> I don't quite understand this. Gracing e-journals costs nothing at all;
> reinstating a mistakenly interrupted e-sub costs staff time, if nothing
> else. Gracing print journals costs something, but it is not rocket
science
> to work out the point beyond which not-yet-renewed subscribers are
unlikely
> to do so (one or - for very frequent journals - 2 issues was what I found
> back in the days when I was a journal publisher)
>
> Readers of this list might be interested to know that I passed on the
> original message to members of the Association of Learned and Professional
> Society Publishers, with a query about their own practice. All but one of
> those who have responded so far confirmed that they do already grace
> e-journals - most for 2, some for 3 months. And the one who didn't, wrote
> to say they were changing their policy forthwith!
>
> Sally
>
> NOTE NEW EMAIL ADDRESS - PLEASE UPDATE YOUR RECORDS. THANKS!
>
> Sally Morris, Chief Executive
> Association of Learned and Professional Society Publishers
> South House, The Street, Clapham, Worthing, West Sussex BN13 3UU, UK
>
> Phone: +44 (0)1903 871686 Fax: +44 (0)1903 871457
> E-mail: [log in to unmask]
> ALPSP Website http://www.alpsp.org
>
> Our journal, Learned Publishing, is included in the
> ALPSP Learned Journals Collection, www.alpsp-collection.org
>
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Peter King" <[log in to unmask]>
> To: <[log in to unmask]>
> Sent: Tuesday, January 13, 2004 11:40 AM
> Subject: Re: Gracing of Electronic Journal Subscriptions - How Many
> Publishers Are Adhering to the ASA's Code of Practice?
>
>
> > Dear Rollo
> >
> > The Radiological Society of North America, publisher of "Radiology",
> > claims that gracing would cost it "thousands of dollars". I have
> > pointed out that not gracing costs it the loss of huge amounts of
> > goodwill, but the Society does not seem to be convinced. Perhaps ASA
> > needs to do an educational job here, as well as simply "stressing the
> > importance" of gracing?
> >
> > regards
> >
> > Peter King
> > University of Bristol
> >
> > On Tue, 13 Jan 2004 09:51:13 -0000 Rollo Turner
> > <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> >
> > > Gracing seems to continue to be a problem with some publishers
journals.
> The
> > > ASA has drawn the attention of publishers representative bodies to
this
> > > problem and continues to stress the importance of gracing electronic
> > > journals to publishers at every opportunity. This has certainly helped
> to
> > > reduce the scale of the challenge if not to eliminate it. For a number
> of
> > > (good) reasons many publishers do not wish to publicise their gracing
> policy
> > > and hence the rather dated look to the list. However increasing
numbers
> of
> > > publishers avoid this problem and many other electronic journal
> > > authentication, management and access issues by enabling the agent to
> allow
> > > authentication and access at the time the renewal is processed by the
> agent.
> > > This has helped considerably and we hope more publishers will empower
> agents
> > > in this way.
> > >
> > > Rollo Turner
> > > Secretary General
> > > Association of Subscription Agents and Intermediaries
> > > 10 Lime Avenue
> > > High Wycombe
> > > Bucks HP11 1DP
> > > www.subscription-agents.org
> > > Tel +(0)1494 534778
> > > [log in to unmask]
> > > ----- Original Message -----
> > > From: "Lesley Crawshaw" <[log in to unmask]>
> > > To: <[log in to unmask]>
> > > Sent: Sunday, January 11, 2004 1:29 PM
> > > Subject: Gracing of Electronic Journal Subscriptions - How Many
> Publishers
> > > Are Adhering to the ASA's Code of Practice?
> > >
> > >
> > > Hi,
> > >
> > > Already this year, several emails have arrived informing us that our
> > > electronic access to "subscribed" journals has been terminated. These
> are
> > > all Highwire titles, but at least we get informed that our access has
> been
> > > terminated for Highwire titles, whereas with many other publishers we
> may
> > > not even get informed about our loss of access, and will only find out
> by
> > > our users informing us. At present we have little idea of how many of
> our
> > > subscriptions are affected by such cutoffs in access.
