ISSN: 1046-3410
NEWSLETTER ON SERIALS PRICING ISSUES
NO 251 -- June 29, 2000
Editor: Marcia Tuttle
Guest Editor: James Mouw
CONTENTS
251.1 STATUS OF NOSPI ARCHIVE, Marcia Tuttle
251.2 RESPONSE TO FRED FRIEND, Chuck Hamaker
251.3 UPDATE ON APS All VS. PHYSICA, Dana Roth
251.4 SERIAL WAREHOUSING, Scott Piepenburg
251.5 CLARIFICATION OF PRICING MODEL, Richard Meyer
251.6 FIRST SET OF BIOSCIENCE JOURNALS LICENSES CONTENT TO BIOONE,
Alison Buckholtz
251.l STATUS OF NOSPI ARCHIVE
Marcia Tuttle, tuttle@email.unc.edu
Finally, as of June 23, and with many thanks to Editorial
Board member Birdie MacLennan who did the coding, the last six
newsletter issues of 1999 are on the UNC Library Web site at
http://www.lib.unc.edu/prices/ Issues 241 and following will come
shortly. But remember, all issues are up immediately after the email
version goes out on the site in Grenoble, France. That url is
http://www-mathdoc.ujf-grenoble.fr/NSPI/NSPI.html And that site is
searchable. Both urls are listed at the end of each issue.
251.2 RESPONSE TO FRED FRIEND[Received June 19, 2000]
Fred, as usual hits it right on center. By guestimate, the standard 9-10% increase in Euro journals means a 25% increase for European publishers. Rebates?
251.3 UPDATE ON APS All VS. PHYSICA,
Dana Roth, Caltech, dzrlib@library.caltech.edu
[Received June 3, 2000]
Another perspective, on the 20% 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 number of source articles and the ISI Impact Factors for Physica and Physical Review and Physical Review Letters. This data is taken from ISI's Journal Citation Reports for the years 1996-1997-1998 (which is the latest available).
TITLE Source articles Impact Factors Cost $US 1996-1997-1998 1996-1997-1998 1996-1997-1998Physica-A 475- 611- 613 1.21-1.21-1.18 $1,981-$14,428-$15,047 Physica-B 1028-1184- 769 0.86-0.99-0.62 Physica-C 839-1790- 665 1.72-2.20-1.09 Physica-D 254- 287- 353 1.56-1.51-1.57
PhysRev-A 1264-1254-1276 2.32-2.76-2.68 $10,300-$11,230-$12,025 PhysRev-B 4631-4462-4386 2.98-2.88-2.84 PhysRev-C 791- 775- 867 1.99-1.98-2.31 PhysRev-D 1488-1627-1728 3.56-3.42-3.85 PhysRev-E 1683-1872-1930 2.15-2.23-2.07 PhysRevLe 2684-2678-3048 6.48-6.14-6.02
While the Physica combination is currently about $2K more expensive than APS All (even after the 20% increase for 2000), it publishes only about 1/5 as many articles as the APS, and has about half the average impact factor of Physical Review. Furthermore, some of the Physica 'articles' are actually conference papers (e.g. the unusually large number of articles in Physica C in 1997 were the result of publishing what amounted to 1100 Extended Abstracts (i.e. papers limited to 2 pages each) from the International Conference on Materials and Mechanisms of Superconductivity-High Temperature Superconductors - 5th : 1997 : Beijing, China).
This strongly suggests 'something is wrong with this picture'.
251.4 SERIAL WAREHOUSING
Scott Piepenburg, Advanced Information Consultants, Inc.,
spiepenburg@advinfoc.com
[Received June 19, 2000]
A topic that has shown up in this list with increasing frequency is the idea of "document warehousing." The publisher, distributor, whoever, provides access to titles via a web site, often with a password and the customer is free to search to their heart's content. Libraries are freed from the drudgery of claiming, shelving and binding serials, costs are cut, budgets stretched, and everyone is happy. Until the library decides to discontinue a title. All of a sudden, there are no back issues. All those issues a library WOULD have had in print are gone. Access is gone. Maybe the publisher will still allow access to the electronic archives, maybe they won't. It's o.k. though, since the library can always ILL them from someone else. Who? Another electronic library, the publisher?
What are publishers doing with the hard copy, if any? What happens when all these data records become just so many 8-track tapes? If we convert the data, how much do we lose?
This newsletter has indicated many times that "someone, like a few select reposititories, should be the holders of the items." Which libraries? Why the big national and research institutions like the Library of Congress, the British Library, Linda Hall, UCLA, or whomever. Then, if we ever need it, regardless of what happens to the publisher or the technology, THEY will have the item.
Does anybody see any problems here? Who is going to retain what? Are you willing to see your tax dollars fund huge "warehouses" of these periodicals? Who is going to run and get them for you? Do you have any idea how long it takes to retrieve one of these items? I'm going to pass over all of these issues to get to the gist of the message (you knew it had to be coming soon).
For a very short time, I worked as a sales rep for a subscription service company. That was over 10 years ago, but I've always kept my interest in this newsletter. Since I've left there, I've worked for a library software company, a school district, and now a cataloging outsourcer (catalogers out there see me as the lost sheep, but that's a different list!) One division of our company is considered by many to be the "lender of last resort" for journal articles. They pride themselves on their quick turnaround, high fill rate, and reasonable prices. That kind of success becomes self-feeding; the more you can do, the more people turn to you, and the more publishers turn to you for solutions. We adhere to all copyright laws and ethics, we attempt to fill the research needs of those who need the materials and can pay for them, and try to make a profit in the balance. We have runners who go through our own warehouse, as well as at selected libraries around the world looking for things (with the consent of those libraries, since it takes a large ILL load off of them.)
