======================================================================== Date: Mon, 01 Oct 90 21:54 EST Subject: PRICING NEWSLETTER, NO. 27 ISSN: 1046-3410 NEWSLETTER ON SERIALS PRICING ISSUES NUMBER 27 -- October 2, 1990 Editor: Marcia Tuttle CONTENTS FROM THE EDITOR, Marcia Tuttle RESPONSES TO PRICE INCREASES, Various Subscribers ACM PUBLICATIONS PRICE INCREASES, Harry Llull INFORMATION INFRASTRUCTURE FOR THE 1990S, Brian Kahin ELECTRONIC JOURNAL BEING MARKETED IN HOSPITALITY RESEARCH, Lon Savage CAN ELECTRONIC PUBLISHING SOLVE THE SCIENCE LIBRARY CRISIS? H. H. Barschall HAMAKER'S HAYMAKERS, Chuck Hamaker FROM THE EDITOR Marcia Tuttle, TUTTLE@UNC.BITNET The "We're Not Perfect" Department. Steve Thompson from Brown Univer- sity sends this correction, for which I thank him: The citation to Gordon Graham's article "A Scholarly Confrontation" in #26 of the NEWSLETTER ON SERIALS PRICING ISSUES is incorrect. The article is contained in the August 24 issue of PW, but it is in the PUBLISHERS WEEKLY INTERNATIONAL SUPPLEMENT, which is not contained in the main PW contents. The page number is thus S4, not 54. RESPONSES TO PRICE INCREASES Various Subscribers We received invoices for 1991 prices for Elsevier and Springer Verlag last week from our continental subscription agent and compared 1991 prices with 1990 prices. Publisher # Titles 1990 1991 % Increase Elsevier 22 $33,463.96 $44,777.42 33% Springer Verlag 41 $30,466.82 $38,677.95 27% Overall these 63 titles increased 30 percent in price over last year, and their 1991 cost will be 14.3 percent of our entire state materials budget! How are we going to cope? On August 31, I finalized a list of 390 proposed journal cancellations (approximately 25 percent of our subscriptions) which is now being reviewed by faculty and the Library Committee (it only amounts to $65,000 at 1990 prices). We have also drastically revised our plans for book purchasing, eliminating most foreign publishers from our approval plan. (Danny Jones, University of Texas Health Sciences Center, San Antonio) We compared the SUNY Buffalo Elsevier list for 1990 and 1991, using the exchange rate set by Elsevier for 1991 prices. The 1990 prices were what we actually paid. A total of 134 titles were examined. Over- all, we will be paying $39,647.82 for those 134 titles, an average increase of 35.6 percent. For the 18 titles published in New York, the average increase was a mere 15.2 percent; UK titles, 31.7 percent; Swiss titles 37.4 percent, and the Amsterdam list increased an average of 36.8 percent. Our legislated materials budget increase was around 5.3 percent. Obviously, that amount will not take us very far in the journal billings. Ultimately, our ability to purchase monographs for FY 1990/91 will be reduced by the difference. Are any monograph pub- lishers concerned about the spiraling serials increases? Since one of the more common strategies is to cut down on book purchases to protect the serials investment, what reaction do they have? Or, are there any monograph publishers who don't have a serials publishing arm to make up the difference? Our university has experienced a 9.3 million dollar cut for FY 90/91; where are we realistically supposed to obtain the funds to continue paying for journals? And 91/92 looks to be worse. I anticipate another round of cancellations next year. We have attempted to seek some relief from the state capital because of the large number of foreign subscriptions we maintain, but we have no idea if the state can find the funds to help. 1991 is going to be a very difficult year, not just because of Elsevier, but with the continuing upward climb of journal prices in general. (Susan Davis, SUNY Buffalo) Excerpts from memo to librarians and faculty library liaisons: Over the past six weeks the FY 1990/91 library materials budget has gone through two phases. Phase one began in late August when the library was notified that it would receive the same allocation as in FY 1989/ 90, $3,316,769. Although at that time the base budget remained the same as last fiscal year, costs have risen dramatically. Serials sub- scription prices are expected to increase by an astonishing average of 12.5 percent (some foreign serials are expected to rise between 24 percent and 35 percent!!) and standing order prices by 7 percent. To cover increases in subscription costs, $86,322, book allocations for FY 1990/91 were initially reduced by an average of 8.7 percent. Other allocations such as binding were also reduced. Phase two began Septem- ber 12, when the library had to revert $200,209 from its FY 1990/91 base materials allocation. The September 12 reversion resulted in a further 21 percent decrease in book allocations for FY 1990/91, bring- ing the total reduction in this line to about 30 percent. Be aware of the fact that the library could experience additional reversions or freezes at any time during the next several months. Departments are STRONGLY encouraged to cancel serials and standing order subscrip- tions. A 50 percent CANCELLATION CREDIT HAS BEEN MADE AVAILABLE FOR SERIALS CANCELLATIONS UNDERTAKEN DURING THE CURRENT FISCAL YEAR. (John S. Shipman, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill) Also at UNC-CH, we are identifying particularly large dollar and per- cent subscription increases and calling them to the attention of de- partmental librarians and bibliographers, instead of just sending the usual written notice. Our acquisitions assistants have been asked to make sure that they get the notices written (despite our 40 percent vacancy rate) and that the department head is informed of the increas- es. At the same time, we are taking a look at journals we receive from international publishers and plan to work with departmental librarians to identify and cancel any titles that are marginal to the collection. We selected these publishers because it is a way of identifying a high proportion of very expensive titles. (Marcia Tuttle, UNC-CH) I don't know about other institutions but at ours the faculty do not seem to be totally supportive of our efforts. We are increasingly hearing faculty call for us to reduce staff in order to protect the collection budget. We have been doing this for several years now by eliminating services and not replacing staff, but perhaps we have not been clear about why we are doing this. I would be curious to know if others are having the same experience, as it can be distressing and depressing at times. How do they respond when the faculty says to fire staff, especially when they are already understaffed? (From a librar- ian who asked to remain anonymous) ACM PUBLICATIONS PACKAGE PRICE INCREASES Harry Llull, Centennial Science and Engineering Library, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque NM; HLLULL@UNMB.BITNET. We just received our bill for the Association for Computing Machinery publications package. Although these types of packages are still com- paratively good deals in terms of the amount you receive and the scholarly level and interest, these prices seem to be going up as high as for-profit publishers and foreign journals. Our 1991 price in- creased by 22.5 percent over 1990 and 45.2 percent over 1989. Our package includes the SIGpackage, Publications Package, and the Refer- ence Guide. Each part increased at different rates, with the Publica- tions Package showing a 38.4 percent increase over 1990. If other society publishers show this kind of increase, it appears that the predictions of 20 to 30 percent and over increases for journals will apply to more of our overall budget than just the foreign journals or those titles produced by the large for-profit publishers. INFORMATION INFRASTRUCTURE FOR THE 1990S Brian Kahin, Kennedy School of Government, KAHIN@HULAW1.BITNET. The John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University an- nounces a three-day workshop/symposium on issues and strategies in the development of information infrastructure at the local, state, and national level. This event, scheduled November 29 through December 1, is hosted by the Strategic Computing and Telecommunications Program and the Science, Technology and Public Policy Program. Sponsors in- clude Bellcore, Digital Equipment Corporation, Electronic Data Sys- tems, IBM, Northern Telecom, and Ohio Bell. Occasioned by the rapidly growing interest in the National Research and Education Network (NREN), the program is designed for a diverse audience of planners and policy-makers in government, industry, and education. It will combine in-depth analysis of technological, econom- ic, and legal issues with the insights of leaders in networking and infrastructure development. Commissioned papers will be presented and discussed, and case studies and other special materials will actively engage participants in developing analyses and plans appropriate to their own institutional interests and the formation of state and na- tional policy. BACKGROUND. The spectacular growth of the Internet, especially the NSFNET component, has helped generate broad-based enthusiasm for a National Research and Education Network. The Office of Science and Technology Policy's "Federal High Performance Computing Program" and S. 1067, "The National High-Performance Computing Act of 1990," pro- posed by Senator Albert Gore, Jr., call for a major federal investment in the NREN -- as well as in advanced computing resources, software, information services, basic research, and human resources. Despite the billing given to advanced computing, it is the NREN that gives these proposals coherence and support from an ever-widening constituency. While originally focused on scientific research, the case for an expanded research and education internetwork has been increasingly generalized to encompass use by private R & D facilities, secondary schools, public libraries, hospitals, and other organiza- tions -- as well as the government agencies that interact with these users. Accordingly, it is often touted as a prototype for a universal broadband infrastructure that will be commercially supported and oper- ated. To a large extent the NREN vision is modeled on existing state and regional networks, and the structural framework is whether the present landscape of interconnected autonomous networks would change with increased funding and coordination at the national level. How should the NREN and other "quasi-public internetworks" supported by states and university/industry consortia be financed and organized as they grow in scope, scale, and functionality? What purposes should they serve? What services should they provide? Where and when do they in- volve or defer to private vendors? How should they connect or interop- erate with different types of private networks, state and federal general purpose networks (such as FTS 2000), public packet-switched networks, commercial information services, and evolving forms of broadband public networks? PROGRAM OUTLINE. Public Policy Perspectives: What has been and what should be the motivating vision for the development of research and education networks as a matter of federal science and technology poli- cy? What are the strategic issues for similar initiatives at the state level? How does the tiered and decentralized U.S. approach compare with efforts underway in Europe and Japan? COMMISSIONED PAPERS: Lewis Branscomb, Harvard KSG; David Farber, Uni- versity of Pennsylvania; Jerry Mechling, Harvard KSG Current and Future Players: Who are the players, near-term and long- term, in quasi-public networking -- and how is their environment changing? What commercial forces are coming into play -- and where? How will regulatory policies and marketing issues affect the partici- pation of the RBOCs? Richard Mandelbaum, NYSERNET/University of Rochester; Terrence McGar- ty, NYNEX/MIT Technological Issues: What are the issues in designing the architec- ture of the NREN? How will it be influenced by two orthogonal forces: 1) high-bandwidth applications that press technological frontiers and put extraordinary demands on network resources; and 2) growing demand for access to basic services by an increasingly broad spectrum of users? Leonard Kleinrock, UCLA; Larry Smarr, National Center for Supercomput- er Applications; Ken Klingenstein, University of Colorado Economic Issues: What are the economic models for data networks as infrastructure and what do they reveal about the roles for public and private investment? How do the microeconomics of "connectionless" packet-switched networking as used in the Internet and NREN differ from public data network implementations -- and from the evolving voice network technologies? How do these differences inform pricing policies and strategies within different market and institutional environments? Gerald Faulhaber, Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania; William Hogan, Harvard KSG The Role of Information: How will information behave in the NREN en- vironment? How will this vary from sector to sector? What roles will public and proprietary information play and how will they interact? What can be done to facilitate flow and interaction? Henry Perritt, Villanova Law School; Brian Kahin, Harvard KSG Summary: How do these analyses inform the management and financing of the NREN? How do they inform state and local initiatives? -- and the relationship between state, national, and international infrastruc- tures? Steering Committee The steering committee for "Information Infrastructure for the 1990s" includes: Brian Kahin, Project Director, Science, Technology, and Public Policy Program; Jerry Mechling, Director, Strategic Computing and Telecommunications Program; Lewis Branscomb, Director, Science, Technology, and Public Policy Program. The members of the committee have been individually involved in policy development for the NREN on behalf of the U.S. Congress Office of Technology Assessment, the Fed- eral Research Internet Coordinating Committee, and EDUCOM's Networking and Telecommunications Task Force. The Project also hosted a workshop in March 1990 on commercialization of the Internet, sponsored by the National Science Foundation and the Office of Technology Assessment. Registration is $750 government/nonprofit, $1500 commercial. For reg- istration materials and other information contact: The Strategic Computing and Telecommunications Program John F. Kennedy School of Government Harvard University 79 John F. Kennedy Street Cambridge MA 02138 (617) 495-3036 ELECTRONIC JOURNAL BEING MARKETED IN HOSPITALITY RESEARCH Lon Savage, Scholarly Communications Project, Virginia Tech, SAVAGE@VTVM1.BITNET. The International Academy of Hospitality Research, which announced plans last spring to launch an electronic, refereed journal with copy- righted articles and paid subscriptions, has begun marketing the jour- nal and plans to send out the first issue in late October or early November. THE JOURNAL OF THE INTERNATIONAL ACADEMY OF HOSPITALITY RESEARCH will be sent to subscribers via BITNET and the Internet at annual subscrip- tion rates of $30 for libraries, $20 for individuals and $10 for stu- dents. Publisher is the Scholarly Communications Project (SCP) at Virginia Polytechnic Institute & State University. The SCP is a non- profit initiative established to explore electronic communication of scholarly information. Fellows of the International Academy will serve as authors, editors, and advisers for the journal. President of the Academy is Dr. Michael D. Olsen, Head of Virginia Tech's Department of Hotel, Restaurant and Institutional Management; Dr. Mahmood Khan and Dr. Eliza Tse of the department are Editor and Managing Editor of the journal, respectively, and Lon Savage of Virginia Tech is Director of the SCP. Letters and brochures were