48.2 UPDATE TO PUBLISHER PRICE LISTS RECEIVED , Sandy Gurshman
48.3 _PHOSPHOROUS, SULFUR, SILICON AND THE RELATED ELEMENTS_: PRICING DATA , Deana Astle,
48.4 _RIGHTS: COPYRIGHT AND RELATED RIGHTS IN THE SERVICE OF CREATIVITY , Marcia Tuttle
Since the last mention in the newsletter of 1993 journal prices, Springer Verlag has set its exchange rate for US libraries at DM1.50 to the dollar. This is the time of year when pricing information is rampant and changes rapidly. The latest information from subscription agents is more depressing than what they have told us before, because the value of the US dollar continues to fall. This, of course, is to the benefit of non-US librarians purchasing US journals.
The front page of a new newsletter from BH Blackwell, _BHB Review_, has this to say (I saw no copyright notice and no editor named):
A major factor governing effective price rises this year will be movement of the US dollar against European currencies. In September 1991 the dollar stood at $1.70 to the pound whereas in mid-July 1992 the rate was over $1.90 to the pound -- an effective devaluation of 12%. This is mirrored in its movement against other European currencies. For British and European Libraries this is good news. Prices for American material will be at the same level in sterling as in 1992, but British libraries will still experience inflation of 9-11% on European journals. We predict an overall increase of 7% for British academic and research libraries with a wide range of domestic and overseas titles. For North American Libraries, erosion of the US and Canadian dollars will increase the effective cost of European material substantially. Taken in conjunction with predicted inflation figures we expect North American libraries to have to pay 23 - 25% more for European journals, but only 10 - 12% more for US material. We predict an overall increase of about 18 - 20% for American academic and research libraries with a wide range of domestic and overseas titles. A final factor affecting pricing is increases in pagination. Some publishers have made a stand by holding 1993 page levels at 1992 levels but most will expand the size of journal issues to accommodate the explosion of academic information.... The element of the price rise varies from 0% in one case up to 6% in others. Our message to publishers is, and always has been, that price rises consistently above inflation lead to inevitable cancellations by the library community. Reduced circulations restrict the flow of information and neither the researcher, nor the publisher, nor the librarian will gain in the long term.
Faxon's pre-LITA pricing information (September 9, 1992) is as follows:
Since our latest price projection update (dated August 17, 1992), the US dollar exchange value has continued to fall against European currencies. Based on the latest information on publisher price increases, the current value of the US dollar, and fixed currency exchange rates set by major European publishers, Faxon is updating projections for the cost of 1993 subscriptions to US libraries.... The change affects only ... titles published outside the US where the publishers have floating exchange rates. The difference from our earlier projection is due solely to an increase in the currency exchange factor because of the weaker US dollar. We now predict that the impact of currency exchange will add 10% to the cost of these titles, whereas our last update predicted 5%. In fact, the US dollar is 13 to 15% lower than last year as of today. We still expect some recovery by the time the 1993 orders are placed, bringing us to the 10% figure. If the dollar does not strangthen, however, the total increase on these titles could be as high as 25%. Based on our new projections, a typical academic library with a 50% US and 50% non-US collection (in dollars expended) can expect an overall increase in the range of 17 to 20%. Libraries with a higher proportion of non-US titles should expect a higher overall average rate of increase.Thanks, Faxon, for clarifying the 50/50 example.
I also received a nicely-printed (recycled paper) booklet from EBSCO titled "Serial Price Projections: 1993." Unfortunately, the projections are based on late-July exchange rates. But there are charts and graphs showing pricing data for various types of libraries over the last five years, as well as month-by-month performance of the US dollar against five European currencies since November 1991.
48.2 UPDATE TO PUBLISHER PRICE LISTS RECEIVED Sandy Gurshman, Readmore Academic, gurshman@readmore.com.
Since the previous list appeared in the Newsletter August 4, a number of high-profile publishers have released their 1993 price lists to agents. Also, Elsevier, Kluwer, and Pergamon have established their exchange rates. Two UPs (Duke and Penn State) were inadvertently omitted from the earlier list. Readmore has received to date (9/4/92) lists from these additional publishers:
Academic UK (8/5)
American Mathematical Society (8/5)
American Medical Association (8/12)
Aspen (8/19)
Blackwell (8/26)
British Medical Journal (8/20)
Cahners (8/20)
Cambridge Scientific Abstracts (8/18)
Cambridge University Press (8/20)
Carfax (8/17)
Chapman & Hall (8/12)
Churchill Livingstone (9/1)
Commonwealth Agriculture Bureau (8/25)
Congressional Quarterly (8/20)
Current Science (8/17)
DeGruyter (8/5)
Grune & Stratton (8/11)
Guilford (8/21)
Heldref (8/10)
Johns Hopkins University Press (8/20)
Little Brown (8/31)
MCB University Press (8/12)
MIT Press (8/11)
Raven (8/3)
Saunders (8/11)
Society for General Microbiology (8/31)
Springer Verlag (9/2)
Taylor & Francis (8/31)
Thieme (8/25)
Turpin (8/20)
Wiley (8/27)
Williams & Wilkins (9/4)
We will report probably once more in 1992 on any additional publishers lists.
