Newsletter on Serial Pricing Issues 069 (January 19, 1993) URL = http://hegel.lib.ncsu.edu/stacks/serials/nspi/nspi-ns069 ISSN: 1046-3410 NEWSLETTER ON SERIALS PRICING ISSUES NO 69 -- January 19, 1993 Editor: Marcia Tuttle CONTENTS 69.1 FROM THE EDITOR, Marcia Tuttle 69.2 RESPONSE TO ALBERT HENDERSON'S COMMENTS IN NO. 67 69.3 UNIVERSITY OF WESTERN ONTARIO SERIALS CANCELLATION, John Clouston 69.4 LETTER TO THE AMERICAN CHEMICAL SOCIETY, Christina McCawley 69.5 FROM THE MAILBOX 69.1 FROM THE EDITOR Marcia Tuttle, tuttle@gibbs.oit.unc.edu. I'd like to say a word about submissions to the newsletter in paper format. We are happy to have them, but there are perils. It is much easier for me to insert electronic messages into issues than to rekey items that come by mail or fax, and sometimes these pieces of paper get put aside or misplaced on my desk. I have a couple of them waiting now. When a hot topic is being discussed, I want to get relevant messages distributed as soon as possible, and again the paper messages get put aside. This is not necessarily right, but it's practical. I have good intentions, but .... 69.2 RESPONSE TO ALBERT HENDERSON'S COMMENTS IN NO. 67 Various subscribers. Peter Graham, Rutgers University Libraries, graham@zodiac.rutgers.edu: Mr Henderson's comments in SPN 67 are very interesting and deserve atten- tion. I would particularly like knowledgeable people to comment on the efforts of libraries to gain their faIr share of the overhead on federal research grants -- to my limited knowledge, University administrations have simply said "no" and "it's not your business." Has anyone had success, and what do informed people think of this approach. I would like to hear more of Mr Henderson's credentials and background. He seems well informed on the face of it but claims for objectivity are always worth backing up. Finally, his harsh remarks about ARL indulging in legal activity seem misjudged, as it was a publisher (6 timezones away) who began the legal battles, not the library community. ----- Mignon Adams, Philadelphia College of Pharmacy and Science, adams@shrsys.hslc.org: I don't think having the federal government provide more funding to pay for scientific journals will solve the serials pricing problems any more than federal funding of Medicare solved the health pricing problems. Rather, if there were more federal money available for journal subscriptions, journal publishers would charge more. The basic problem is third-party payment: the user of scientific journals does not pay directly for the costs, so there is no incentive for making cost-benefit choices. With third-parties respon- sible for payment, journal publishers see no reason not to expand their journals, issue supplements, and create new ones, just as your local hos- pital sees no reason not to buy a CAT scan. ----- Fred Friend, University College Library London, ucylfjf@UCL.AC.UK: Thank you for publishing Albert Henderson's comments in NS 67. We do need a dialogue on such issues. In response to Albert Henderson's comment on the membership of the University College Library Committee, I cannot resist pointing out that we do have two places on the committee for scientific researchers from outside University College, admittedly academics from other institutions but a sign that we and other libraries do try to look outside our own four walls. More seriously, on the question of funding of libraries to take account of periodical prices, one thing I have learned about this complex problem of pricing is that you do not solve the problem by throwing money at it. In the mid-1980s UK university librarians persuaded UK Government to make a substantial ear-marked grant to libraries to pay for the high inflation we were experiencing on periodical prices. What happened? - prices rose at an even steeper rate. We do argue for an adequate share of our institutions' income, including overheads on research grants, but libarary income is only one side of the equation. We have to tackle the whole problem. ----- Patricia O'Neill, Cornell University, PON@CORNELLC.cit.cornell.edu: Mr. Henderson raises some interesting points in his comments. However, the issue of where money comes from and how it is spent needs to be addressed more fully. Mr Henderson states that "The R&D community, 90% of which is off campus, depends on academic materials...." As an academic librarian with previous experience as both a non-academic scientist and a corporate librarian, I totally agree that the non-academic research scientist relies heavily on academic libraries for information both indirectly (though in- terlibrary loan) and directly by visiting our