sent in early September to several hundred faculty at degree-granting hotel school programs and to libraries, soliciting paid subscriptions to the electronic journal. Limited re- sponses indicate that libraries and faculty members are interested in receiving the journal. Many of them are prepared to cope with elec- tronic journals, but many are not. Subscribers -- whether libraries or individuals -- will have to make their own arrangements for handling the journal once the issues are received, because of vast differences in local equipment, procedures, and practices. Indications are that some libraries may print the jour- nal issues and put them on shelves; some will convert the issues to floppy disks. At least one library is establishing a separate e-mail address to which the journal -- as well as possible future electronic journals -- will be sent. At Virginia Tech, home of the journal, the University Library plans to make it available on hard copy, on floppy disk within the Library, and online through the local area network. Charles A. Litchfield of the Library staff said they foresaw no problems. He said the Library would catalog it "like any other journal title and add it to both our local system (VTLS) and to the bibliographic utility we belong to (OCLC)." The Library, he said, "is of course willing to address these issues because we feel that this is the first of many electronic journals to which we will eventually subscribe." Some libraries indicate they have not yet worked out a procedure for handling electronic scholarly journals, despite interest in them. Some respondents indicate they do not have access to BITNET or the Inter- net. Others indicate their institutions have such access but they do not have individual e-mail addresses. The SCP hopes the journal will encourage solutions to such problems. Although the journal was established as a refereed journal in hospi- tality research, a secondary, and very important, purpose is to en- courage electronic communication of scholarly information. When schol- ars show willingness to pay for the information in an electronic jour- nal, libraries that have not done so are under some compulsion to work out a procedure for handling that journal; similarly, colleges, uni- versities, and other institutions in the field that do not have access to networks are placed under additional pressure to obtain such ac- cess; and faculty members and students who have not bothered to obtain e-mail addresses have added reason to obtain and use them. As the result of many such decisions, it is hoped that the journal will help establish and enlarge the necessary infrastructure for electronic journals to succeed. Problems in setting up such an infrastructure are anticipated, and subscribers will be allowed "to play a part in the pioneering nature of the journal by participating in exchanges of information about its effectiveness," according to the brochure mailed to potential sub- scribers. The SCP will try to arrange for subscribers to compare notes on how they are coping with the problems. Although a large subscription is not anticipated, nor even desired, the SCP hopes that potential subscribers -- and especially libraries -- will not avoid the journal because of fear of technological prob- lems. Libraries must play an active part in encouraging electronic journals, not only by endorsing the concept but also by fitting them into their day-to-day operations. Further information about JIAHR may be obtained from Lon Savage, Scholarly Communications Project, Virginia Tech, 1700 Pratt Drive, Blacksburg VA 24061-0506; tel. (703) 231-4922; e-mail SAVAGE@VTVM1.BITNET. Information about how Virginia Tech's library plans to handle the journal may be obtained from Charles (Buddy) Litchfield, tel. (703) 231-3067; e-mail BUDDYL@VTVM1.BITNET. CAN ELECTRONIC PUBLISHING SOLVE THE SCIENCE LIBRARY CRISIS? AAAS Symposium H. H. Barschall, Department of Physics, University of Wisconsin - Madison, Madison WI 53706; NUCLEAR@WISCNUC. The rapid increase in volume and cost of science serials has resulted in a crisis in most science libraries, which are no longer able to maintain the subscriptions researchers need. Many scientists think that this crisis can be resolved by replacing the printed material by electronic information systems. The symposium aims to examine how realistic this expectation is. The presentations include a summary of current research and development in electronic information systems. Presentations by a scientist, by the director of a research library, and by a publisher will discuss the scientific, economic, and practi- cal aspects of the transition from paper to electronic publishing and will include discussions of the experiences with journals on CD-ROM and of some future plans of publishers of scientific journals. The symposium, "Can Electronic Publishing Solve the Science Library Crisis?" will be held at the 1991 Washington annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science on Monday morning, February 18, 1991. H. H. Barschall will preside. The speakers and their topics are: Stuart Rothenstein, Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Inc., "Electronic Publishing from a Publisher's Point of View;" Martin J. Dillon, OCLC, "Research and Development in Electronic Publishing;" Malcolm Getz, Director, Vanderbilt University Library, "Electronic Publishing: An Economic View;" and Stewart C. Loken, Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory, University of California, "When Will Electronic Information Systems Replace Printed Journals?" HAMAKER'S HAYMAKERS Chuck Hamaker, Louisiana State University Library, NOTCAH@LSUVM. A quick discussion with Chris Schneider of Gordon & Breach indicates that due to the dollar's weakness worldwide, G & B is revising their 1991 price list for journals to American libraries. Instead of the ten percent increase projected from the last check I made with Chris, G & B titles will generally go up about 20 percent. Some exceptions are being made, and he felt that the 20 percent increase would be a maxi- mum with several titles below that. G & B will be issuing a second catalog for 1991 with a date of September 15 reflecting the increases. Another publisher has been added to their list: Craftsman House, from Australia, specializing in Australian artists and their works. The company was acquired in December of last year. Also, we note with some dismay that Swets and Zeitlinger, sole Europe- an distributor for Gordon & Breach is now offering a 15 percent dis- count to American libraries for ordering G & B titles from them. That is a 10 percent SIP (Subscriber Incentive Plan) enrollment, plus 5 percent for ordering "direct" from Swets. In addition, this offer includes a provision for an additional 5 percent discount from list for G & B titles in the second subscription year, for a total of 20 percent in the second year. The general offer most of us have seen is "no service charge" for American libraries ordering G & B titles through Swets, but the new offer was made to a West Coast library the first week of September. In past years, G & B prices to the rest of the world have been significantly higher than U.S. list prices. Has this changed for 1991? How many "list" prices are there for G & B titles worldwide??? In the meantime, some vendors, who don't want to damage their rela- tionship with G & B any more than it is already, have reported off the record that they are having problems getting the SIP discount for libraries that believed they had a right to it. Rumor has it that the SIP plan option will be offered again on open enrollment very soon. Oh, what tangled webs we weave .... Some of you will note that even the LJ HOTLINE picked up on MCB Uni- versity Press Inc's "freebie" for faculty who coerce libraries into subscribing (as reported in the last issue of the Newsletter). The September issue of the Canadian Library Association's newspaper FELICITER carries two articles that U.S. librarians should read with care. First, ALA should become involved, if it is not already, in a July 8 proposal by the Canadian Department of Communications. The proposal would amend the Canadian copyright act to protect exclusive distribution rights, "thus making it illegal for anyone other than the publisher/agent, who has exclusive market/distribution rights to im- port or distribute specific titles; it would close the border to books imported by others than those licensed to do so: wholesalers could import only those titles not licensed to publisher/agents." (see Pres- ident's Message, p. 2). I wonder if Canadians have looked at what exclusive distribution and sale rights have done to the cost of books in Australia, and what blocking "buying around" means for controlling journal subscription price gouging techniques. Put simply, by limiting access to worldwide markets for books and journals, prices go up (way up!) and access goes down. It is a sure recipe for an information impoverished economy. If anyone in Canada wants sources proving both these propositions, Pergamon published an excellent book describing the Australian situation, a situation the Aussies are now trying to correct (recent publications of the Australian Library Association detail that debate succinctly). And of course, Deana Astle and I have detailed differential pricing excesses publishers are capable of. The recent IFLA Acquisitions Committee workshop this past summer also documented what happens worldwide with differential pricing. Are Amer- ican libraries being outmaneuvered because publisher associations maintain high visibility lobbying associations? Why can't libraries lobby for economic "goods" packages as effectively as publishers?? Another "Canadian" issue is international in implications and is cov- ered in the same September issue of FELICITER. The president of the Canadian Recording Industry Association sounds a bit like Nicholas Veliotes of the AAP. In an April interview, Mr. Brian Robertson, Pres- ident of CRIA, argued that lending compact disks was depriving the recording industry of hundreds of millions of dollars. Since in many people's opinion, a CD constitutes a "master recording," patrons bor- rowing library CDs must be copying them -- right!! That is, there is a direct correlation between lending, copying, and "drop" in sales. In Canada, the sale of CDs went from 1.3 million units in 1985 to about 9 million in 1988. If library sales "hurt" the industry, resulting in a "drop" in sales, it ain't evident from those numbers. Mr. Robertson wanted "listening rooms" in libraries to be the only legal use of CDs. The correlate for print materials would be in-house only use (no circ- ulation) and, of course, making it illegal for there to be copying machines in libraries. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Readers of the NEWSLETTER ON SERIALS PRICING ISSUES are encouraged to share the information in the newsletter by electronic or paper meth- ods. We would appreciate credit if you quote from the newsletter. ====================================================================== The NEWSLETTER ON SERIALS PRICING ISSUES (ISSN: 1046-3410) is pub- lished as news is available by the American Library Association's Association for Library Collections and Technical Services, Publish- er/Vendor-Library Relations Committee's Subcommittee on Serials Pric- ing Issues. Editor: Marcia Tuttle, BITNET: TUTTLE@UNC.BITNET; Faxon's DataLinx: TUTTLE; ALANET: ALA0348; Paper mail: Serials Department, C.B. #3938 Davis Library, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill NC 27599-3938; telephone: (919) 962-1067; FAX: (919) 962-0484. Committee members are: Deana Astle (Clemson University), Mary Elizabeth Clack (Harvard University), Jerry Curtis (Springer- Verlag New York), Charles Hamaker (Louisiana State University), Robert Houbeck (University of Michigan), and Marcia Tuttle. EBSCONET custom- ers may receive the newsletter in paper format from EBSCO. Back issues of the newsletter are available electronically free of charge through BITNET from the editor. ====================================================================== ******ENDOFFILE***ENDOFFILE***ENDOFFILE***ENDOFFILE***ENDOFFILE******* ======================================================================== Date: Mon, 29 Oct 90 13:33 EST Subject: PRICING NEWSLETTER, NO. 28 ISSN: 1046-3410 NEWSLETTER ON SERIALS PRICING ISSUES NUMBER 28 -- OCTOBER 27, 1990 Editor: Marcia Tuttle CONTENTS MEA CULPA, Deana Astle FROM THE EDITOR, Marcia Tuttle SERIALS PRICE INCREASES: REACTION AND ACTION, Susan Zappen MORE SPECIFIC LARGE PRICE INCREASES, Deana Astle "LAW LIBRARIANS RECONSIDER RISING COSTS OF TREATISE SUPPLE- MENTS," Margie Axtmann ALCTS AWARDS, Award Jury Chairs AMERICAN GEOPHYSICAL UNION RENEWAL LETTER, Terry Sayler HAMAKER'S HAYMAKERS, Chuck Hamaker MEA CULPA Deana Astle, Clemson University; DLAST@CLEMSON.BITNET. Synapses in the brain can short circuit as one grows older, letting incorrect information pass unnoticed from the eye to the mind. I ex- perienced this recently when I reported in the NEWSLETTER ON SERIALS PRICING ISSUES on an egregious price increase for a Pergamon journal. While the title did have a price jump of 120 percent from $375 to $825, while doubling in frequency from 4 issues to 8, its name was NOT Combustion and Flame, which is published by Elsevier, but rather Com- puters and Fluids. Somewhere between seeing the words on the paper and transcribing them through the keyboard, the one title transmogrified into the other. Pergamon's Computers and Fluids, not Elsevier's Com- bustion and Flame, was the real culprit. This might just have been embarrassing to me had not some readers apparently cancelled Combustion and Flame with Elsevier, citing the information in the Newsletter as the reason. While Combustion and Flame did increase in price, it went up ONLY 23.5 percent (from $560 to $690), with a 25 percent increase in size. Some observations are in order. First, it is so easy to sit down at a terminal, compose an e-mail message, and send it off without the rig- orous review given a "printed" text being submitted for publication. I tend to spot errors more easily in a "typed" document than I do when proofreading a screen -- witness the fact that I checked and double- checked the figures, but the difference in titles did not register. I know I will be doubly careful in the future, but I suspect this is a tendency many if not most of us share, and we need to be aware of it. Second, though we try not to make mistakes at the Newsletter, we are human. Some people may have used the information found here indiscrim- inantly when they cancelled Combustion and Flame, ignoring the dis- crepancy between publishers, frequencies, and price. Information should be used responsibly, and questions should be raised if some- thing "looks funny." Third, the Newsletter does have clout. People did take action because of information found here, and publishers have taken notice. This behooves us all to be sure of our facts and to record them properly, while those who read need to do so intelligently. I do apologize to Elsevier and to the readers for my lapse; I will try to ride herd more closely over my synapses in the future. FROM THE EDITOR Marcia Tuttle, TUTTLE@UNC.BITNET. I want to thank Deana for correcting our error in issue no. 26, and I want to reinforce what she says. We were careless, and our careless- ness apparently led to a loss of business for one publisher. This is scary! But instead of finding some way to penalize us for our mistake, John Tagler from Elsevier called, told us what had happened, and asked that we correct the error. We are more than happy to do so. We have learned from this experience. As Deana says, it