Rollo,
Let me comment your statement:
RT> The more inefficient the publisher the more they require to
RT> provide a lengthier grace period.
A grace period also depends on production schedule. Normally for
translation journals there is a gap of one-two months between the
original version (in my case in Russian) and its English translation.
And that is a reason to provide a lengthier grace period - in the case
of Turpion journals we offer a three-month grace period.
Lev
Lev Malov
General Manager
Turpion-Moscow Ltd
47 Leninsky pr.
Moscow 119991
Russia
Tel: +7 495 135 6417
Fax: +7 495 135 8860
E-mail: [log in to unmask]
URL: http://www.turpion.org
************************************
Thursday, January 11, 2007, 9:50:14 PM, you wrote:
RT> The ASA did start for a while run such a list of publishers and gracing
RT> periods but it quickly became apparent that many publishers were reluctant
RT> to put there names to it, even though they had good systems, were customer
RT> responsive and graced print and electronic access. The reasons appeared to
RT> be that some were concerned that if everyone knew they automatically graced
RT> then perhaps this might mean a gradual creeping towards ordering and paying
RT> later to take advantage of the grace period. I very much doubt this would
RT> happen - its too risky for agents to play those games and I very much doubt
RT> that libraries would change the way they operate just because of the
RT> existence of a grace period but to be honest I can see why the publishers
RT> might be concerned about this even if I think it is very unlikely to occur.
RT> We probably need a more subtle solution but at the moment it has eluded me,
RT> maybe the wisdom of the list will provide a workable solution to convincing
RT> publishers of the need to run, as Geoff says, a proper subscription system
RT> and to grace e-access for some minimum period. It is certainly the case that
RT> inefficient systems are a major cause of the problem.
RT> As far as the extent of grace periods goes, the ASA recommends two months.
RT> Much more and it can be counter productive as the problem might then only
RT> surface in March! But in reality the period depends on the publisher: some
RT> run very efficient systems, process all orders on the day they are received
RT> etc and access denials are very rare anyhow. The more inefficient the
RT> publisher the more they require to provide a lengthier grace period.
RT> Rollo
RT> Rollo Turner
RT> Secretary General
RT> Association of Subscription Agents and Intermediaries
RT> +44 (0)1494 534778
RT> www.subscription-agents.org
RT> [log in to unmask]
RT> -----Original Message-----
RT> From: An informal open list set up by the UK Serials Group
RT> [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of [log in to unmask]
RT> Sent: 11 January 2007 10:46
RT> To: [log in to unmask]
RT> Subject: Re: Gracing Periods - Why Aren't More Publishers Adopting These?
RT> Rollo,
RT> How about ASA building a list of publishers e-gracing periods on your
RT> website? It would help librarians see who has one (and who doesn't) and
RT> might
RT> shame those who haven't into re-thinking their policy! If you like, you can
RT> start your list with us: we grace all our e-services (journals, databases
RT> and
RT> book collections) for three months.
RT> Toby Green
RT> Head of Dissemination and Marketing
RT> OECD Publishing
RT> Public Affairs and Communications Directorate
RT> http://www.oecd.org/Bookshop
RT> http://www.SourceOECD.org - our award-winning e-library
RT> http://www.oecd.org/OECDdirect - our new title alerting service
RT> +33 1 45 24 94 15 (phone)/ 53 (fax)
RT> 2 rue André Pascal, 75775 Paris Cedex 16, France
RT> Find out more about our new Factbook, a compilation of 100 statistical
RT> indicators from across the OECD's work complete with downloadable Excel
RT> spreadsheets: http://www.oecd.org/publications/factbook
RT> -----Original Message-----
RT> From: An informal open list set up by the UK Serials Group
RT> [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Rollo Turner
RT> Sent: 11 January, 2007 9:45 AM
RT> To: [log in to unmask]
RT> Subject: Re: Gracing Periods - Why Aren't More Publishers Adopting These?
RT> I don't know why but I do know that the ASA has worked hard over the past
RT> few
RT> years to try and educate publishers into gracing electronic journal
RT> subscriptions. It is good customer relations and must also help cuts costs.
RT> You could suggest that the publishers read our statement on gracing
RT> reproduced below and available on the ASA Website at
RT> http://www.subscription-agents.org/news/egrace.html even send them a copy of
RT> it perhaps? It will do nothing to repair this year's damage but it might
RT> help change minds fro next year. The text is below.
RT> Rollo
RT> Rollo Turner
RT> Secretary General
RT> Association of Subscription Agents and Intermediaries
RT> +44 (0)1494 534778
RT> www.subscription-agents.org
RT> [log in to unmask]
RT> Grace periods for electronic journals subscription renewals
RT> The ASA is calling on all publishers to grace their electronic journals for
RT> the first two months of the year in an effort to prevent so many customers
RT> being denied access to their journals on January 1st each year even when
RT> their subscriptions have been renewed and pre-paid in good time. The ASA is
RT> of the opinion that keeping access open for the first two months of the
RT> subscription year would greatly reduce the number of claims and enquiries to
RT> publishers help desks and significantly improve customer service to agents,
RT> intermediaries, librarians and users. To help in this the ASA has drafted a
RT> Code of Good Practice, which we hope will be useful as a guideline to
RT> publishers. We are also happy to list any publishers who grace their
RT> electronic journals on this website.
