Issue 167 of the pricing newsletter contained two articles about publishers' methods of pricing electronic journals. This issue contains brief responses in FROM THE MAILBOX and a longer contribution describing a third method of pricing electronic versions of print journals. All these articles touch on the issues of the options all librarians and publishers face in this emergent electronic age - for example, what media we will choose, how they will be priced, whether we can have one without the others and at what cost, how the electronic products are being used, by whom, and what their strengths and weaknesses are. The newsletter editorial board believes these issues ought to be discussed and explored. We invite your response and continued discussion.
169.2 A UK PERSPECTIVE ON FIRM PRICES
Fred Friend, University College London, ucylfjf@ucl.ac.uk.
As Ann Okerson mentioned in her contribution to No. 168 Part 2, ARL libraries were joined by UK academic libraries in the firm prices initiative. As the person from the UK who liaised with Ann at the time, I feel a personal interest in the future of the initiative and recently I conducted a survey of UK experience of firm prices which has been fed into ARL's review of the arrangements. Most UK academic libraries do feel that the initiative has worked, in that some agents and publishers make a serious effort to get the information to us if not by 1 September at least not long thereafter, and certainly we receive fewer supplementary invoices than we did in the pre-firm prices era. My view would be that we should put more pressure upon the agents and publishers who do not supply firm prices in a timely way to give us a better service. Firm prices are what we are entitled to as customers and if publishers and agents take customer care seriously they should be giving us firm prices without any pressure from us. I was very surprised to learn from one major agent that they will only supply firm prices if requested to do so!
169.3 EIGHTEENTH CENTURY JOURNAL PRICING
Albert Henderson, _Publishing Research Quarterly_,
70244.1532@compuserve.com
"Journals are, and always have been, published primarily for library usage." [Arly Allen in no. 166.1.]
David A. Kronick's article, "Economic aspects of scientific journalism in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries," (in Publishing Research Quarterly 11,2:62-79) provides considerable detail on this issue. The Philosophical Transactions was originally Oldenberg's private venture, taken over officially by the Royal Society in 1753 many years after his death. Oldenberg had hoped to generate a profit of 150 pounds a year for his time and trouble. However, evidence suggests he made much less. The Society itself quickly lost money.
Kronick doesn't mention libraries. Typical print runs of 600 to 1200 suggest that the "library market" was probably insignificant insofar as the publishers were concerned. Booksellers probably accounted for the majority of copies sold to the educated public. I believe that the number of libraries at that time was few relative to the number to be found today. In 1788 Arthur Young, publisher of Annals of Agriculture, suggested that landlords buy copies for their tenants. Not surprisingly, his feelings had been bruised by rumors that he was getting rich when he was actually swimming in red ink. At any rate, I hope that some readers of the pricing newsletter would cite some librarians' comments on journal prices from this period.
169.4 ANOTHER PRICING MODEL FOR ELECTRONIC JOURNALS
Beverley Bruce, MCB University Press, ad311@dial.pipex.com.
I was particularly interested to read Kitty Porter's recent contribution to NoSPI on the subject of the separate sale of electronic and printed versions of journals. The question of charging for journals is one of the most critical issues facing academic publishers at this time and the multiplicity of reactions to the dilemma is evidence of publishers' ingenuity (or is that desperation!) when dealing with the new media.
MCB University Press...has decided that this is an issue which simply cannot be fudged. Electronic dissemination of information is the inevitable future and must be wholeheartedly embraced. The critical questions are:
- the pace of transfer;
- the maximisation of value; and
- the continuation/development of the value-added elements which
publishers provide.
Given that there are few answers, MCB has taken the decision to provide as much as possible in terms of new media whilst maintaining the printed journals. Our electronic initiatives have provided an opportunity to assist librarians to maximise the value for money obtained for each subscription by providing electronic delivery as an integral part of the print subscription. A current subscription to an MCB journal comes in three formats all included within the one subscription price:
- printed issues;
- an archival CD ROM containing full text and page images of all articles
published in 1994, 1995 and 1996;
- abstracts of all articles back to and including 1989 volumes (where
applicable); and
- continuous publishing via the Internet with full site licence based on
the site specific domain name.