is easy to be more casual about what is disseminated by electronic means. This is not a refereed journal, it is a newsletter. And it is an electronic newslet- ter. As editor, I receive lots of friendly messages from subscribers and some of us engage in lighthearted, informal electronic corres- pondence. It's easy to let that casual atmosphere carry over into the Newsletter (which does get distributed in print by some electronic subscribers). No more! We've learned our lesson. We will make more mistakes, being human, but we, and especially I as editor, will do a lot more verifying of information before each issue goes out. At the same time, let me ask you not to trust us any more than I will trust our contributors. Please verify our information, especially pricing information, for yourselves before taking any action. For various reasons libraries DO pay different prices for the same title and li- braries have very different constituencies. Use our information as an alert to evaluate journals held by your library to see if they are worth the subscription price FOR YOUR READERS. Later in this issue is an article by Susan Zappen at Rensselaer about the dilemma she is facing involving the price increases for 1991. She hopes it will generate some dialogue and would like to know what other libraries are doing. (P.S. So would I!) Margaret Landesman at the University of Utah (MLANDESM@UTAHLIB.BITNET) sends this news: We are in the midst of a study here that might interest you. Brigham Young University, the University of Utah, and Utah State are compar- ing our Elsevier, Pergamon, Springer, and Karger holdings. We have found that 683 titles are held by at least one of us. Of these, 279 are held by only one school, 223 by two schools, and 181 by all three schools. But what is interesting is the prices. The average price for a journal held at only one school is $378. The average price for a journal held by two of the three schools is $571. The average price of a journal held by all three schools is $864. We aren't sure what we are going to do about this, but are getting real serious about doing something.... From Harry Llull at the University of New Mexico: The NEWSLETTER ON SERIALS PRICING ISSUES is now available through Technet, which is the state network in New Mexico. Besides including UNM, NMTech, and NM State University library catalogs, Technet also includes state government databases. I often get phone calls or e-mail messages asking what my deadline is. There's no real deadline; I compile and distribute an issue whenever I have about 20 - 30K, or about 9 or 10 typed pages. This has worked out to about every three weeks, depending on my own work and travel sched- ule. I'll always be happy to tell you when I intend to get the next issue out (usually it really goes out about a week later!), but go ahead and send news anytime. Let me close with a message I just received from Harry Llull: Those of us who have worked at a lot of different places can lose contact with people. Since my BITNET address was posted in the News- letter, I have heard from people I worked with on my first job over 20 years ago. So, it is like "Unsolved Mysteries," bringing people together who have disappeared! Of course, only the extrovert readers would appreciate this. The introvert readers might be horrified!! SERIALS PRICE INCREASES: REACTION AND ACTION Susan Zappan, Rensselaer Institute of Technology, Folsom Library; USERBSEC@RPITSMTS.BITNET. Rensselaer's Folsom Library received its major serials renewal invoice for 1991 subscriptions from its serials vendor at the end of August. A 21.2 percent increase over the previous year's invoice brought the realization that the library would overspend the budget by an estimat- ed $120,000 by the end of the fiscal year, unless titles were can- celled and/or additional funds were received. Since then, additional information projects price increases in the 25-39 percent range on titles from foreign STM publishers, with some titles doubling and tripling in price. In March 1988 we faced a similar crisis. At that time the library anticipated a deficit for the fiscal year 1987-88 of $60,000 and predicted a deficit of $112,000 in 1988-89. Of the total materials budget, 80 percent was allocated for serials while 20 per- cent was allocated for monographs. For two consecutive years the book funds were frozen and used to pay for the rising cost of serials re- newals. The library made the decision no longer to erode the book budget to pay for journals. The 80-20 budget split, common in scien- tific and technological libraries, was maintained. The library staff generated and distributed lists of serials to the faculty to review for cancellation. With a final list of cancellations in hand, the library received a stay of execution. The institute provided addition- al funding for the library to cover its expected shortfall. Some ti- tles were cancelled; others were cancelled and replaced by new titles; most subscriptions were maintained. This August the crisis was similar but the circumstance was different. The library had three weeks in which to identify titles for cancella- tion before the large renewal invoice for 1991 had to be paid. Addi- tional funding from the campus was not available. The Library Director asked for cancellations totalling $72,000. Any overages after budget cancellations would be taken from library funds other than the book budget or charged against next year's renewals budget. The Head of Collection Development, The Science and Engineering Bibliographer, and the Acquisitions Librarian produced a list of 159 titles using the following guidelines: 1) Cancel titles from the publishers with the greatest announced price increases; 2) Cancel first those which show the least Rensselaer use and those which have the highest prices; 3) Cancel titles identified in the 1988 review in which faculty partici- pated; 4) Cancel duplicate subscriptions; and 5) Of those remaining, try not to cancel the last subscription within the Capital District Library Council or New York State. The titles identified in the 1988 review were the starting point for those compiling the list. Previous use and citation studies performed by the Science and Engineering Bibliographer weighed heavily in the deliberations. Faculty had less than a week in which to suggest subscriptions. Every effort was made to spare titles which faculty described as essential in spite of cost. Titles which were used frequently were not cancelled, again, in spite of cost. In the end, a total of 139 titles were cancelled. Some of them won't be missed, but some titles are important publications for specific areas of research. What now? The renewals budget for fiscal year 1991-92 won't be able to absorb the overages from 1990-91 and the predicted double digit infla- tion of serials prices. During the next several months the library and the faculty-comprised Library Liaison Committee will work with faculty to determine how to cope with the serials pricing crisis. There are several possible approaches to the problem. Rensselaer has five schools: Architecture, Engineering, Humanities & Social Sciences, Management, and Science. Currently all serials renewals are charged against one fund. Should the renewals budget be divided up among the schools? Should the number of faculty and students determine how the budget is divided? Should a distinction be made between the number of undergraduate and graduate students? What about the average cost of a serial title in the various disciplines? Anything with "chemistry" in the title will cost much more than a title with "poetry" in it. Who pays for a title used by more than one discipline or school? Should titles which fall within or over a certain price range be cancelled? Should titles which experience the greatest percent of increase be cancelled? Should core journal titles be identified for each school and maintained at any cost? There are also far-reaching questions. Should cancellations be coordi- nated with other libraries in the area to preserve access? How high does a price have to rise before the library with the last remaining subscription in the area can cancel? What about the last remaining subscription in the state, in the Northeast, in the country? What about the numbers needed for accreditation? Should libraries make a coordinated effort to control prices? What should those efforts be? How do libraries involve faculty? What role should faculty play? What about the publishers and vendors and their roles? What may have start- ed as one library's financial problem is no longer that simple. The crisis in serials pricing is not merely a dollars and cents issue. MORE SPECIFIC LARGE PRICE INCREASES Deana Astle, Clemson University; DLAST@CLEMSON.BITNET PHILOSOPHICAL MAGAZINE A, B, and C (Taylor & Francis). Price increased 45 percent, from $775 to $1125 for the same number of issues. Informa- tion was received from the publisher earlier that the journal would "increase in size and price," though there was no indication of the former in the Faxon memo, unless the number of pages grows. JOURNAL OF THE AMERICAN SOCIETY FOR INFORMATION SCIENCE (Wiley US): price increased 51 percent, from $195 to $295 for two more issues a year. In 1990 the eight issues of this journal cost $24.38 each; the two extra issues in 1991 are thus adding $50 each to the price (10 issues for $29.50 each). JOURNAL OF APPLIED POLYMER SCIENCE (Wiley US): this title increased 73 percent, from $1295 to $2243; issues grew from two volumes, 24 issues, to three volumes, 36 issues. Each new issue added $79 to the cost. Attributing all of the extra cost to the extra issues may be consid- ered simplistic and does not account for "expected inflation," but it does make the situation stand out. "LAW LIBRARIANS RECONSIDER RISING COSTS OF TREATISE SUPPLEMENTS" Margie Axtmann, Cornell University Law Library; MA4@CORNELLC.BITNET. The October 12, 1990 PUBLISHERS WEEKLY contains an article discussing an issue not addressed in this newsletter before. ("Law Librarians Reconsider Rising Costs of Treatise Supplements," by Marguerite E. Mulvihill, p. 34-35). General librarians as well as law librarians will be interested in this account of how some law librarians have responded to the rising costs and proliferation of looseleaf treatise supplements. Looseleaf treatises in one or more volumes are supplemented with fre- quencies ranging from quarterly to annually. Supplements consist of loose pages that are either interfiled into the text or filed as a self-contained supplement within the binder. Thus, in addition to the actual cost of the original publication there are costs for the sup- plements as well as the associated costs of processing and filing the material. Because it is the nature of legal materials that they must be continually updated, the practices of major legal publishers in this area have not always fallen under great scrutiny. In recent years, however, law librarians have complained that the increasing frequency of these supplements is unjustified and that many supple- ments do not contain significant changes in the law. One law librar- ian's response to that, as discussed in the article, is not to main- tain subscriptions to the supplementation, but rather to purchase new sets every two or three years. Supplementation costs over that time period often exceed the cost of a new set. The question of providing up-to-date legal information is constantly balanced against the need to maintain some control over these runaway costs. The idea of purchasing whole new sets of material periodically has taken hold in the law library world and many large and small libraries are exercising this option. I have always maintained that the record- keeping involved in this practice is too complex and time-consuming for a large library to be able to manage. Furthermore, I believe that the direct savings are eaten up in indirect costs. Since this has received so much publicity in the last few years, however, it has served to make publishers more aware that they are being watched and that our budgets have real limits. Further evidence of the ongoing concern with this issue is a program that is being planned for next year's American Association of Law Libraries annual meeting. Entitled "Looseleaf Treatises: To Buy or Not to Buy and the Question of Upkeep," this program will focus on the decision-making process concerning the selection, purchase, and upkeep of looseleaf treatises. ALCTS AWARDS Submitted by Award Jury Chairs BLACKWELL/NORTH AMERICA SCHOLARSHIP AWARD. This ALCTS - Resources Section award was first given in 1976. Since that time, more than twenty-seven authors have been honored. Last year the recipient of this award was Joe A. Hewitt of the University of North Carolina for his article "On the Nature of Acquisitions" (LIBRARY RESOURCES & TECH- NICAL SERVICES 33: 105-122, April 1989). The scholarship will go to a student at the Graduate School of Library and Information Science at Simmons College. PURPOSE: To honor the author or authors of the out- standing 1990 monograph, article, or original paper in the field of acquisitions, collection development, and related areas of resources development in libraries. SCHOLARSHIP: Blackwell/North America will donate a $1,000 scholarship to the U.S. or Canadian Library School of the winning author's choice. The Scholarship will be given to a stu- dent concentrating in the acquisition or collection development areas. PROCEDURE: Please send nominations to: Frank D'Andraia; Chair, Black- well/North America Scholarship Award Committee; Chester Fritz Library; University of North Dakota; P.O. Box 9000; Grand Forks ND 58202; FAX: (701) 777-3319. Deadline is December 1, 1990. Please include a state- ment giving the full bibliographic citation of the article, book, or paper you are nominating, plus your reasons for the nomination. Com- mittee members are: Frank A. D'Andraia, Eugene L. Wiemers, Jr. (North- western University), and Margaret C. Wong (Los Angeles County Public Library). ALCTS SERIALS SECTION BOWKER/ULRICH'S SERIALS LIBRARIANSHIP AWARD. 