RT> ----------------------------------------------------------------------------
RT> ----
RT> The Renewal and Gracing of Electronic Journal Subscriptions Code of Good
RT> Practice Electronic journals provide many advantages for libraries and users
RT> amongst which are speed, accessibility and convenience. To this we should as
RT> an industry be able to add a further advantage over print which is the
RT> assurance of continuity at renewal time since access is directly within the
RT> control of publishers and their intermediary service providers rather than
RT> reliant on postal services. Unfortunately this continuity of service has
RT> been
RT> lacking for electronic journals. Too often it is the case that an electronic
RT> journal subscription (with or without a print counterpart) has been renewed
RT> and pre-paid frequently by automated means and in good time, only for the
RT> subscriber to discover on January 1st that their access has been terminated.
RT> In an effort to reduce the number of instances where this happens the ASA
RT> calls on agents, intermediaries and publishers to implement a simple code of
RT> good practice to ensure such breakdowns in accessing electronic
RT> subscriptions
RT> are greatly reduced, thus increasing subscriber satisfaction. The ASA
RT> suggests that many of these instances would be eliminated if agents,
RT> publishers and intermediaries followed the following code of good practice.
RT> 1. Renewals
RT> Subscribers and subscription agents should renew subscriptions for
RT> electronic
RT> journals and electronic/print combination subscriptions in a timely manner
RT> before the end of the subscription period and by automated means wherever
RT> possible. Renewals should, unless other arrangements have been made, be
RT> prepaid with the orders being placed together or on specified dates that are
RT> mutually satisfactory to both publisher and agent. To assist in this,
RT> publishers should aim to produce price information by Aug 31 each year and
RT> to
RT> avoid subsequent changes.
RT> 2. Order processing
RT> Publishers should process the orders promptly so that the subscriptions can
RT> be entered before the end of the subscription period and in time to ensure
RT> continuity. However it is recognised that there are a large number of orders
RT> going through the system at this time, and it may not always be possible to
RT> complete all the order processing before the cut off deadline. Publishers
RT> are
RT> therefore urged to implement step 3 below.
RT> 3. Access
RT> In order to ensure that all subscribers continue to enjoy uninterrupted
RT> access to the electronic journals, publishers should not automatically
RT> terminate access on the last day of the subscription period. Rather they
RT> should wherever possible permit access to the electronic journals for a
RT> further 'grace' period of at least two months.
RT> The ASA believes that a policy of gracing the first two months of electronic
RT> journal subscriptions will be very effective at reducing the number of
RT> subscription breakdowns, claims and queries relating to the renewal of
RT> electronic journals, with consequent savings in costly administration and
RT> improvements in customer service levels.
RT> -----Original Message-----
RT> From: An informal open list set up by the UK Serials Group
RT> [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Lesley Crawshaw
RT> Sent: 10 January 2007 12:20
RT> To: [log in to unmask]
RT> Subject: Gracing Periods - Why Aren't More Publishers Adopting These?
RT> Hi,
RT> It's the same old story again!
RT> It's only 10 days into 2007 and already we are finding that we have already
RT> suffered several losses of access to our electronic journals. We only know
RT> about some of these due to problems being reported by our users or because
RT> we
RT> received automated email alerts from those few services that provide them.
RT> How many more losses of access have we suffered that we have yet to uncover?
RT> It is totally unacceptable for publishers to remove our access to our
RT> subscriptions without first trying to see if there is an underlying problem
RT> that has caused them to believe that a subscription has not been renewed for
RT> 2007.
RT> Yet all of these problems could have been avoided if the publishers in
RT> question had implemented a gracing period. This would give the parties
RT> concerned some time to resolve the problems. Whilst many publishers do
RT> implement gracing periods many don't implement them at all. Another problem
RT> is that different publishers are implementing different gracing periods,
RT> further complicating the situation. Some publishers only implement gracing
RT> on
RT> the print journal, which isn't much help if one has an e-only subscription.
RT> Yesterday we found that we had lost access to the Journal of Wound Care - an
RT> Emap publication. We contacted the publisher and found that although they
RT> had
RT> received payment, they hadn't updated our account. The excuse given was that
RT> this didn't always automatically happen when we used an agent. This is
RT> sloppy. We had the same problem last year and the excuse given was the same.
RT> We have also lost access to the American Journal of Psychiatry, several MIT
RT> Press journals. Several other journals that we had lost access to have now
RT> had access restored and these include Radiology and Endocrinology. In fact
RT> we
RT> lost access to a number of journals towards the end of last year and in
RT> these
RT> cases the problem appears to have been related to the fact that the
RT> publishers concerned had entered the subscription period from the date they
RT> received payment from our agents rather than the subscription period that
RT> that payment was for (but that's another story).
RT> Can I please urge that all publishers/intermediaries implement a decent
RT> gracing period as a matter of urgency. It is really unfair that we are
RT> losing
RT> access when publishers are still processing payments from agents.
RT> As with many other institutions this is a very busy time of the year for our
RT> electronic journals. Penalising our users who are increasingly confused and
RT> bemused about why they can't access some of the journals is really not on!
RT> The purpose of gracing is to give agents/librarians/publishers some time to
RT> resolve errors that may have happened in the renewal process, which is an
RT> increasingly complicated process as publishers change their subscription
RT> policies/options. We all need to live in the real world where mistakes do
RT> happen.
RT> Cheers
RT> Lesley
RT> ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
RT> Lesley Crawshaw, Faculty Information Consultant,
RT> Learning and Information Services
RT> University of Hertfordshire, Hatfield, AL10 9AB
RT> ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
RT> email: [log in to unmask]
RT> phone: 01707 284662 fax: 01707 284666
RT> list owner: [log in to unmask]
RT> ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
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