You may like to know that readership of Internet Archaeology has doubled
over the past 12 months and numbers have climbed to just under 20,000, 
incorporating individuals from over 96 different countries!

Presently, the journal is funded by the eLib program
<http://www.ukoln.ac.uk/services/elib/>, having made a successful bid to
eLib for further funding in 1998. However, this funding is on
a reducing scale and cannot be renewed beyond 2001, so we must now look at
other potential sources. We have already started to generate income
through publication subventions (issue 5 carried two papers with
subventions from Historic Scotland and English Heritage respectively) and
this is certainly a growing revenue source, but subventions, at least in
the short term, are unlikely to cover all the journal's costs. Nor do we
feel that any other organisation could be persuaded to pick up our core
funding (although we're willing to be proved wrong!), so, the only other
option available to us at present, and one that we must now explore, is to
charge for access and cover our costs through subscriptions.

The introduction of subscriptions to Internet Archaeology was planned for
1997 but was not implemented because cultural change and the 'take-up'
rate of the Internet had been slower than we'd anticipated. We also felt
that there would be considerable opposition to charging - and there are
many that would still declare that 'everything on the web should be free'.
This may be a wonderful ideal to aspire to, but the real world
unfortunately intervenes and the web of the late 1990s places a premium on
quality - the journal has staff, editing, administrative as well as
technical costs to cover. However a recent survey that many of you
responded to in February 1999
<http://intarch.ac.uk/news/evaluation/index.html> has encouraged us that
now, almost three years on, may be a better time for pursuing
subscriptions. 

Although around half of you in our survey stated that you would probably
not pay for access to the journal should individual subscriptions be
introduced, institutional subscriptions provoked a more positive response.
At least 50% of you said that you would consider recommending your library
or employer to take out a site-wide subscription (institutional 'site
license') to the journal. 

The survey results have encouraged us and confirmed our thinking about how
to proceed. The Internet Archaeology Steering Committee has recently
decided to take steps towards implementing institutional site licenses,
but *not* individual subscriptions, within the next year. Progress is
being made over the many practical and technical changes that such a model
requires, but we are keen that the cost of annual site licenses, providing
every member of that 'institution' (library/unit/organisation) access to
all the material published in the journal (including back issues), should
not be more than about 100 UKP/180 dollars per annum.

We understand that we are one of the first to dip our toes into these
still muddied and dangerous waters, so Internet Archaeology would very
much like to hear *your* reactions and responses to these plans. We are
sure that the journal is one of quality and that it is worth paying for,
but it is only with the support of the wider archaeological community that
Internet Archaeology, however it is funded, will succeed. 

Judith
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 
Judith Winters
Editor, Internet Archaeology  http://intarch.ac.uk

Department of Archaeology,
King's Manor,
University of York
YO1 7EP,  UK 
Tel: +44 1904 433955
Fax: +44 1904 433939













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