1990 Winner: Jean G. Cook, Iowa State University. An annual award consisting of a citation and a $1500 cash award for distinguished contributions to serials librarianship within the previous three years, demonstrated by such activities as leadership in serials-relat- ed activities through participation in professional associations and/ or library education programs, contributions to the body of serials literature, conduct of research in the area of serials, development of tools or methods to enhance access to or management of serials, other advances leading to a better understanding of the field of serials. PROCEDURE: Please send nominations to: Sue Anne Harrington; 1403 Syca- more; Norman OK 73072, by December 1, 1990. Please include all sup- porting documentation. AMERICAN GEOPHYSICAL UNION RENEWAL LETTER Submitted by Terry Sayler, University of Maryland, McKeldin Library, College Park MD 20742. AGU has heard the message and is using it as publicity! September 6, 1990 Dear Subscriber: It is time to renew your subscriptions to AGU journals. Studies on the impact and value of scientific publications consis- tently place AGU journals at the top among similar journals. The 1991 rates for the JOURNAL OF GEOPHYSICAL RESEARCH are just 8 cents per thousand words of science. This is a bargain compared to 70 cents or 80 cents for some scientific journals. This high return per cost is characteristic of AGU's efforts to cut production costs, absorbing the phenomenal growth of the geophysical sciences, and maintaining the highest quality for its journals. At the same time deliberate attempts are being made by AGU to at- tract the highest caliber scientists away from publishing in more expensive alternatives. These attempts are noticeably working. More and more European authors are publishing in AGU journals. .... Ghassan Rassam Group Director HAMAKER'S HAYMAKERS Chuck Hamaker, Louisiana State University; NOTCAH@LSUVM.BITNET. Under the title of Here Today, Gone Tomorrow, the recent FAXON REPORT, 1, 3 (summer 1990):4, notes that the purchase of Kunst & Wissen in Germany did include worldwide distribution of journals published by Akademie-Verlag. The announcement that "Through K & W ... we will place and fulfill orders for every subscriber on a worldwide basis" was true then, but is true no more. At the Frankfurt Book Fair, the publishing industry learned that Akademie Verlag, publisher of about 60 journals and 400 books annually, was purchased by VCH. Null and void on the distribution agreement. Also of note in the FAXON REPORT was the return of Frank Clasquin, rejoining Faxon as Principal Advisor to the President. "Frank's first assignment will send him abroad" to the new office in Moscow, "to develop a major serials control and reship operation for both imported and exported serials. He will also serve as 'official advisor' to ICSTI (International Center for Scien- tific and Technical Information)." Dr. H.J. Dorpinghaus and the German Library Association filed a com- plaint last year with the European Economic Commission in Brussels concerning differential pricing within the EEC of Pergamon journals. German libraries, as he reported in various issues of BIBLIOTHEKS- DIENST, had been paying a premium of 47 percent to 60 percent because of purchasing Pergamon titles in Germany from German sources at an inflated Deutschmark price. British libraries had a different price list, in pounds sterling, and American libraries were paying an even lower price based on a US dollar price list. The Commission has ruled that Pergamon cannot restrict pricing within the EEC. This ruling should have a major effect on equitable pricing throughout the conti- nent. Other publishers including Gordon and Breach and many French publishers have established differential pricing throughout the conti- nent using local currency based lists. Where the local currency lists effectively restrict one set of prices to a specific country, this ruling apparently will provide a precedent for European libraries to challenge the practice. Differential pricing, which Dr. Dorpinghaus has called in private correspondence, a scourge, is increasingly under attack. In addition to this very recent ruling, Dr. Knut Dorn, appearing at the IFLA pro- gram in Stockholm, addressed the issue from one vendor's perspective in "Will the Chain Break? Differential Pricing as a Part of a New Pricing Structure for Research Literature and its Consequences for the Future of Scholarly Communication." In the program, sponsored by the IFLA Section on Acquisitions and Exchange, Dr. Dorn explained the multiple problems multiple prices for the same item present to vendors when pricing is based on "geographi- cal considerations": We have seen practically every combination of subsidizing and penal- izing subscribers or purchasers of scholarly materials in one or the other continent or country, and often the situation has changed and been reversed in only a couple of years. North American publishers have been very consistent in charging European subscribers and in- stitutions an inflated and marked-up price, whereas European pub- lishers have been rather flexible in this respect: in the late 70s and early 80s the idea was to charge higher prices for American libraries, but in the last couple of years the tendency has been to subsidize the US market and let European subscribers pay the higher bill. But no matter which side the publisher favors, there is always the other side that is confronted with the higher price. My own perspective is that much as water seeks its level, higher prices for one part of the world always act as a benchmark and all prices trend towards the highest price. Differential pricing in the long run endangers the whole system. Congratulations, Dr. Dorpinghaus and our German colleagues. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Readers of the NEWSLETTER ON SERIALS PRICING ISSUES are encouraged to share the information in the newsletter by electronic or paper meth- ods. We would appreciate credit if you quote from the newsletter. ====================================================================== The NEWSLETTER ON SERIALS PRICING ISSUES (ISSN: 1046-3410) is pub- lished as news is available by the American Library Association's Association for Library Collections and Technical Services, Publish- er/Vendor-Library Relations Committee's Subcommittee on Serials Pric- ing Issues. Editor: Marcia Tuttle, e-mail: TUTTLE@UNC.BITNET; Faxon's DataLinx: TUTTLE; ALANET: ALA0348; Paper mail: Serials Department, C.B. #3938 Davis Library, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill NC 27599-3938; telephone: (919) 962-1067; FAX: (919) 962-0484. Committee members are: Deana Astle (Clemson University), Mary Elizabeth Clack (Harvard University), Jerry Curtis (Springer- Verlag New York), Charles Hamaker (Louisiana State University), Robert Houbeck (University of Michigan), and Marcia Tuttle. EBSCONET custom- ers may receive the newsletter in paper format from EBSCO. Back issues of the newsletter are available electronically free of charge through BITNET from the editor. ====================================================================== ******ENDOFFILE***ENDOFFILE***ENDOFFILE***ENDOFFILE***ENDOFFILE******* ======================================================================== Date: Sun, 11 Nov 90 17:47 EST Subject: PRICING NEWSLETTER, NO. 29 ISSN: 1046-3410 NEWSLETTER ON SERIALS PRICING ISSUES NUMBER 29 -- NOVEMBER 12, 1990 Editor: Marcia Tuttle CONTENTS FROM THE EDITOR, Marcia Tuttle GERMAN COURT CALLS METHODOLOGY USED IN COMPARATIVE PRICE SURVEY "FALSE AND MISLEADING," Vicki Banner APS AND AIP HOPE FOR FURTHER GORDON & BREACH "VICTORIES," Kenneth Ford SERIALS USERS DISCUSSION GROUP, Birdie MacLennan PRICE INCREASES REDUX, Deana Astle A ROLE FOR THE NATIONAL ACADEMIES, Daniel H. Jones TRENDS IN PRICING?..., Susan Anderes FROM THE EDITOR Marcia Tuttle; TUTTLE@UNC.BITNET Of all the subscription price increases for 1991, the action of the American Chemical Society regarding ANALYTICAL CHEMISTRY has caused the most negative response to the Newsletter. Here are the most recent messages I have received: (From Barbara Lee, Library Director, The Worcester Foundation for Experimental Biology, 222 Maple Avenue, Shrewsbury MA 01545; LEE@WFEB2.BITNET) I would like to bring to your attention a rate increase that I have recently become aware of. ANALYTICAL CHEMISTRY is raising its institutional rate from $59.00 to $289.00 with no increase in issues. Numerous phone calls (it is published by the American Chemical Society), have produced the answer that they had not received the number of ads that they had hoped! This journal is of course still cheap by international standards but it is a very minimal production with lots of ads sprinkled in. It seems to me that ACS should subsidize the printing cost rather than trying to make a profit.... (From Anne McKee, George Mason University; DataLinx: AMCKEE) We were notified by Faxon that ANALYTICAL CHEMISTRY published by the Ameri- can Chemical Society has increased from $59.00 to $289.00, an in- crease of ***450 PERCENT***. Needless to say, with the budget crisis here in the state of Virginia, we cannot maintain such an increase and I have already informed our chemistry department (which has had to cancel $3,600 already) that they will have to cancel either this title or another one. I have written a letter to the editor of this publication expressing our extreme dismay and will let you know if I receive a reply. In the last issue Chuck Hamaker made some observations in HAMAKER'S HAYMAKERS about the distribution agreement Faxon had with Akademie- Verlag. Joel Baron, Director, Faxon's Publisher and Publication Serv- ices, sent this message: I wanted you to know that although the German government had agreed to sell Akademie-Verlag to VCH, that that had nothing to do with the two-year marketing and distribution agreement we have through Kunst und Wissen. The agreement remains in effect. You might also be in- terested in knowing that we understand the VCH deal has now been questioned, and that the bidding process may begin all over again. From Bill Benson (Wright-Patterson Air Force Base; DataLinx: FL2802): Don't know if your readers are interested but I am looking at LC's new catalog and it says that "the 5-year, 1986-1990 cumulation of NEW SERIAL TITLES will not be published. For a complete cumulation in paper, subscribers should retain the 1990 annual cumulation to use with the 4-year, 1986-89 cumulation. Beginning in 1991, NST will be cumulated annually in a new microfiche edition." I don't know about other serials librarians, but I am not ready to shoot off any fireworks about this news. I use NST a lot and certainly do not need to search it year by year on microfiche! Is this the big decision that LC made after sending out their lengthy survey? Did all of us say that is what we wanted? Will we still pay the same fee? Wouldn't most of us prefer hard copy or other alternatives like CD-ROM? Don't most of us prefer a cumulative set to annual cumulations? Perhaps LC has more in mind, but they don't say so in the catalog. And perhaps, if we raise our voices, we can make a difference (before it's too late) even if it costs a bit more. Marie Maroscia of Brooklyn College Library (DataLinx: BROOK) asked me a question the other day, and we thought we would like to hear from you about the issue. Here's her message: We have recently had to cancel many of our subscriptions because of budget constraints. Several faculty members have offered to pay for some titles they feel are vital to their students. We have some reservations about accepting their offer, since we feel it might be short-lived. Do you have any thoughts on the subject? And here's another one. Did you see the "Fairy Tales" brochure sent out by Bowker recently? If not, this is what it says: Starting today, you could be collecting BOWKER BONUS 1 CREDIT CER- TIFICATES worth $5.00 each, and applying them to up to 50 percent of the cost of your next first-time purchase of an R.R. Bowker title! It's all part of Bowker's exciting BONUS 1 PROGRAM -- our way of helping you make the most of your acquisition dollars. Why are we doing it? To thank our customers for more than 100 years of continued support. And they love it! Launched July 1, 1989, Bowker's BONUS 1 PROGRAM already has more than 5,600 institutions as members to date and counting. Moreover, because of the response and increasing redemp- tion of BONUS 1 CERTIFICATES, we've decided to extend the program through June 30, 1991 and open registration to include new members like yourself. Becoming a BONUS 1 member is easy. Simply complete and mail the attached reply card and we'll send you your FREE BONUS 1 STARTER KIT. It includes your personal BOWKER BONUS 1 Identification Number and all the information you need to begin saving money on Bowker purchases immediately, plus a handy BONUS 1 File Folder to neatly store your certificates and BONUS 1 Bulletins. From time to time, you'll also receive special DOUBLE BONUS and EXTRA CREDIT Offers, available only to BONUS 1 PROGRAM members. Save your CREDIT CERTIFICATES and use them to pay for up to 50 per- cent of the cost of any new Bowker product or any Bowker product you have not purchased since January 1, 1987. That's all there is to it. There's no minimum order, no limited eligibility and no baffling forms to decipher. Enrollment in the BONUS 1 PROGRAM is FREE, but you must register to be able to redeem the CREDIT CERTIFICATES contained in upcoming Bowker shipments. So sign up today! Credit Certificates will be included in shipments of all our Bowker products only until March 31, 1991 and redeemable until June 30, 1991. My question to you is this: Do programs such as this and Gordon and Breach's SIP really save us money? Or, does the time and hassle in- volved in participating in them cancel out any savings? I have not participated in any of these programs so far, believing them more trouble than they are worth. What do you think? GERMAN COURT CALLS METHODOLOGY USED IN COMPARATIVE PRICE SURVEY "FALSE AND MISLEADING" Vicki Banner, Michael Klepper Associates, Inc., 805 Third Avenue, New York NY 10022 MONTREUX, Oct. 31 -- The methodology used by the American Institute of Physics (AIP) and American Physical Society (APS) to prepare a 1988 comparative price survey of science journals was false and misleading and in addition was done for competitive purposes, a German civil court declared today. A detailed written opinion is expected shortly. The court, which specializes in matter /sic/ of unfair competition, delivered this opinion orally during the hearing. Gordon and Breach Science Publishers brought an action against these publishers for printing comparative price surveys, which in the opinion of Gordon and Breach, constituted inaccurate and unfair competitive advertising. The court confirmed in the hearing that this was true under German unfair competition law. Although the court agreed that the survey methodology was false and misleading, and that the defendants acted with competitive intention, it dismissed the appeal primarily because the defendant had directed the surveys to the U.S. market and that the distribution in Germany was too limited. "We're heartened that the court agreed with our contention that the survey methodology was flawed, but naturally we're disappointed about the dismissal," said Gordon and Breach Chairman, Martin Gordon. "From the beginning, our main purpose was to obtain a decision from a neu- tral party as to whether the surveys were fair or biased. We expect the written decision to discuss these matters in detail and hope that this conclusion will receive wide distribution." Headquartered in Switzerland, Gordon and Breach is a worldwide group of companies publishing more than 300 hardcover books and nearly 200 journals, reviews and magazines annually. APS AND AIP HOPE FOR FURTHER GORDON & BREACH "VICTORIES" Submitted by Kenneth Ford, American Institute of Physics; KWF@AIP.BITNET. The American Physical Society (APS), the American Institute of Physics (AIP), and Professor Henry Barschall replied to a "news release" is- sued on behalf of Gordon & Breach Science Publishers (G & B) by a New York public relations firm. The release asserts that a German court has vindicated G & B's claim that a survey of the costs of science journals published in 1988 by APS and AIP was false and misleading and was prepared for competitive purposes. In fact, the German court af- firmed the complete dismissal of G & B's suit. Dr. Harry Lustig, the APS Treasurer, said, "I hope that G & B has more successes of exactly the same kind." The survey concerned the costs of science journals to American academ- ic libraries and was prepared by Henry Barschall, a professor at the University of Wisconsin (Madison). It revealed that G & B's journals were significantly more expensive on average, in terms of cost per thousand characters, than the physics journals of 23 other publishers. Rather than accepting an offer by APS and AIP that G & B submit a letter outlining its disagreements with the survey for publication by APS and AIP (without cost to G & B), G & B initiated suits in Germany, Switzerland and France. Professor Barschall, who attended the proceeding in Frankfurt on Octo- ber 25, said that the statements attributed