To shed some light on the question of 1993 prices, here are comparisons of 1992 and 1993 exchange rates from Elsevier, Kluwer, and Pergamon ($1.00 = other currency):
1993 1992
Elsevier BV Dfl 1.66 2.02
Elsevier UK PS 0.53 0.619
Kluwer Dfl 1.60 1.97
Pergamon PS 0.53 0.625
The 1993 rates reflect the publishers' response to the weaker position of the dollar.
48.3 _PHOSPHOROUS, SULFUR, SILICON AND THE RELATED ELEMENTS_: PRICING DATA Deana Astle, Clemson University, DLAST@CLEMSON.CLEMSON.EDU.
_Phosporous, Sulfer, Silicon and the Related Elements_: Published by Gordon and Breach
Volume block 55-63 (1991) @ $484: (9 vols) = $4356
V. 55 288p. (1 physical piece)
V. 56 285p. (1 physical piece)
V. 57 301p. (2 physical pieces--#1-2 and #3-4)
V. 58-V.59 (combined in one physical piece) 587p.
This piece of two volumes cost $968 and consisted of the _Proceedings
of the 14th International Symposium on the Organic Chemistry of Sul-
fur_ in Lodz, Poland, Sept. 2-7, 1990. Text was photo-offset from the
submitted papers.
V. 60 301p. (2 physical pieces--#1-2 and #3-4)
V. 61 389p. (2 physical pieces--#1-2 and #3-4)
V. 62 282p. (1 physical piece)
V. 63 408p. (2 physical pieces--#1-2 and #3-4)
Volume block 64-73 (1992) @ $666: (10 vols) $6600
V. 64-V.65 (combined in one physical piece) 374 p.
This piece of two volumes cost $1332 and consisted of the _Proceedings
of the 6th International Symposium on Inorganic Ring Systems_, Berlin,
August 18-22, 1991. Again, the papers were printed as submitted and
not reset in type.
V. 66. (couldn't locate in stacks)
V. 67 472 p. (1 physical volume) _Proceedings of the 6th
International Conference on the Chemistry of Selenium and
Tellurium_. Osaka, Japan July 9-13, 1991.
V. 68 311 p. (1 physical piece)
The 1991 volumes averaged $1.53 per page, the volumes for 1992 are averaging
$2.30 per page, a 50% increase in one year. The cost per volume increased
37.6%. The figures used were taken from the Faxon database and
represent what we at Clemson paid for this title.
48.4 _RIGHTS: COPYRIGHT AND RELATED RIGHTS IN THE SERVICE OF CREATIVITY_ Marcia Tuttle, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, tuttle@gibbs.oit.unc.edu.
I recommend this publication to all newsletter readers who are concerned with copyright. It is published quarterly (16 page issues) by the International Publishers Association (IPA) and the International Group of Scientific, Technical and Medical Publishers (STM), and it reflects the publishing industry's views on the topic. I have received volume 6, number 2 (1992), which reports on "electronic publishing issues as they were discussed at ... the 24th Congress of the ... IPA in New Delhi from January 27-31, 1992, and then an STM seminar on 'Electrocopying, Document delivery, Current Awareness versus STM Publishers, Marketing and Copyright Objectives' held in Amsterdam from March 4 to 6." Among other things it includes the text of a talk given by Karen Hunter of Elsevier at the AAP/PSP annual meeting in February 1992, "Document Delivery: Issues for Publishers."
_Rights_ (ISSN: 1011-0240) is available on subscription for $45 US a year (check or money order) from International Publishers Association, Avenue de Miremont 3, CH-1206 Geneva, Switzerland.
The NEWSLETTER ON SERIALS PRICING ISSUES (ISSN: 1046-3410) is published by the editor through the Office of Information Technology at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, as news is available. Editor: Marcia Tuttle, Internet: tuttle@gibbs.oit.unc.edu; Paper mail: Serials Department, CB #3938 Davis Library, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill NC 27599-3938; Telephone: 919 962-1067; FAX: 919 962-0484. Editorial Board: Deana Astle (Clemson University), Jerry Curtis (Springer Verlag New York), Charles Hamaker (Louisiana State University), James Mouw (University of Chicago), and Heather Steele (Blackwell's Periodicals Division). The Newsletter is available on BITNET/Internet and Blackwell's CONNECT. EBSCO and Readmore Academic customers may receive the Newsletter in paper format from these companies. Back issues of the Newsletter are available electronically free of charge through electronic mail from the editor. To subscribe to the newsletter, send a message to LISTSERV@GIBBS.OIT.UNC.EDU saying SUBSCRIBE PRICES-L [YOUR NAME]. Be sure to send that message to the listserver and not to Prices-l. You must include your name. To unsubscribe (no name necessary in message), you must send the message from the e-mail address by which you are subscribed. If you have problems, please contact the editor.