stacks. Unfortunately, rarely do these non-academic library users (or their organizations) support the academic library. Academic libraries must first support the users who pay for the library -- students and faculty. Scientific faculty representation on a library committee is a fair representation of the scientific community which pays the library's bills. Student representation is also helpful. In these years of spriraling journal costs, academic librarians must work with the ACADEMIC community they serve to spend the dollars they have on the books and journals most needed by the academic community. If the non-aca- demic community benefits that is well and good. However, until the non- academic community directly supplies funds for the academic library, they can't expect to be represented in the decision making groups. Increasing the funding of libraries is also a good idea. Getting funding agencies to make universities use the library portion of overhead directly for library purchases MIGHT be a good idea. First, if it's done, these funds had better not be limited to purchases. "Soft money" is definitely needed for staffing in libraries. The cost of a journal is not just the subscription, it is also the cost of the infrastructure needed to make that journal available to the scientist. Second, tying up part of government directly to library spending might or might not increase the money availa- ble to libraries. That would be highly dependent on the support the library has in its institution already. LSU is perhaps not indicative of every in- stitution. Also, increasing the money available for purchasing materials is not the only answer to the rapidly increasing prices for journals. There are some who believe the large amount of funds available in the '70s and early '80s actually helped increase the prices of journals because the librarians and the scientific community did not have to evaluate as care- fully what they were buying and how much they were paying for it. 69.3 UNIVERSITY OF WESTERN ONTARIO SERIALS CANCELLATION John Clouston, University of Western Ontario, clouston@LIB.UWO.CA. [Reprinted from SERIALST: SERIALST@UVMVM.BITNET.] The University of Western Ontario Library System in London, Canada has just completed its fifth and largest serials cancellation project yet. This time we cancelled 1,156 periodicals and standing orders worth $467,198 Canadian ($1 US = $1.27 Cdn). We have now put in place serials/monograph dependency ratios by discipline and within broad guidelines each of the seven librar- ies in the System must stay reasonably within the ratios agreed upon for that library. While it may not eliminate the need for further cuts, it does mean that lower-cost serials libraries are no longer feeling that they are subsidizing exorbitant serials costs in science, medicine, and technology. With the weakening US dollar, many of our American colleagues are now learning what Canadian libraries have long experienced: the added losses due to currency exchange rates. On the premise that misery loves company, I would like to learn of serials cancellation projects at other large re- search libraries. ----- In response to John Clouston's: > ... on premise that misery loves company, I would like to learn of seri- >als cancellation projects at other large research libraries. and for the interest of others who may have missed it, there is some recent discussion of serials cancellation projects at other institutions in the November 1992 SERIALST logs. I am appending an index of recent citations from the Nov. and Dec. logs. Birdie MacLennan bmaclenn@uvmvm.bitnet University of Vermont bmaclenn@uvmvm.uvm.edu ---------------- Item # Date Time Recs Subject ------ ---- ---- ---- ------- 001748 92/11/16 16:18 22 Serial cancellations 001749 92/11/17 12:48 18 Re: Serial cancellations 001750 92/11/17 17:00 34 Serials Cancellations 001751 92/11/18 09:55 65 Serials cancellations 001754 92/11/18 20:47 49 Serials Issues 001755 92/11/19 15:42 22 RE: Serials Cancellations 001756 92/11/19 15:48 60 Cancellation Projects 001764 92/12/02 20:31 30 Serials cancellations at Western 69.4 LETTER TO THE AMERICAN CHEMICAL SOCIETY Christina McCawley, West Chester University, CMCCAWLE@WCU.BitNet. I thought you might like to see a copy of a letter that one of our Chemis- try professors wrote to the American Chemical Society. He has given me permission to post it to the _Newsletter on Serials Pricing Issues_. Sept. 14, 1992 Dr. Ernest Eliel, President The American Chemical Society 1155 Sixteenth Street NW Washington, D.C. 20036 Sir: Today I performed the sad duty of recommending priorities for cancellation of twenty