Institutional members told that it would increase by 71% if they said yes? %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%