To ensure multiplicity of access we have provided material in all three formats to allow for maximum utilisation within the institutions which have purchased them. We believe that in providing this integrated approach we are not forcing the customer to choose between one delivery mechanism or the other. Librarians and their institutions with computing capabilities will be ensured the versatility of electronic delivery via the Internet; with multiple access based on the site licensing principle and wider dissemination of their faculty's material. CD ROM will provide a more economical method of archiving for the library; and the printed journals will still be available for hard copy "on the shelf" browsability.
As a publisher it is not often that we find ourselves in a favourable position regarding our library customers, particularly in a climate of ever increasing budget cuts. The inclusion of electronic media plus other services such as free photocopying allowances should enable MCB's librarian customers to maximise the value they receive from their investment in our subscriptions.
169.5 FROM THE MAILBOX
The mailbox is: tuttle@gibbs.oit.unc.edu.
From Dana Roth, Caltech, dzrlib@cco.caltech.edu:
If you would not mind an off-the-wall question related to firm pricing,
why do subscribers have to pay in advance if they are willing to make a
legal commitment to subscribe for a given year. Wouldn't it be wonderful if
we could pay half of the 1997 subscription costs from our 1995-96 budget
and the other half from the 1996-97 budget. Admittedly it is only a one
time bonus, but what better sign on the part of the publishers that they
understand our problems?
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From Frank Norman, National Institute for Medical Research, fnorman@nimr.mrc.ac.uk:
We have just a single JBC print subscription. Some staff had been using the free online version and begged us to take out a subscription for 1996 when that ceased to be free, so we did. I had expected that the 1997 rates would be broadly in line with the 1996 rate so was shocked to see the huge increase. There is no way we can continue with the online subscription -- many (most?) readers still prefer print to screen.
An additional worry for European subscribers is the slow response
time (especially in the afternoon). This is probably due to factors
outside the control of ASBMB (e.g. transatlantic bandwidth) but they
have thus far totally ignored this problem. This contrasts with
mainstream publishers such as Academic Press who have established
both North American and European sites.
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From Ed Pentz, Academic Press London, epentz@apuk.co.uk:
In response to Toni Powell's comment (164.2) regarding the JMB Online licence not allowing access to the public from library machines, the new JMB Online licence allows libraries to provide access to anyone from library terminals. Academic Press has had a lot of feedback regarding its current licence agreement and we have tried to address many of the concerns in the new licence. The full text of the licence can be found at[ http://www.hbuk.co.uk/jmb/nlicence.htm]
For 1997, JMB (http://www.hbuk.co.uk/jmb) and Genomics Online (http://www.idealibrary.com/) are available to institutional print subscribers at no extra charge under the above licence terms.
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Statements of fact and opinion appearing in the Newsletter on Serials
Pricing Issues are made on the responsibility of the authors alone, and
do not imply the endorsement of the editor, the editorial board, or the
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
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The Newsletter on Serials Pricing Issues (ISSN: 1046-3410) is published
by the editor through Academic and Networking 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 27514-8890; Telephone: 919 962-8047; FAX:
919 962-4450. Editorial Board: Deana Astle (Clemson University), Christian
Boissonnas (Cornell University), Jerry Curtis (Springer Verlag New York),
Isabel Czech (Institute for Scientific Information), Janet Fisher (MIT
Press), Fred Friend (University College, London), Charles Hamaker
(Louisiana State University), Daniel Jones (University of Texas Health
Science Center), Michael Markwith (Swets North America), James Mouw
(University of Chicago), and Heather Steele (Blackwell's Periodicals
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Back issues of the Newsletter are archived on 2 World Wide Web sites. At UNC-Chapel Hill the url is: http://www.lib.unc.edu/prices/prices.html. At Grenoble the url is: http://www-mathdoc.ujf-grenoble.fr/NSPI/NSPI.html. ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ 5