Hi,
I thought this problem which arose for me today might be of interest to this
list as it illustrates some of the problems all of us face trying to keep
our online access up and running.
We have a current subscription to the British Journal of Psychiatry to which
I activated our online access through Highwire back in January 2001.
I recently received an email from one of our users saying that "I am unable
to access The British Journal of Psychiatry via our Institutional
subscription (Customer Number C007101). I receive the message that the
subscription
has expired on 07/03/02"
I checked and found that our subscription to this title was renewed and our
agents paid by us back in October/November 2001. However, on visiting the
Highwire site I noticed that the publisher had changed from the Royal
Society of Medicine Press to Maney Publishing. This probably explains why
the subscriber number was no longer valid as it tends to be publisher
dependant. However on other areas of the British Journal of Psychiatry
journal site the old publisher was still being listed!!
I contacted Maney Publishing who were able to provide me with the new
subscriber number, and confirm that our subscription had been paid. In fact
they provided me with two subscriber numbers, one of which was for a lapsed
subscription and one for a current subscription. Since we have only ever had
one subscription I can only assume that this error is between the agents and
the publisher - maybe caused by the change in publisher and the ordering of
the title from the new publisher.
I then went to reactivate our access to the British Journal of Psychiatry
using the new subscriber number via Highwire and was informed that:
"The Customer Number you have given is for a RCP Online Member and
Individual (non-Member) Subscription, not an Institutional Subscription".
I now have to wait for the new publisher of this journal to get our online
access sorted, pity they couldn't have pre-empted this from happening in the
first place!!
I have a number of comments regarding this situation:
1. Surely when journals change publishers steps should be taken to avoid
online access falling over. This could easily be done by an extension of the
grace period so that users are not inconvenienced when journals change
publishers. It would also give the new publisher time to get their records
in order for their subscriptions.
2. I am not aware of any communication by either the Royal College of
Psychiatrists or Maney Publishing to alert subscribers of the journal that
the subscriber number for this title had changed and that they would need to
reactivate their online access using the new subscriber number. Maybe others
on the list have received this information?
3. If this was an online only subscription would we be entitled to a rebate
for the lack of access to this title during the subscription period??
That's all for now folks!
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]
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
|