percent (by cost) of West Chester University's chemistry serials budget. In this process I observed that the American Chemical Society has, in the last year, increased subscription prices by twenty percent or more on almost all ACS journals to which we subscribe. The ACS seems to have positioned itself squarely in the "part of the problem" category with re- spect to the well-documented difficulties which universities, large and small, are having with serials price escalation. Although my department is one of the largest in the Philadelephia area in terms of chemistry gradu- ates, we are relatively small compared to other programs on campus. None- theless, our part of the University's serials budget exceeds ten percent. We cannot begin to accommodate cost increases which far outstrip the rate of inflation in this period of diminishing resources. The problem is not unique to us. It can hardly be news to the ACS that large price increases will be harmful to those institutions which perpetuate our profession. I ask that you, in your capacity of ACS President, act to assure that jour- nal pricing policies be set in a manner which is consistent with the pri- mary mission of the ACS as a learned society, in contrast to its incidental role as a publishing house. Regards, Roger Barth, Ph.D. cc Editor, Chemical and Engineering News 69.5 FROM THE MAILBOX The mailbox is: tuttle@gibbs.oit.unc.edu. >From Dana Roth, Caltech, DZRLIB@ROMEO.CALTECH.EDU: In regards Bill Drew's question about added charges to subscription agents' renewal invoices in No. 66.4, is the problem with the publishers or with Readmore's billing in advance of the publisher's price list. If you are paying before October/November, I would suspect this is a vendor problem. ----- >From Frances Chen, University of Arizona, FCHEN@CCIT.ARIZONA.EDU: Some information on the latest development about _Cellular and Molecular Biology_. I discussed this title with Dr. Eugene Morkin, who is a professor of Internal Medicine at the University of Arizona College of Medicine, and who is also on the editorial board of both "versions" of this title. Ac- cording to Dr. Morkin, Pergamon will change the original title to: _Cellu- lar and Molecular Biology Research_, will *probably* publish the new title with volume 1, and will publish it with a "rapid" schedule, requesting authors to submit papers in camera ready format on disks. Professor Wegmann will continue to publish under the current "original" title. ----- >From Deana Astle, Clemson University, DLAST@CLEMSON.CLEMSON.EDU: I have just been given a copy of the _APS News_ for January 1993. In it is a set of statements from Gordon and Breach with the corresponding response from the AIP. I think both of these have been treated before in the News- letter (dates are July 30, 1992 for the G&B statement and August 10, 1992 for the AIP statement), but it might be good to let people out there know the statements are being distributed to the physicists. +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ 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 published by the editor through the Office of Information Technology at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, as news is available. Editor: Marcia Tuttle, Internet: tuttle@gibbs.oit.unc.edu; Paper mail: Serials Department, CB #3938 Davis Library, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill NC 27599-3938; Telephone: 919 962-1067; FAX: 919 962-0484. Editorial Board: Deana Astle (Clemson University), Jerry Curtis (Springer Verlag New York), Janet Fisher (MIT Press), Charles Hamaker (Louisiana State Universi- ty), Daniel Jones (University of Texas Health Science Center), James Mouw (University of Chicago), and Heather Steele (Blackwell's Periodicals Divi- sion). The Newsletter is available on the Internet and Blackwell's CONNECT. EBSCO and Readmore Academic customers may receive the Newsletter in paper format from these companies. Back issues of the Newsletter are available electronically. To get a list of available issues send a message to LISTSERV@GIBBS.OIT.UNC.EDU saying INDEX PRICES. To retrieve a specific issue, the message should read: GET PRICES PRICES.xx (where "xx" is the number of the issue). To subscribe to the newsletter, send a message to LISTSERV@GIBBS.OIT.UNC.EDU saying SUBSCRIBE PRICES [YOUR NAME]. Be sure to send that message to the listserver and not to Prices. You must include your name. To unsubscribe (no name required in message), you must send the message from the e-mail address by which you are subscribed. If you have problems, please contact the editor. +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++