in the "news release" to Martin Gordon, the G & B Chairman, suggested that perhaps Mr. Gordon had some difficulty in following the German in which the proceedings were conducted. Barschall stated, "The Court did not determine that the price survey was illegal advertising and it certainly did not find that my work was false and misleading. What it did do, in an announce- ment issued two hours after the hearing ended, was to dismiss Gordon & Breach's case." All the parties are awaiting a written opinion from the Frankfurt court. Dr. Lustig, who also attended the hearing, observed, "If Gordon & Breach considers the actions in Germany to be a victory, we can only wish them the same success in Switzerland and France." For further information, contact Dr. Harry Lustig, APS Treasurer, at (212) 682-7341. SERIALS USERS DISCUSSION GROUP Birdie MacLennan, University of Vermont Library, Burlington BMACLENN@UVMVM.BITNET. A Serials Users Discussion Group has recently been established on BITNET via Computer Operations support at the University of Vermont. Those who are interested may subscribe to the group by issuing the command: tell listserv@uvmvm subscribe SERIALST . SERIALST is intended to serve as an electronic forum for most aspects of serials processing in libraries. Topics may include such things as: cataloging, acquisitions, collection management, binding, preservation, microfilm, union listing, etc. The SERIALST discussion group should not deal with serials pricing issues as this topic is already covered in the Newsletter on Serials Pricing Issues. PRICE INCREASES REDUX Deana Astle, Clemson University Library; DLAST@CLEMSON.BITNET. Just got some more price increase notices from Faxon. Some are pretty scary. INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF FRACTURE (Kluwer Academic Publishers), is doubling its issues from 12 to 24 with 1991, while the price is going from $437.49 to $1,112.37, a 154 percent increase! BIOPOLYMERS (John Wiley, US) is going from one volume of 14 issues to 2 volumes of 28 issues, while the price is rising from $775 to $1,575, a 103 per- cent increase. ENERGY SOURCES (Taylor and Francis, UK) is staying a quarterly, but increasing in price from $120 to $190, a 58 percent increase! CONCURRENCY (Wiley UK) is becoming a bimonthly rather than a quarterly, and increasing from $155 to $270, a 74 percent increase. Even though most of these publishers could "justify" their price in- creases on the basis of increased value received with more issues, the bottom line in these times of static or declining budgets is that we cannot afford to pay these prices. Why, when the exchange rate is placing such a burden on us, do these publishers make the situation worse by increasing the size of their journals? Authors may like the more rapid publication of their work, but soon there will be no one to buy it. A ROLE FOR THE NATIONAL ACADEMIES Daniel H. Jones, University of Texas Health Sciences Center, San Antonio; JONES@UTHSCSA.BITNET. The most recent wave of cost increases and subscription cancellations seems to be taking a great toll. This year's loss in the value of the dollar certainly makes American products more attractive abroad, but for scientific, technical and medical libraries which rely heavily on journals published abroad the effect will be devastating. The pros- pects of maintaining even core STM collections (not to mention compre- hensive or research level collections) at this point seems questiona- ble in many American universities. Yet it is ironic that much of the published research originates in these same American universities that are increasingly unable to afford to purchase it. What seems even more ironic is the general lack of concern expressed by scientists and researchers. Since 1986 librarians, both individually and collectively, have been vocal advocates in the interests of their users. But in my opinion the users have been too silent too long. Certainly, we librarians must continue our efforts. But we do not control the flow of manuscripts or the publishing industry, nor would I advocate that we should try. The group with the greatest amount of control is the scientific community and I think it is time for them to address the issues. To this end I have written the presidents of our national academies (names and addresses below) urging them to set as a priority to exam- ine the erosion of American university library collections over the past decade. Perhaps their distinguished members can propose alterna- tives to control further erosion. I also urged them to expand their publishing program. The PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES is clearly one of the leading scientific journals in the world. But I would like to see the Academy publish more discipline-oriented journals such as a brain and neuro- science journal or a journal of biochemistry and biophysics, to name only two. Perhaps the prestige of Academy sponsorship will attract authors to more reasonably priced journals that are equally respecta- ble. If you want to express your concerns, write to the following: Frank Press, President National Academy of Sciences Robert M. White, President National Academy of Engineering Samuel O. Thier, President Institute of Medicine 2101 Constitution Avenue NW Washington DC 20418 TRENDS IN PRICING?... Susan Anderes, Lane Medical Library, Stanford University Medical Center; susan@krypton.stanford.edu. Elsevier has recently changed their distribution policy for the ti- tles: IMMUNOLOGY TODAY PARASITOLOGY TODAY TRENDS IN BIOCHEMICAL SCIENCES TRENDS IN BIOTECHNOLOGY TRENDS IN ECOLOGY AND EVOLUTION TRENDS IN GENETICS TRENDS IN NEUROSCIENCES TRENDS IN PHARMACOLOGICAL SCIENCES Elsevier was willing in the past to accept orders from libraries for the "personal edition." This edition includes only the twelve monthly issues. Beginning in 1991 Elsevier will only accept "institutional/li- brary edition" subscriptions from libraries. This edition includes the twelve monthly issues, an annual compendium volume (that has some pages removed), and an index. Our institution wanted only the monthly issues, and we have subscribed to the personal edition until now. We did not want the bound compendi- um volume (with advertising removed) and preferred to bind the monthly issues ourselves. It looks as if we no longer have that option. Now all orders for the personal edition must be placed directly with the publisher and the edition "is only available to individuals who order directly from the publisher and prepay with personal funds." The 1990 price for the personal edition of TRENDS IN GENETICS was $79.00. For the institutional/library edition it was $ ... 337. The other titles have similar price differences between the personal and library editions although some were listed in British pounds rather than US dollars. The 1991 price for each of these titles is $403 for the institutional edition. I asked John Tagler of Elsevier New York to send me information on Elsevier's official policy. He says the strategy was to keep the in- stitutional/library price "comparable with the current price levels for other quality monthly scientific publications." Personal editions are discounted to keep the numbers of subscribers high enough to at- tract advertisers and are subsidized by that advertising. "Without institutional subscribers, there would not be a TRENDS series." Elsevier will now accept additional subscriptions at the personal edition price as long as there is an institutional subscription at the same ship-to address, and it must be ordered directly from the pub- lisher in England. I would like to see Elsevier make available a library edition com- prised of only the monthly issues. It also seems that advertising revenues should be subsidizing all editions, since they appear in all editions and readers of library copies see the advertising. I have written the following letter to the editor of the Elsevier TRENDS Division. Dr. David Bousfield Elsevier Trends Journals 68 Hills Road Cambridge CB2 1IA England Dear Dr. Bousfield: I am concerned about the changes you have made in your pricing policy for Trends journals and concerned about the 16.3 percent increase in the 1991 institutional price over 1990 for most of the titles. For those of us who have subscribed to the personal edition until now, the change in price from $79 to $403 is a shock. I would like to suggest that in future you offer libraries and insti- tutions an alternative. Lane Medical Library, and probably many other libraries, would like a reduced institutional price and to receive only the monthly issues. We have no use for the compendium volume and prefer not to pay for it. While I am aware of the reasons why publishers have different rates for personal and institutional subscriptions, I find it wasteful to send incomplete bound volumes to libraries, when those libraries want the issues as originally published and prefer to bind the issues them- selves. As long as these journals include advertising, the prices for all subscriptions should be subsidized. Do advertisers or Elsevier believe that readers of library copies do not see the advertising? Advertisers probably get more exposure from library copies than from personal copies. I look forward to seeing changes in the pricing structure for these journals in 1991. Sincerely, Susan M. Anderes Head of Periodicals ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Readers of the NEWSLETTER ON SERIALS PRICING ISSUES are encouraged to share the information in the newsletter by electronic or paper meth- ods. We would appreciate credit if you quote from the newsletter. ====================================================================== The NEWSLETTER ON SERIALS PRICING ISSUES (ISSN: 1046-3410) is pub- lished as news is available by the American Library Association's Association for Library Collections and Technical Services, Publish- er/Vendor-Library Relations Committee's Subcommittee on Serials Pric- ing Issues. Editor: Marcia Tuttle, e-mail: TUTTLE@UNC.BITNET; Faxon's DataLinx: TUTTLE; ALANET: ALA0348; Paper mail: Serials Department, C.B. #3938 Davis Library, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill NC 27599-3938; telephone: (919) 962-1067; FAX: (919) 962-0484. Committee members are: Deana Astle (Clemson University), Mary Elizabeth Clack (Harvard University), Jerry Curtis (Springer- Verlag New York), Charles Hamaker (Louisiana State University), Robert Houbeck (University of Michigan), and Marcia Tuttle. EBSCONET custom- ers may receive the newsletter in paper format from EBSCO. Back issues of the newsletter are available electronically free of charge through BITNET from the editor. ====================================================================== ******ENDOFFILE***ENDOFFILE***ENDOFFILE***ENDOFFILE***ENDOFFILE******* ======================================================================== Date: Sun, 02 Dec 90 15:49 EST Subject: PRICING NEWSLETTER, NO. 30 ISSN: 1046-3410 NEWSLETTER ON SERIALS PRICING ISSUES NUMBER 30 -- DECEMBER 2, 1990 Editor: Marcia Tuttle CONTENTS FROM THE EDITOR, Marcia Tuttle GIFT SUBSCRIPTIONS FROM PROFESSORS, Anne McKee MORE FROM VIRGINIA TECH'S SCHOLARLY COMMUNICATIONS PROJECT, Lon Savage REPLY TO "PRICE INCREASES REDUX," Kluwer Academic Publishers BRITISH LIBRARY PROBLEMS, Lloyd Davidson HAVEN'T WE ALREADY PAID FOR THIS??? Danny Jones SAN ANTONIO ADDRESS BY FRANK PRESS, Danny Jones USELESS RESEARCH REPORTS, Bradley D. Carrington RESPONSE TO DEANA ASTLE, Siegfried Ruschin HAMAKER'S HAYMAKERS, Chuck Hamaker FROM THE EDITOR Marcia Tuttle, TUTTLE@UNC.BITNET I'm afraid this issue's "Mea Culpa" comes "From the Editor" for not being as careful as she promised. Here's a message from Sarah Stev- ens-Rayburn (LIBRARY@STSCI.BITNET): In the discussion of the price increase for ANALYTICAL CHEMISTRY, Anne McKee made the statement that an increase from $59 to $289 was a 450 percent increase. According to my calculator, that's a 389.8 percent increase, bad enough, I'll admit. I fear if we aren't care- ful to be accurate in our complaints, we'll lose credibility. Sarah is correct on all counts. This is from the CHAPEL HILL NEWSPAPER of November 29, 1990: Bill Hildebolt, student body president at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, has accepted a challenge from his N.C. State University counterpart to see which school can raise the most money for its libraries. The deadline for the contest is 5 p.m. Feb. 1, 1991. In a bet agreed on by the two presidents, the losing school's student leader will be forced to sit in a prominent location during the Feb. 6 State-Caro- lina game in NCSU's Reynolds Coliseum, wearing clothes of the win- ner's choosing and rooting for the rival team. Hildebolt said in The Daily Tar Heel today that he hopes to raise more than $5,000 from UNC students, parents and alumni. The money will be held in endowment funds until a total of $25,000 is reached. Fund-raising will continue after the Feb. 1 reckoning. Hildebolt is planning an all-Carolina blue outfit for NCSU Student Body President Ed Stack to sport at the game, he said. For you non-Tar Heels, the "Feb. 6 State-Carolina game" is basketball, of course. We hear so much dire news today on serials pricing that I am taking the liberty of passing along something from Heather Steele's recent letter to customers of the Blackwell Periodicals Division. She has been given temporary custody of John Merriman's "file of rather unusu- al letters and requests from publishers and customers." From an Asian shell society: It is with much regret that I bring you the sad news that we have decided to suspend publication of our journal due to a very diffi- cult economic situation in our country today. You therefore have a credit of $21.45 representing unserved subscriptions. Since it is difficult for us to obtain foreign currency, we would like to offer the following alternative in refunding your credit: We could send you shells of an equivalent amount, postage to be billed. From a science fiction journal: You don't understand: the only way a subscriber can cancel a sub. is to DIE, literally. From a literary journal: We don't publish this, get stuffed. Thanks to Heather and John for this diversion. GIFT SUBSCRIPTIONS FROM PROFESSORS: A RESPONSE TO MARIE MAROSCIA Anne E. McKee, George Mason University; DataLinx: AMCKEE. I've had some experience with what Marie was questioning in the last issue of the Newsletter, and I thought I would share my thoughts with you. 1. The first thing to consider is whether the professor(s) is willing to pay the individual rate or the institutional rate. Many times fac- ulty don't know there is a tiered structure and are horribly surprised when they discover the contrary. Also, there is the ethical and legal question involved in using individual rates for library use. Some publishers have gotten quite stringent in the last few years of in- vestigating any library where they believe the individual rate is being misused. Some of the publishers (as I'm sure you are aware) even print in bold letters across the front of the journal, "FOR PERSONAL USE ONLY!" 2. Once the pricing question is resolved: how does one go about paying for the journal? Should the professor pay directly for it or should the library handle all ordering procedures and then inform the profes- sor when the invoice arrives? This, too, is fraught with problems: a) suppose there have been budget cuts since the order was placed and the faculty member no longer has the dollars? b) what if the professor is on sabbatical or has left outright since the order was placed? Etc. 3. Then, once the order has been placed, how will it be received? By the professor, who will then forward to the library, or mailed direct- ly to the library? The claiming question must be resolved: does the professor do it or the library? What about renewal notices? I'll give you a quick run down on things I've had to consider when faced with professors who wanted to donate journal subscriptions: I. I personally find it unethical to accept a professor's offer of a journal subscription only to find out s/he means to order the "indi- vidual rate" and then give it to the library. I will refuse it every time. II. I have had numerous problems with obtaining the subscription if the offer for the institutional rate to be paid by the professor has been accepted. If the professor has it mailed directly to him/her and then forwards it to the library, there always seems to be an incomplete run. Many times the professor will retain the issues until s/he has about four or five of them and then send them over to the library, which means we never have the current issues on the shelf. If the donation is mailed directly to the library, I still seem to have more trouble than usual obtaining all the issues. 