Newsletter on Serials Pricing Issues 2000-247

					ISSN: 1046-3410

		  NEWSLETTER ON SERIALS PRICING ISSUES

			NO 247 -- March 21, 2000
			  Editor: Marcia Tuttle


				CONTENTS

  247.1 AN APPEAL TO THE LIBRARIES CONCERNING A NEW JOURNAL,
        Krzysztof Apt
  247.2 NEW PRICING OPTIONS BY MCB UNIVERSITY PRESS, Scott Wicks
  247.3 APS-ALL PRICE INCREASE, Dana Roth
  247.4 ALPSP LEARNED JOURNALS SEMINAR, Sally Morris

247.1 AN APPEAL TO THE LIBRARIES CONCERNING A NEW JOURNAL
Krzysztof Apt, President, Association for Logic Programming, k.r.apt@cwi.nl

[Received March 15, 2000]

THEORY AND PRACTICE OF LOGIC PROGRAMMING (TPLP) (http://www.cwi.nl/projects/alp/TPLP)

This is an appeal to the libraries to subscribe to this new journal. The following background information may clarify the matters. In November 1999 the complete Editorial Board of the Journal of Logic Programming (JLP) of Elsevier Press (50 editors in total) collectively resigned after 16 months of unsuccessful negotiations with Elsevier Press about the price of library subscriptions. They founded a new journal, Theory and Practice of Logic Programming (TPLP) with the Cambridge University Press (CUP). The first issue of TPLP will appear in January 2001. For the current list of accepted papers please consult the home page of the TPLP.

The price per page of the TPLP journal will be approximately 55% lower than that of the JLP. It will initially be published bi- monthly in both print and electronic form. The actual extent and subscription price of TPLP will be announced soon by the CUP in its own advertising campaign. The Founding Editor of the journal is Professor Emeritus Jack Minker of the University of Maryland.

The Association for Logic Programming, acting in full cooperation with the former Editorial Board of the JLP, withdrew its support for the JLP and adopted TPLP as the sole official journal of the ALP. Moreover, several authors withdrew in the meantime their submissions to the JLP and resubmitted them to TPLP. At this moment only one paper handled by the former Area Editors of the JLP is still active for the JLP.

The former Editors agreed to keep their names on the masthead of the JLP until the end of 2000, the moment when all the papers processed by them for the JLP will have been published. Elsevier Press decided to continue the JLP as of 2001 "with another editorial board." The Association, the former Editors, and the logic programming community, strongly believe that there is support for only one logic programming journal.

247.2 NEW PRICING OPTIONS BY MCB UNIVERSITY PRESS
Scott Wicks, Head of Acquisitions, Cornell University Library, sbw2@cornell.edu

[Received March 15, 2000.]

Back in the fall of 1999 I received an announcement regarding the new pricing options for calendar year 2000 (and beyond) offered by MCB University Press. For the first time, this press was offering libraries some options that would guarantee price caps on their journals!

In summary, for libraries spending $5,000 or more with MCB University Press and who renewed 100% of their existing MCB journals or databases, there would be no price increase over 1999. Further, if these libraries were to commit to 100% renewal for three to five years, the 1999 price would hold for the extent of the commitment for up to five years.

There are other options involving consortia deals and bundling with electronic full text that I won't touch on here (see their web site for specifics), but that clearly show MCB is making a real attempt to offer a variety of pricing options.

I found this approach to be a departure from past experience and wrote to MCB University Press to let them know I was aware of their new pricing models and to seek further clarification before sending something to the Newsletter on Serials Pricing Issues. I received a joint response from Kathryn Toledano, Business Development Director, and Bev Bruce, Director of Academic Division, Worldwide. They said:

We have sought to gain a better understanding of the real concerns of librarians and their representative bodies through discussion and research. We are currently exploring other business models following recent discussions with SCONUL and representatives of one of the German consortia.

As a result we are exploring the introduction of a transactional model. Some libraries would welcome such an initiative, others have concerns about the problems it would create. Feedback from your readers would be extremely helpful.

Do you have experience of such a model?
What problems did it create?
If any, can the model be designed to alleviate them?
What pricing and access options would you prefer?

Pricing continues to be an issue for all concerned in the value chain of scholarly publishing. Technology is enabling flexible and creative models to evolve. A process of transition is taking place. For MCB these new models sit alongside the old model of the traditional single annual journal subscription. The new models offer significantly greater choice and value for money -- and we would encourage librarians to make that transition.

