From: Kenneth Murr <krmrr_at_CLEMSON.EDU>
Hi,
Having received Wiley's proposed pricing for electronic access to
subscribed journals, I thought I'd see what other people are going to
do. We have been getting free electronic access to the journals we
subscribe to from Wiley (51) for 1 user at a time.
To maintain this access after Dec. 31 will cost 5% of our subscription
price. We can get enhanced electronic access (unlimited users, tokens for
non-subscribed titles, and a few additional goodies) for the same 5%
increase. However, that does not include the printed works which will cost
an additional 10%. Neither of these models consider the anticipated rate
increases; though the enhanced version with a multi-year contract restricts
rate hikes to 6.5% (Gosh, I did not know that database storage and memory
prices were going up so fast and, of course, the authors are going to get
BIG pay increases.)
Personally, I hate this business model. I shall not go into the economics
of electronic data delivery. But, when other major publishers are lowering
my costs by providing electronic access, I can not see paying extra for
something that costs the publisher less. I have recommended that we go
with print only; recognizing that many users will be unhappy. Heck, I will
be unhappy.
What are you going to do?
Kenneth R. Murr
Received on Thu Sep 06 2001 - 10:25:41 EDT