3. Renewals. I've had an inordinate amount of trouble in renewing these subscriptions. Professors leave campus and then we're forced to cancel again. Or, they can't afford to pick up the subscription so we're forced to cancel. It is especially bad when they offer to pay for a brand new subscription one year and then are not able to keep up the arrangement the next year. You have one year on the shelf; do you bind it or discard it? Etc. As you can see, there are many, many things to consider about gift donations. I think Marie should count herself very fortunate that the faculty on her campus care enough for the library and the students to want to retain the journals by assuming the payment. I personally believe that these gift subscriptions take up more staff time in or- dering and claiming than regular subscriptions and after being "burned" a number of times, will not usually accept the gift. Only Marie, however, can decide if these possible problems are outweighed by the fact that they can still make the title available to the stu- dents. Good luck!! MORE FROM VIRGINIA TECH'S SCHOLARLY COMMUNICATIONS PROJECT Lon Savage, Virginia Tech, SAVAGE@VTVM1.BITNET. The Scholarly Communications Project of Virginia Tech, started two years ago as one university's response to the serials pricing problem, has begun marketing a technical journal. The project is intended to develop alternative models for retaining ownership of scholarly infor- mation within the university environment. The journal is THE INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF ANALYTICAL AND EXPERIMENT- AL MODAL ANALYSIS (IJAEMA), a publication of the Society for Experi- mental Mechanics of Bethel CT. The university project began editing, printing and distributing the journal last January. It began marketing the journal this fall. Letters have gone out to faculty and to librarians at universities where modal analysis activity is evident (mostly in engineering schools), soliciting institutional subscriptions. The letter to li- brarians states that a commercial publisher, one of several known for escalating serials prices, had made a bid to publish the journal at the time the university's bid was submitted. The Society has indicated it approved Virginia Tech's bid to publish the journal partly because of the university's commitment to hold down the price for libraries. The university project is marketing the journal, a quarterly with many mathematical equations, at a price of $75 per year for institutional subscriptions, the same price charged by the society last year. The project also plans to develop electronic communication of the jour- nal's contents and already has begun placing its tables of contents and abstracts on the Internet. REPLY TO "PRICE INCREASES REDUX" Kluwer Academic Publishers, Dordrecht, The Netherlands; SCITECH@KAP.NL. We would like to reply to the article written by Deana Astle concern- ing the INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF FRACTURE. We believe the information presented is misleading. The facts are: The increased frequency of publication from 3 volumes (12 issues) in 1989 to 5 volumes (20 issues) of 1990 was announced at the time of renewing subscriptions in late 1989. Thus, 1991 will carry an increase of 1 volume (4 issues) compared with 1990. The price increase per volume is: 1990: Dfl 315 US$ 148 1991: Dfl 330 US$ 187.50 _______ __________ 5 percent increase 26.7 percent increase The US$ increase is composed of 22.7 percent increase because of the US$ exchange rate and 4 percent from inflation. The exchange rates: 1990 was $1 = Dfl 2.16 1991 is $1 = Dfl 1.76 We hope this clarifies the situation. BRITISH LIBRARY PROBLEMS Lloyd Davidson, Northwestern University, L_DAVIDSON@NUACC.BITNET. The NEW SCIENTIST of 3 November 1990 has a short article on page 16 that describes the economic difficulties, both long and short term, that are being faced by the British Library. The library is going to be forced to sell land that was "earmarked for expansion of the li- brary in the next century" and it has been forced to stop buying about 3,000 translations of foreign scientific monographs, some reference works and abstract journals and 201 periodicals, 163 of which are translations of pure science periodicals from Eastern Europe. Like other libraries around the world, the problem is caused in part by funding increases which have not taken "into account the huge increas- es in the cost of scientific journals." Since so many of us depend on the British Library as a resource of last resort, any diminishment of its collection scope is cause for general concern. SERIALS ISSUES FROM THE CHARLESTON CONFERENCE Janet L. Flowers, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill; JFLOWER@UNC.BITNET. As usual, the Charleston Conference on Issues and Trends in Acquisi- tions and Serials (November 8-10, 1990) covered a wide range of top- ics, from education for acquisitions librarians to preservation to selection criteria. The issue of serials pricing was muted compared to previous conferences, but two panels did concern serials-related mat- ters, so I will report them here. The first panel dealt with emerging technological trends. Bill Potter, Director of Libraries at the University of Georgia, spoke to the de- mand side, noting four trends that are building toward a greater use of technology. The four trends are as follows: 1) Libraries are ex- panding online catalogs to include indexes and other databases; 2) The use of indexes on CD ROM is leading to an increased use of the lower end of collections, i.e., a core of popular titles; 3) The exponential increases in the costs of scientific journals are leading to consider- ation of ways to replace the scholarly communication system for this area; 4) The evolution of national networks, such as NREN, is offering the distribution channel for these services. Ward Shaw, President of CARL, spoke to the supply trends. He traced major technological developments in the past fifteen years from OCLC, to PACs, to networks, to full text delivery. He noted that his compa- ny, and others, are discovering end users willing to pay to avoid the bureaucracy of the library. Members of the audience raised the predictable questions of the cost of technology, the role of editors in an electronic environment, pre- servation concerns, and copyright issues. In the second panel, Joe Barker, of the University of California at Berkeley, explored the unbundling of the service charges from sub- scription agents. He defined unbundling as the breaking up of charges into components that are sold separately or in smaller bundles. Joe proposed four levels for the new services: no frills, the precision, self-helper (e.g., library does its own claiming), and the golden passport. The parallel with banking services may help you see the range of support these levels would provide. Libraries would pay only for those services used. The vendor could levy supplemental charges based on units of time or volume (e.g., number of claims), surcharges, or a sliding scale. Joe noted four risks associated with a change to unbundled services. 1) Would it be fair? (Do the librarians and the vendors know the costs of their services?) 2) Who would support the research and development efforts of the vendor? 3) What should the contractual obligations be? (How long should the contract be? What stipulations could be made to cover a change in mix because of serials cancellations?) 4) Would it be just too confusing for everyone? On the other hand, he postulated several advantages for both libraries and vendors. It would enable libraries to pay for only what they used. Libraries could manage their money better by weighing the cost of using the vendor versus doing the work locally. He thought that vend- ors could use unbundling as a new form of competitive selling. They could use it to lead prices away from unprofitable services. Joe's parting questions to the audience were: Are we ready for this? Is it worth it? Do we dare? (See his article, "Unbundling Serials Vendors' Service Charges: Are we Ready?" in the Summer 1990 issue of SERIALS REVIEW.) Dan Tonkery of Readmore responded by observing that most serials man- agers are unaware of the service rate they are currently being charged. He also stated that service charges are not related to the range of serials being purchased and that the more aggressive librar- ies are thriving at the expense of others in the current approach. To refresh the audience's memory, he reviewed the factors affecting service charges including the title mix (noting that the STM titles clearly pay for the humanities and social sciences). He described the growing pressure to increase service charges as stemming from declines in the discounts from publishers, increased operating costs, changes in the title mix, and an increase in service demands from libraries. (Note: In the Hyde Park Corner segment of the program, Jerry Curtis, of Springer Verlag New York, responded to a request for information regarding the range of service charges. He described the range as being from 0 - 18 percent, depending upon the mix and noted that the serials vendor only has two sources of revenue: discount and service charges.) Tonkery pointed to examples of existing unbundled services such as consolidation of orders for off-site check-in, online check-in, union lists, database building, and credit arrangements. Craig Flansburg from Faxon warned that unbundling could lead to micro- managing. He also noted that vendors have always amortized costs over their user base and provided some fairness through this distribution. He cited Marcia Tuttle's comments in an earlier article, calling for a full and effective partnership between librarians and serials vendors. HAVEN'T WE ALREADY PAID FOR THIS??? Danny Jones, University of Texas Health Sciences Center, San Anton- io; JONES@UTHSCSA.BITNET. Last week I received a mailing from ISI about the special introductory price offer on the JOURNAL CITATION REPORTS. When I called they told me this offer covers the 1989 JCR's. Until now the JCR was included in the annual subscription I paid in advance for SCIENCE CITATION INDEX and SOCIAL SCIENCE CITATION INDEX, and I paid for the 1989 subscrip- tion in the fall of 1989. As I see it, I've paid in advance for two years of JCR's and their separate subscription should begin with 1991. Furthermore, as a state institution, I do not think the attorney gen- eral would allow me to pay twice for the same product. I'd be inter- ested in how others view this. SAN ANTONIO ADDRESS BY FRANK PRESS Danny Jones, University of Texas Health Sciences Center, San Anton- io; JONES@UTHSCSA.BITNET. Frank Press, President of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States, gave a public address on science and technology policy in the U.S. at Trinity University in San Antonio, November 19, 1990. In the question period following his address Steve Euhaus, Ph.D., who retired several years ago as editor of APPLIED MECHANICS REVIEWS after more than 25 years in that position, commented on the effect of jour- nal price increases on university libraries in recent years and asked Dr. Press what could be done by the university libraries. In his brief response, Dr. Press acknowledged the problem and suggested that the universities should get together and stop buying the expensive jour- nals or, alternatively, they could agree to buy limited copies of the journals and share them. USELESS RESEARCH REPORTS Bradley D. Carrington, University of Kentucky Library; BCARRING@UKCC.UKY.EDU. From a letter of Aaron W. Hughey to the Editor of the CHRONICLE OF HIGHER EDUCATION, November 14, 1990, page 14: It has long been my contention that and most other student-services journals are comprised primarily of irrelevant commentaries and useless research reports. Comprehensive studies that could provide many of the in- sights so desperately needed are practically non-existant. ... As a practitioner, I want something I can easily translate into concrete administrative practice. ... Unfortunately, providing this kind of information does not seem to be a primary motivation for most of those currently contributing to our various publications. Might also apply to the journal literature of librarianship. RESPONSE TO DEANA ASTLE Siegfried Ruschin, Librarian for Collection Development, Linda Hall Library, 5109 Cherry Street, Kansas City MO 64110-2498. I agree with Deana Astle's statement in no. 29 of the Newsletter that libraries cannot and, I add, should not continue to sustain inordinate increases in subscription prices, whatever reasons the publishers may allege to "justify" them. Though this in no way diminishes the strength of Deana's argument, it should be noted that the prices of two of the journals that she men- tions already drastically increased for THIS year. The subscription price for volumes 42-46 (20 issues) of the INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF FRACTURE in 1990 was $675.00 plus postage, not $437.49. (We paid $725.69.) The increase for next year is therefore "only" a little over 53 percent. The story of BIOPOLYMERS is complicated. Volume 29 for 1990, of this "monthly" consisted of 14 numbers, but five of them, 4/5 (March/- April), 6/7 (May/June), 8/9 (July/August 5), 10/11 (August 15/Sept), 12/13 (Oct/Nov) were combined numbers. These double issues do not contain a perceptibly greater number of pages than the single ones. Last August, Wiley began to publish an additional volume, vol. 30 also dated 1990. The subscription cost for the year was thereby doubled, even though volume 30 was to consist of only seven issues compared to the "fourteen" of volume 29. So far, we have received nos. 1/2, 3/4 and 5/6 of volume 30 (1990). Contrary to the usual practice, Wiley did not bill for volume 30 ahead of publication, but decided to include it with the 1991 subscription. The invoice now states that the charge of $1575.00 covers 24 issues in 2 volumes from August 1990 to December 1991. Since volume 30 was to be published in seven issues, volume 31 would have to consist of 17 issues. HAMAKER'S HAYMAKERS Chuck Hamaker, Louisiana State University; NOTCAH@LSUVM.BITNET. Stanford and challenges to and reviews of its overhead understandings with the federal government continue to make the news. The NEW YORK TIMES Education section (Wednesday, November 7, 1990) discusses the problem with a good overview of the possible changes that three ongo- ing revIews could bring not only to Stanford, but to higher education overhead charges in general. Many of the articles mention a concern about overhead charges connected with Stanford's libraries. This