In response to your question "... do you believe MCB will have an impact on other publishers or journal pricing in general?" -- We hope that we are being perceived as changing the pricing models; but we are not consciously doing so to change other publishers' models. We are doing it in response to and working with our library customers. Other publishers will do as they see fit. The Board of MCB strongly believes that all parties will have a role in the publishing future, despite the period of disintermediation we have all experienced. In the past we were reproached for not acknowledging changing economics. We hope that we have gone some way to redressing the situation. We will continue to pursue new economic models that will challenge and innovate, and actively seek dialogue with our proponents and adversaries.

For further information please visit MCB's web site: http://www.mcb.co.uk/pricelist

247.3 APS-ALL PRICE INCREASE
Dana Roth, Caltech, dzrlib@library.caltech.edu

[Received March 14, 2000. First paragraph reprinted with permission from SLA-PAM.]

I fully support the new APS pricing structure. A 20% increase for research institutions seems eminently reasonable, given the large number of personal and institutional subscription cancellations over the past few years. Society publishers, in contrast with their commercial counterparts, have long provided an exemplary model for the dissemination of scientific literature. Research libraries, in particular, should be sympathetic to their need to maintain a viable business model. My calculations indicate a less than $3K increase for Carnegie Research Institutions, which could be quickly found by a review of their commercial subscriptions, and identifying only one or two excessively priced titles.

[Dana then adds to his SLA-PAM message the following:]

Another perspective on the APS-ALL subscription price increase is to compare this subscription with a commercial journal at approximately the same price. A combination subscription to Physica has a 2000 subscription price of about $16K compared to APS-ALL at about $14K.

First let's compare the ISI Impact Factors for Physica and Physical Review. The 1998 ISI Impact Factors are taken from: http://www.unizh.ch/onkwww/jour98.html and are followed by the 1996 ISI Impact Factors, from the ISI CD-ROM.

title 1998IF/1996IF

Physica-A 1.2/1.2 Physica-B 0.6/0.9 Physica-C 1.1/1.7 Physica-D 1.6/1.6

Phys. Rev.-A 2.7/2.3 Phys. Rev.-B 2.8/3.0 Phys. Rev.-C 2.3/2.0 Phys. Rev.-D 3.9/3.6 Phys. Rev.-E 2.1/2.1

Although the Physica combination is about $2K more expensive than APS-ALL, it only published 2596 articles in 1996, compared to the 12,568 articles which appeared in the APS journals in 1996. Assuming that the number of articles correlates with the number of pages, Physica publishes about 1/5 as much material as the APS, has about half the average Impact Factor of Physical Review, and has Impact Factors that are either constant or decreasing over time. This strongly suggests 'something is wrong with this picture.'

Who knows, if every one of us stopped by the Elsevier booth at the next convention and registered a complaint, perhaps they might better understand our concerns about the pricing of their products.

[Newsletter editorial board member and SLA-PAM owner David Stern reports that other responses to the APS price increase are archived on the PAMnet Archive site at:

http://listserv.nd.edu/cgi-bin/wa?A1=ind0003&L=pamnet]

247.4 ALPSP LEARNED JOURNALS SEMINAR
Sally Morris, Secretary General, ALPSP, sec-gen@alpsp.org.uk

[Received March 14, 2000]

ALPSP is holding its 16th annual International Learned Journals Seminar on 7 April. The very topical subject this year is linking -- from secondary to and from primary sources, between articles, to and from articles and supporting data. As well as discussing the different kinds of linking and how they can be achieved, very eminent speakers will explore the likely impact on the future information landscape.

The seminar takes place in London on Friday 7 April, and is timed so that visitors who are attending the UKSG conference the following week will be able to include the ILJS in their itinerary.

The full programme, and a booking form, are on our website at www.alpsp.org.uk

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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 Technology and Networks at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, as news is available. Editor: Marcia Tuttle, Email: marcia_tuttle@unc.edu; Telephone: 919 929-3513. Editorial Board: Keith Courtney (Taylor and Francis), Fred Friend (University College London), Birdie MacLennan (University of Vermont), Michael Markwith (Swets Subscription Services), James Mouw (University of Chicago), Heather Steele (Blackwell's Periodicals Division), David Stern (Yale University), and Scott Wicks (Cornell University).

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Back issues of the Newsletter are archived on two World Wide Web sites. At UNC-Chapel Hill the url is: http://www.lib.unc.edu/prices/ At Grenoble the url is: http://www-mathdoc.ujf-grenoble.fr/NSPI/NSPI.html
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