Now we are faced with a new customer. Publishers would like us to scan their publications, some up to the last 15 years. One client's project would require the scanning of almost 25 MILLION pages of text, illustrations, and whatever. This, of course, has to be digitized, organized, and made retrievable. This is where I enter the picture as a cataloger.
We turn this digital information over to the publisher and we get to retain the hard copy for X amount of years, maybe with a fee, maybe not. Do you have any idea how much it costs to store all those publications? Heating and cooling them? Taking up space which we could use to generate other revenue? Yes, there is the other side of the story, that of "academic correctness" and "knowledge retention." Let me remind you that if we, your publishers, your ISP, your vendor, ANYONE doesn't make money, we are history. Then what happens to that collection? Who gets it? Who decides? The bankruptcy court? The authors? A "board of control?"
Some of you may be issuing quick and easy legal and physical solutions; some may have ethical questions, some may consider it a moot point, but I think it is something that we all need to consider. These documents, as they become rarer and rarer, may pass out of the control of the library community and into other, less caring hands. I'm not advocating a total return to print, but before we leap headlong into the "warehouse" and "electronic access" road, we should seriously consider where that next step is, and at what point do we realize that what we thought was a solid road was a wooden bridge rotting behind us.
These are my opinions and not necessarily those of my employer, AIC, Inc.
251.5 CLARIFICATION OF PRICING MODEL
Richard Meyer, rmeyer@express-news.net
[Received June 21, 2000]
[Following several queries from newsletter readers, I asked Richard to clarify the pricing model for his study. Richard's answer is as follows. -Ed.]
For the first agent from a U.S. institution which has a press publishing 5 journals the price is $35 x 5 = $175. Second and subsequent copies to anyone or any other component of the same institution will be $35 each. So, if the library from said institution is the first to order, the price is $175 to the library. If a subsequent second order comes from the library or any other office on the campus, the price is $35 per copy.
In response to the question you partially quote, the librarian ordering needs to check to see how many periodicals are published by the parent institution's press and multiply that number by $35 to calculate the first copy price.
While not trying overly hard to be clever, the pricing of this report is structured to accommodate the discriminatory pricing of publishers in general. For example, if a certain one of the major overseas publishing houses with 800 periodical titles in its stable wants a copy, it will cost $36,000 ($45 x 800). They could then have all the additional copies they want at $35 each. (All orders prepaid, of course.) Since university presses and associations also make money for their campuses and members, the same principle applies to them.
In terms of rationale, this report offers a model which publishers might use to calculate the prices they could set which would restructure their pricing practices to better hide their discriminatory practices. If they want that, they'll have to pay for it. And, obviously, the more titles they publish, the more they can gain from the model.
251.6 FIRST SET OF BIOSCIENCE JOURNALS LICENSES CONTENT TO BIOONE
Alison Buckholtz, Association of Research Libraries,
alison@arl.org
[Received June 22, 2000]
Washington, DC -"BioOne" (www.BioOne.org), a new Web-based aggregation of research in the biological, ecological and environmental sciences, today announced the first set of highly- cited, peer-reviewed journals which has licensed content to BioOne. Additional societies and journals are in the process of signing on and will be announced shortly. BioOne's launch is slated for 2001.
Ambio (Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences); BioScience (American Institute of Biological Sciences); Cell Stress and Chaperones (Cell Stress Society International); The Bryologist (American Bryological & Lichenological Society); and Wetlands and SWS Bulletin Abstracts (Society of Wetland Scientists) have joined BioOne in the past month. BioOne increases functionality of these journals and enhances services to members, especially with its reference linking, broad distribution and library-friendly pricing.
The American Biology Teacher (National Association of Biology Teachers); American Zoologist (Society for Integrative and Comparative Biology); Condor (Cooper Ornithological Society); and Novitates, AMNH Bulletin, and Lecture Series (American Museum of Natural History) are among the dozens of additional journals in the final stages of completing the BioOne licensing agreement.
The journals which have signed on to BioOne in this first stage represent a range of disciplines. They are also highly ranked and well-cited; for example, ISI ranks BioScience fourth of 62, and American Zoologist is seventh out of 115 titles.
Many of the societies and institutions which have licensed content to BioOne are looking to its broad distribution among libraries, through Amigos Library Services, to bring their electronic content to a large number of desktops. BioOne and Amigos have signed a letter of intent naming Amigos BioOne's exclusive U.S. marketer and distributor. This relationship will provide BioOne with access to a marketplace of thousands of libraries across the country. Amigos will also provide full customer and user support for the U.S. market.
Amigos Library Services is a nonprofit organization dedicated to providing resource-sharing opportunities and information technology to libraries. It also markets and supports information technology products to a broad base of institutions and libraries of all sizes, as well as providing training and educational services.
BioOne is scheduled for launch in the first half of 2001. A broad selection of the journals published by many of the AIBS' over 70 member societies will form BioOne's core offerings. BioOne's development has been spearheaded by its collaborating organizations, including the American Institute of Biological Sciences (AIBS), SPARC (the Scholarly Publishing and Academic Resources Coalition), the University of Kansas, the Big 12 Plus Libraries Consortium, and Allen Press. BioOne development has been funded by SPARC and Big 12 Plus member libraries, along with other institutions that are committed to playing a leading role in transforming scientific communications. For more information: www.BioOne.org.
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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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