is because the initial letter detailing concerns about the Memoranda of Understanding (MOU) that Stanford had reached with the Office of Naval Research specifies dollar amounts concerning library cost reimburse- ment charges. The letter, apparently written March 6, 1990 by Paul Biddle, ONR representative at Stanford, states: The special study that supports an MOU may not be acceptable. ... DCAA (Defense Contracting Audit Agency) identifies excessive library cost reimbursement through the overheads amount to $30 - $40 million during the period 1983-86. The Controller's Office (at Stanford) indicates this is a "done deal" due to the existence of an MOU that ONR fully understood. What this all means, I think, is that Stanford negotiated a charging algorithm for library overheads that resulted in at least the dollar amounts mentioned above. Of course, Stanford in its annual reports to ARL identified library expenditures in the range of about $70 million for the years mentioned. This suggests the algorithm may have created reimbursement levels of close to 65 percent or more for Stanford's library expenditures. Overall, overhead charges from all sources con- tribute about a third of Stanford's annual operating expenses, and after tuition were its second largest source of operating or unre- stricted funds. What is clear, even if the library reimbursement algo- rithm included much more than the libraries included in the ARL num- bers, is that Stanford had figured out how to maximize overhead re- turns from the federal government. After having agreed to those over- head calculation formulas, the government is now crying foul. And the resulting uproar may affect how all higher education is treated in overhead calculations with the federal government. Jack Timberlake, University of New Orleans, passed on to me a copy of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign School of Chemical Sciences Alumni News (Fall 1990) detailing problems at the Chemistry library there. Ninety-five percent of the current materials budget goes for serials. "There is virtually no money for monographs, or to build the collection for the future ... Chemistry librarian Tina Chrzastowski points out. ... In the last year I have found for the first time that the Chemistry library's budget has been unable to meet all the research needs of the faculty and students." The column is basically to introduce an appeal for funds to alumni, but as Jack pointed out in a note to me, "Years ago ... smaller libraries com- plained that the big schools were unsympathetic and thus their lack of concern contributed to the problem." From where I sit, it looks to me like we are all in the same boat today, bIg and small, and ignoring the cost of the materials we buy, or perpetuating the "go get more money" syndrome, is not an answer for either large or small libraries. If anything, it has exacerbated the situation. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Readers of the NEWSLETTER ON SERIALS PRICING ISSUES are encouraged to share the information in the newsletter by electronic or paper meth- ods. We would appreciate credit if you quote from the newsletter. ====================================================================== The NEWSLETTER ON SERIALS PRICING ISSUES (ISSN: 1046-3410) is pub- lished as news is available by the American Library Association's Association for Library Collections and Technical Services, Publish- er/Vendor-Library Relations Committee's Subcommittee on Serials Pric- ing Issues. Editor: Marcia Tuttle, e-mail: TUTTLE@UNC.BITNET; Faxon's DataLinx: TUTTLE; ALANET: ALA0348; Paper mail: Serials Department, C.B. #3938 Davis Library, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill NC 27599-3938; telephone: (919) 962-1067; FAX: (919) 962-0484. Committee members are: Deana Astle (Clemson University), Mary Elizabeth Clack (Harvard University), Jerry Curtis (Springer- Verlag New York), Charles Hamaker (Louisiana State University), Robert Houbeck (University of Michigan), and Marcia Tuttle. EBSCONET custom- ers may receive the newsletter in paper format from EBSCO. Back issues of the newsletter are available electronically free of charge through BITNET from the editor. ====================================================================== ******ENDOFFILE***ENDOFFILE***ENDOFFILE***ENDOFFILE***ENDOFFILE******* ======================================================================== Date: Thu, 10 Jan 91 10:51 EST Subject: PRICING NEWSLETTER, NO. 31 ISSN: 1046-3410 NEWSLETTER ON SERIALS PRICING ISSUES NUMBER 31 - JANUARY 10, 1991 Editor: Marcia Tuttle CONTENTS FROM THE EDITOR, Marcia Tuttle SUPPLEMENTS TO , Eleanor Cook ELSEVIER'S RESPONSE TO SUSAN ANDERES, David Bousfield "DIFFERENTIAL TREATMENT" FOR INSTITUTIONAL SUBSCRIBERS, Christie Degener OR ? Marcia Tuttle HAMAKER'S HAYMAKERS, Chuck Hamaker FROM THE EDITOR Marcia Tuttle, TUTTLE@UNC.BITNET One of the real joys of being a serials librarian is taking part in the fury of processing the holiday mail. In late December, with all our Acquisitions Assistants on vacation except our two new people, I got to help with serials check-in on our manual system. For three days I checked in mail for six hours and SSS'd (our local Stamping, Strip- ing, and Shelving procedure) for two hours. On Friday night, December 29 I was in bed before 10:00, exhausted. As I struggled with the need to attach new check-in cards for new volumes, construct call numbers that the vacationing supervisor would accept, and separate single- sheet serials from ads, I gained a new respect for the very publishers we love to bash. I never had to search for the enumeration on their journals. Checking in one of these international journals often low- ered the height of my stack of mail significantly. Issues had the date on the cover along with the enumeration, so I knew when to begin a new line on the check-in card. They even had the message "Last issue of this volume." Let's face it, these guys know how to publish journals! Sensitivity to the needs of librarians comes at a high cost. And it is a cost we pay twice. When we order these expensive international jour- nals through a subscription agent, we are paying again, because these publishers give the agent something on the order of a ten percent discount. Figure that out in dollars! Even when the publisher puts a cap on the amount of the discount, it's a lot of money. The agent tells us two things: 1) the discount on these expensive titles lowers the library's service charge on the other journals; and 2) the agent earns the discount by the service he provides the publisher. How does the publisher feel about subsidizing the cost of our acquiring other journals? I acknowledge that transmitting a batch of orders electron- ically is a service to the publisher, but the agent's other "services" include screening library claims and passing on information about delayed publication and title changes. I submit that libraries rarely have to claim the journals in question and these publishers notify us very clearly of title changes and the very few delays in publication. I am not advocating that libraries begin to subscribe to international journals directly from the publisher, but I do wonder if we are paying even more "too much" than we realize. As they say on television, "Your response is welcome." A message from Lelde Gilman (ECZ5LBG@UCLAMVS.BITNET) at UCLA Biomedi- cal Library sees vindication "in the BIG PRESS!" for a controversial talk she made at the last conference of the Medical Library Associa- tion: My talk on the publisher/librarian embroglio is being published in the January issue of the MLA BULLETIN ... but see the article on pages 1331-32, vol. 250 of SCIENCE, December 7, 1990, "Pub- lishing by -- and for? -- the Numbers," by David P. Hamilton. MIT professor Richard Young says if the bottom 80 percent of the literature "just vanished, I doubt the scientific enterprise would suffer." The article is based on an ISI (Institute for Scientific Information) study regarding the citation of only a small percentage of science literature. My talk in May: "If all of us do cut back everything but the best, or the highly cited (and I do believe there is a correlation), there may eventually be an audience of U.S., Japanese and West European medical li- braries subscribing to the same expensive, and fewer, journals. We all have a pretty good idea as to which ones these might be. If and when this happens, as it well may, scientific communica- tion will still continue unabated. Does anyone really doubt that scientists will continue to publish and communicate?" Since we are about to engage on a massive cancellation project for jour- nals (by necessity) and having to explain this to the faculty, it is wonderful to have at hand the article from SCIENCE! My library's copy of the January MLA BULLETIN hasn't come yet. I urge you to watch for this issue and read Lelde's article. I am getting messages and more messages about a new electronic journal sponsored by North Carolina State University, POSTMODERN CULTURE. For those of you who don't know about it, "it is a peer-reviewed electron- ic journal which provides an international, interdisciplinary forum for discussions of contemporary literature, theory, and culture. It emphasizes open debate and intellectual engagement." POSTMODERN CUL- TURE is available free of charge on BITNET or the Internet (or $15.00- /individuals, $30.00/institutions a year for microfiche or disk, plus postage: $3.00/Canada and $7.00/elsewhere outside the U.S). Vol. 1, no. 1 was September 1990. To subscribe, send a message to PMC@NCSUVM.- BITNET, or PMC@NCSUVM.NCSU.EDU, and ask to be added to the subscriber list. For disk or fiche write: POSTMODERN CULTURE, Box 5657, Raleigh NC 27650. Which reminds me to ask you what your libraries are doing about these new electronic mail journals. Are you receiving them at all? Online? On disk or other format? How do you receive them (e.g., a personal mailbox or a special mailbox)? How do you retain them? Online? Disk? Paper? Server? How do patrons access these journals? What works and what doesn't? Jim Thompson, University of California, Riverside, (THOMPSON@UCRVMS.- BITNET) keeps us current with the financial security of the Maxwell empire: In case any of your readers are worried about Pergamon's ability to survive the rising costs of paper and postage, and all the other dire developments which we're always told have today's commercial publishers at death's door, THE SCOTSMAN (Edinburgh) of November 29 indicates that Maxwell Communication is likely, after all, to make it through long enough to send out the next renewal notices. "Operating profits from publishing and profes- sional database information services leapt by 50.4 per cent, from L71.8 million (i.e., pounds) in 1989 to L108 million... Mr. Max- well said the advances had been achieved despite the more diffi- cult economic conditions both in the US and the UK, and interna- tionally. 'Our publishing and professional information services have demonstrated their recession-proof qualities by these re- sults,' he added...'We look forward to a satisfactory outcome for the year.'" From Randy Reichart at the University of Alberta (RREICHAR@UALTAVM.- BITNET) comes the text of a letter sent by Alberta's collections co- ordinator, David Jones, to Christopher Schneider, International Sales Director of Gordon and Breach: Dear Mr. Schneider: Attached are the labels from the SIX copies of your catalog that we received in the mail. This is truly a gross waste of postage and material. While your mailing system may not be sophisticated enough to avoid all duplication (i.e., between those addressed to Mungall and those to the Science and Technology Library), surely you should be able to note four copies all going to the same individual and two to the same library. Please save us some money (and use it to lower the price of your publications) and in fu- ture send only 1 copy of your material.... SUPPLEMENTS TO Eleanor Cook, Serials Librarian, Appalachian State University, Boone NC; COOKEI@APPSTATE.BITNET. This is an excerpt from a letter I recently sent to the German pub- lisher E. Schweizerbart'sche: I am writing to express my concern over a recent action your company has taken. We have been subscribing to EUROPEAN JOURNAL OF MINERALOGY for a number of years. In 1990 we paid $197.26 plus $24.59 for a supplement. Then in November 1990 we were sent two more supplements and charged an additional $73.80. It bothers me to have to pay extra charges for unannounced sup- plements. The last two that arrived are of particular concern. This is because these supposed supplements to Vol. 2, 1990 of EUROPEAN JOURNAL OF MINERALOGY are actually No. 1 and 2 of a completely separate serial title, BERICHTE DER DEUTSCHEN MINERAL- OGISCHEN GESELLSCHAFT. With a different title, numbering and ISSN, this in my opinion is clearly a marketing ploy to get us hooked on subscribing to yet another journal. In response to my inquiry about this, our serials vendor discov- ered that next year (1991) the EUROPEAN JOURNAL OF MINERALOGY will be available for subscription either with or without supple- ments. While this is a step in the right direction, I am still stuck with these two supplements that I do not want. I'd like to return them and get our money back, but I was told I could not do this. American university libraries are suffering under the weight of journal prices and we can no longer afford to absorb the cost of supplements whenever you feel like putting them out. We want to know exactly what we're going to have to pay on a yearly basis, with no surprises. Our shrinking budgets can no longer handle such practices. I'll let you know if I get a response. In the meantime I am stuck with two issues of something that I cannot shelve or bind because the men- tion of the title we have the subscription for is in small letters on the cover and elsewhere, and they will be a constant source of confu- sion. ELSEVIER'S RESPONSE TO SUSAN ANDERES David Bousfield, Ph.D., Publisher, Elsevier Trends Journals, 68 Hills Rd, Cambridge CB2 1LA, England; JDB13.PHOENIX.CAMBRIDGE.AC.UK. (EDITOR'S NOTE: Letter reprinted with author's permission. For Ander- es's letter, see Newsletter no. 30.) Dear Ms. Anderes, Thank you for your letter of November 8th. Please be assured that we do take comments from our customers seriously as we are always looking at ways of improving the service we provide. Responding to your points in order: 1. The price of the institutional subscription has increased by 10% (1% less than the UK inflation rate) - not by 16.3% as you describe. Also, our pricing policy (printed on the contents page) has always made it clear that the Personal edition is available to individual users only. 2. We are always prepared to consider alternative subscription packages, but as yet we are unconvinced that it would be in the financial interest of an institution to not receive a compendium. The local binding costs are invariably inflated by the need to replace missing and damaged copies. All of our studies show that we can provide a cheaper service overall. 