> > >
> > > The first batch of subscription status alerts we received from
Highwire
> were
> > > for titles that expired on the 31st December 2003 - they affected the
> > > following titles:
> > >
> > > American Journal of Sports Medicine
> > > Mycologia
> > > Radiology
> > >
> > > I find it incredible that any publisher would terminate its access to
> its
> > > titles on the 31st December. Who's around to get anything sorted at
that
> > > time?
> > >
> > > I should point out that on checking today, I find that access for two
of
> > > these titles has now been extended, one by a month, and one by 3
months,
> > > which is obviously good news. However, I hadn't received any
> communication
> > > regarding these two extensions. Unfortunately one of our
subscriptions,
> > > Radiology, remains expired.
> > >
> > > The ASA has a code of practice for the gracing of electronic
> subscriptions
> > > which calls "on all publishers to grace their electronic journals for
> the
> > > first two months of the year in an effort to prevent so many customers
> being
> > > denied access to their journals on January 1st each year even when
their
> > > subscriptions have been renewed and pre-paid in good time", which can
be
> > > found at: http://www.subscription-agents.org/egrace.html, but their
list
> of
> > > publishers which grace electronic subscriptions is woefully short, and
> > > doesn't appear to have been updated since June 2002!! Only 14
> publishers
> > > are listed.
> > >
> > > The main problem remains - how do we know what grace period each
> publisher
> > > offers at the beginning of each subscription year for our electronic
> > > subscriptions? Do we have to contact each publisher and ask them? I
> would
> > > recommend that all publishers offer a standard two month gracing
period
> as
> > > recommended by the ASA, rather than each publisher doing it's own
thing!
> At
> > > least then there would be some clarity and we, librarians, publishers,
> > > agents and intermediaries would have a standard to which we could all
> work
> > > to. The present situation with all publishers having different cut off
> dates
> > > for electronic access is a recipe for disaster.
> > >
> > > I realise that some publishers have concerns about gracing, in that it
> could
> > > be seen to encourage poor practice in the whole subscription renewals
> > > process.
> > >
> > > However, the subscriptions renewals process is no longer the simple
> thing it
> > > used to be i.e. renew or cancel. The range of different
> pricing/licensing
> > > policies that publishers are adopting is growing, and many journals
are
> > > moving to publishers with differing pricing policies compared to the
> former
> > > publisher. This in itself must make the whole subscription renewals
> process
> > > more and more of a headache with many institutions having to further
> amend
> > > their instructions to agents, when pricing policies are found to have
> > > changed after the renewal instructions have gone to the agent.
> > >
> > > I should point out that my own institution still hasn't received the
> > > invoices for the majority of our 2004 subscriptions from our major
> agent,
> > > Ebsco, but this is partly the result of our department and our
> institution
> > > undergoing a major reorganisation in the summer of 2003, which has
> required
> > > major changes to our account by Ebsco for 2004. We are also still
> picking up
> > > the pieces from the whole Divine situation.
> > >
> > > Some publishers I've contacted in the past week are still processing
> > > renewals/payments for the 2004 subscription period, which makes
checking
> > > whether subscriptions have been renewed/paid even more difficult.
> > >
> > > In other words there are lots of valid reasons why there may be delays
> in
> > > payment to publishers from agents, delays in publishers processing
> payments,
> > > and delays in subscribers informing agents of their requirements for
> 2004.
> > > The adoption of a standard gracing period by all publishers, whether
> large
> > > or small, would do a lot to alleviate the problems we face each year
> with
> > > loss of access to some of our subscriptions.
> > >
> > > We also need to remember that at the end of the day it is our readers
> that
> > > are inconvenienced by this loss of access, and that they may lose
> patience
> > > with publishers that terminate our access so readily.
> > >
> > > 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]
> > > ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
> > >
> >
> > *****************
> >
> > Dr Peter King
> > Assistant Director (Information Management)
> > University of Bristol Information Services
> > Tyndall Avenue, Bristol BS8 1TJ, United Kingdom.
> >
> > Tel. +44 (0)117 928 8005
> > Fax. +44 (0)117 925 5334
> > Email [log in to unmask]
>
>
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