3. Basically, we have two prices: the full (Library) price and a heavily discounted (Personal) price. The full price is based upon the high overhead costs involved in running the Trends journals (we currently have 50 staff working on 10 titles). The discount price is subsidised by advertising income, which in turn is only possible due to the high Personal subscriber levels enjoyed by the Trends titles. To decrease the institu- tional rate would require a disproportionate increase in the Personal rate. This in turn would lead to a fall in subscriber numbers, and ultimately in advertising income, creating the need for a further disproportionate increase in all prices. To summarise, the institutional price reflects the very high costs associated with the editorial production of the Trends magazines. The low Personal price reflects a strategy for providing some subsidy for all versions of our product via advertising income. I hope these comments clarify some of the reasons behind our pricing policy. We will of course reconsider your suggestions early next year when pricing for 1992. Meanwhile, I hope you will accept that, as the enclosed extract from a recent issue of THE SCIENTIST shows, we do deliver a high quality product. "DIFFERENTIAL TREATMENT" FOR INSTITUTIONAL SUBSCRIBERS Christie Degener, Health Sciences Library, University of North Caro- lina at Chapel Hill; cdegener@med.unc.edu. Two instances of institutional subscriber discrimination recently crossed my desk. 1) Claim requests for issues of journals published by Medical Econom- ics Pub. Co. are being returned from our vendor with the stamped mes- sage: "Copies are not replaced to libraries or institutions." Contact- ing Medical Economics clarified this policy statement somewhat: if the issues were mailed to the correct institutional address, libraries and institutions must pay for missing issues they claim rather than get- ting them free. (However, personal subscribers submitting claims do normally receive the missing issues for free.) According to the Medi- cal Economics spokesperson, this policy has been in effect for at least 5 years because the publisher has had too many libraries submit- ting claims for "missing" issues that were actually received and then lost/stolen/whatever. Recent issues of 3 Medical Economics titles (BUSINESS & HEALTH, DRUG TOPICS, and MEDICAL ECONOMICS) do not mention this policy or give any claiming instructions. 2) The latest issue of JOURNAL OF NUTRITIONAL SCIENCE AND VITAMINOLOGY (Vol. 36, no. 4, Aug. 1990) contained a special "Announcement to In- stitutional Subscribers" as follows: Journal of Nutritional Science and Vitaminology, Vol. 36, Supple- ment II "Dietary Protein as a Regulator of Lipid Metabolism" Edited by Michihiro Sugano 182 x 257 mm, about 170 pages, Jap Yen 3,000 (excluding postage) will be published around October, 1990. The subscription price of this supplement issue is not included in the regular institution- al subscription rate. (Only for personal subscribers is it in- cluded.) Please use the attached post card when ordering this issue. Center for Academic Publications Japan This title's only other supplement is published as part of the Vol. 36, No. 4 issue itself (and therefore automatically included for both personal and institutional subscribers). In both cases described above, the titles do not have separate person- al versus institutional subscription rates. EDITOR'S COMMENTS: Christie sent documentation for both instances, for which I thank her. Her covering note said: "When I called Medical Economics, the rep. volunteered to send our missing issues free, "be- cause it's Christmas." She has since obtained a catalog from Medical Economics which does state the no-claims-from-libraries policy on page 5. I checked the title MEDICAL ECONOMICS on DataLinx and found a statement that said the claim limit for this publisher is three months. Christie then called the publisher, Doug Florenzie, to ask for clari- fication. He told her that both policies were "basically true." In the past they have been reluctant to supply second copies to institutions because of libraries' abuse of the privilege. Further, the company has a limited inventory of back issues. Recently there has been a subtle change in the policy and Medical Economics Company has become a little more accommodating. Some issues are available for claims, if the li- brary does not have "a reputation" for claiming abuse and if the three-month time limit is met. OR ? Marcia Tuttle, TUTTLE@UNC.BITNET. As I was checking in the holiday mail, I came across a journal issue carrying a post-it note that said, "double check-in." In the state of mind provoked by using a manual check-in file on December 28, I re- jected the idea of this duplication of effort and put the issue aside to study later. Here's what I found. The issue in question, dated December 10, 1990, was labelled: CHEMICAL GEOLOGY, vol. 86, no. 1 ISOTOPE GEOSCIENCE, vol. 12, no. 1 The head of the contents page says "CHEMICAL GEOLOGY - ISOTOPE GEO- SCIENCE SECTION - AN INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL." The publisher is Elsevier Science Publishers in Amsterdam. On the check-in cards I found a se- ries of letters dated from 1982 to 1987 from Elsevier, some stuck on one card and some on the other. Excerpts follow. 1982 With effect from 1983, your subscription to CHEMICAL GEOLOGY will now include a new section entitled ISOTOPE GEOSCIENCE. ISOTOPE GEOSCIENCE is a 'daughter' section which is being launched because of the increasing amount of work now being done in the field of isotope geology and radiochemistry. For the subscribers to CHEMICAL GEOLOGY, this new destinction (sic) offers a more comprehensive, yet simpler, information source in the remarkably active area of geochemistry. A subscription to ISOTOPE GEOSCIENCE only is possible. If you intend to subscribe to this new section only, please do inform us. 1984 In response to suggestions put by a number of our subscribers to ISOTOPE GEOSCIENCE, we have decided to re-number the journal issues with effect from 1985. As you know, ISOTOPE GEOSCIENCE was launched last year as a daughter journal of CHEMICAL GEOLOGY. The new journal was given its own numbering sequence (ie, starting with Vol. 1/1) as well as being numbered as part of CHEMICAL GEOLOGY. From the beginning of 1985 this policy will be abandoned and we will only be numbering the issues in accordance with the existing numbering of CHEMICAL GEOLOGY.... I hope this change will alleviate some of your cataloguing problems. 1986 CHEMICAL GEOLOGY 1987 With reference to your subscription to the above mentioned jour- nal, please be advised that you will have received, or will shortly be receiving, the first issue for the 1987 period. This title consists of several sections, which can sometimes lead to confusion in administration. On the back of this letter, for your convenience, you will find a publication schedule for the 1987 subscription period. This publication schedule lists exactly which volumes cover the separate sections of this title. If a coexistent volume numbering for the separate sections is used, same is also listed. We hope this publications schedule will be of use to you in the administration and registration of this title in your records.... (on verso) CHEMICAL GEOLOGY is published according to a volume- numbering scheme that embraces both sections of the journal. Each of these sections has its own volume numbering, according to the following system: CHEMICAL GEOLOGY Vols. 60-66 7 volumes - 28 issues Vols. 60-64 Vols. 65-66 CHEMICAL GEOLOGY ISOTOPE GEOSCIENCE (5 volumes - 20 issues) Vols. 6-7 (2 volumes - 8 issues) For cataloguing, it is recommended that subscribers to CHEMICAL GEOLOGY follow the CHEMICAL GEOLOGY numbering sequence. Subscrib- ers to ISOTOPE GEOSCIENCE should adhere to the section volume numbers. The 1987 letter is identical to the 1986 letter and gives the 1988 publication schedule and the same cataloging advice. This discussion is not just about bibliographic treatment of journals. It has strong, albeit subtler, implications for pricing, too. The most common reason for such things as "daughter" publications is to avoid starting a new journal and to cash in on the more or less captive audience of the original serial. Some publishers would not make avail- able a separate subscription to the new section alone, as Elsevier did. Nor would they go to the trouble to send out a letter each year to aid librarians, as Elsevier does. This publisher tries very hard to accommodate the wishes and needs of librarians (at a price), as well as those of their editors. The editor has taken this round. HAMAKER'S HAYMAKERS Chuck Hamaker, Louisiana State University, NOTCAH@LSUVM.BITNET. One of the battles in medicine that has direct bearing on many of the issues tracked by Newsletter readers is getting public debate through a controversial discussion of control of medical information. The NEW YORK TIMES, November 14, 1990 (page 1) broke nationally a story that had been pieced together by AIDS activists. The National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, a division of NIH, did not notify doctors of a report prepared by a panel of 16 AIDS specialists which reached a conclusion May 15, 1990 that steroids can halve the death rate from AIDS-related pneumonia. The report was delayed five months until one of the papers on which the conclusion was based was accepted for publication at the NEW ENGLAND JOURNAL OF MEDICINE. The author's fear that NEJM would not accept his paper if the panel report, based in part on his paper, came out before a journal accepted it, apparent- ly was one cause of delay. In the NEW YORK TIMES December 2, 1990 (page E4), under an article by Gina Kolata, "Patients and Scientists Fight for Control of Medical Information," a second research arena, cases of Women and AIDS, are at issue, with the issue being who owns government generated research. Using the Freedom of Information Act, advocates are trying to get unpublished data from Federal studies. The NIH is determined not to release information in the papers before they appear in medical jour- nals. Joanne Belk, acting Freedom of Information Officer at the NIH said, "It's a very, very sensitive matter. We really are trying to protect researchers' draft manuscripts before they are published. We don't want to jeopardize their chances of publication." William Rubenstein, a lawyer for the ACLU trying to get the AIDS data from the Government said, "They (the studies) were paid for by a pub- lic agency and the law says the public has access to the data. I don't see how the Government has a right to withhold them." Although it is almost a commonplace among academic and research li- braries that journal publishers hold our budgets hostage with ridicu- lously large increases in prices, now it is becoming clear to a much larger public that the journal system can hold much more than library dollars hostage. It can hold lives hostage to a system as well. I recommend librarians watch this one; it has the potential of finally defining who controls access to information, and how. Although the peer review system is one of the basic shibboleths of science, with- holding lifesaving information while the system works its will is likely to bring that wall of Jericho crumbling, especially in the case of government grant funded research. AIDS activists have accused the NIH panel that withheld its results for five months with murder. The system is likely to be under increasing pressure to correct this type of abuse. Reading the NEW YORK TIMES articles is probably enough to outrage anyone. Think about medical areas where there are no "activists" dogging re- searchers and wonder how long it takes lifesaving research to save your own family. In the case of federally funded medical research, normally the integrity and methods of the researcher have been peer approved before the research is funded. Formal publication may in fact be a mere artifact for tenure and additional funding. When delay for formal publication means more people dead, where does the line get drawn? I hope it is not a career that draws the line; but at this stage, clearly it is. The last two issues of the ARL NEWSLETTER contain several important items Newsletter readers should know about. Ann Okerson in the January 4, 1991 issue updates us on changes in NSF Grant Proposal Require- ments. "In lieu of providing a complete list of publications for the past 5 years, senior personnel need only include a list of up to five publications most relevant to the research proposed and up to five other significant research publications. Items in press may be includ- ed." Okerson notes only "12 citations are requested in nominations for both the Nobel Prize and membership in the U.S. National Academy of Sciences." Way to go NSF! The real question is, is this sufficient to tell faculty that publish or perish is no longer the name of the game? Maybe grant committees should continue to request all publications of the last five years and deduct points for any over 10!!! This same issue of the ARL NEWSLETTER contains the basic text (subject to wording changes) of a resolution passed by NSF's executive commit- tee at the organization's annual meeting on November 13, 1990. The resolution not only supports ARL serials initiatives, it offers NASULGC support in developing strategies to deal with pricing and production (or overproduction) in scholarly publishing. It recommends among other points that NASULGC (that's the National Association of State Universities and Land-Grant Colleges) campuses inform their faculties regularly about journal price increases; that faculty of NASULGC campuses "be sensitive to the assignment of ownership of their written products; that faculty of NASULGC institutions acknowledge cost as a factor in the selection of serials...." (Did all librarians who still believe we only have to judge quality note that one?); "that NASULGC encourage member institutions to examine the extent to which academic reward system and grant/contract practices contribute to the excessive production of publications..." Dr. Peter Wagner, Provost, SUNY Binghamton, chairs the NASULGC Library Committee and sought input from Ann Okerson and ARL in formulating this resolution. I hope the full text becomes widely available soon so everyone can take a look at it. Jennifer Wingard, Assistant Director Federal Relations -- Higher Education at NASULGC describes the passed resolution as "highly proactive, exciting and enabling." NASULGC rep- resents the nation's 72 land-grant colleges and universities. It's old news for many by now, but the November 7, 1990 issue of the ARL NEWSLETTER included a lead article by yours truly, "Journal Prices in Perspective," which documents an eleven-year growth in prices from the big three sci-tech publishers of 170 to 309 percent, while univer- sity and library budgets grew about 110 percent. Overall CPI was about 50 percent for roughly the same period. Growth in volumes and issues ranges from 4 percent to 73 percent, varying enormously by publisher in the same time frame. If you need overview numbers this could help. In a December 7, 1990 release, Faxon estimated U.S. domestic journals increased in price 12 percent, which is, if memory serves, at least 30 percent higher than any time in the last decade. Looks like American publishers got a bit greedy, or else foreign acquisition pressure forced them to do it, or, heaven forbid, does this mean they really are noticing cancellations??? None of them has admitted that yet, but we are waiting to see which publisher admits first that subscription levels are down. American and foreign publishers are afraid such "in- formation" would help a competitor. They seem to be willing to go down with the ship rather than admit there is a serious problem that they don't want to admit. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Readers of the NEWSLETTER ON SERIALS PRICING ISSUES are encouraged to share the information in the newsletter by electronic or paper methods. We would appreciate credit if you quote from the newsletter. ====================================================================== The NEWSLETTER ON SERIALS PRICING ISSUES (ISSN: 1046-3410) is pub- lished as news is available by the American Lib