Newsletter on Serial Pricing Issues 079 (April 14, 1993) URL = http://hegel.lib.ncsu.edu/stacks/serials/nspi/nspi-ns079 ISSN: 1046-3410 NEWSLETTER ON SERIALS PRICING ISSUES NO 79 -- April 14, 1993 Editor: Marcia Tuttle CONTENTS 79.1 STM PUBLISHERS' RESPONSE TO ARL FIRM PRICES LETTER, Herman Pabbruwe 79.2 FIRM PRICES, Robert Persing 79.3 PUBLISHERS' PROMOTIONS, Phyllis Brown and Carol Fleishauer 79.4 PRICE PROJECTIONS, SHORT AND LONG TERM, Tara Lynn Fulton 79.5 AUSTRALIAN LAW BOOKS PROBLEM, Pamela Bluh 79.6 HAS ANYONE CONSIDERED? Koster D. Annora 79.7 FROM THE MAILBOX 79.1 STM PUBLISHERS' RESPONSE TO ARL FIRM PRICES LETTER Herman Pabbruwe, Wolters Kluwer, and Chair, STM Library Relations Committee, HERMAN.PABBRUWE@WKAP.NL. One of the recent issues of the _Newsletter on Serials Pricing Issues_ published the letter of the ARL Working Group on Firm Serials Prices dated March 2nd 1993 and directed at STM Publishers and Subscription Agencies. What follows is the text as I have submitted it to the _STM Newsletter_ which will appear within the next month or so. TIMELY AND FIRM PRICES FOR SUBSCRIPTION RENEWALS At the invitation of Ann Okerson, Director, Office of Scientific & Academic Publishing of the Association of Research Libraries (ARL) and member of the STM Library Relations Committee, I have attended a meeting of ARL Directors in Denver in January. There a working group, chaired by Donald W. Koepp of Princeton University, discussed the issue of firm prices with representa- tives of five major subscription agents. This working group kindly asked that STM pay attention to the problem of firm pricing. Early March I re- ceived a formal request; it is reproduced in this issue of the _STM News- letter_ and is largely self-explanatory. After discussion at the STM Group Executive Meeting on 9 March I have been asked to prepare a draft recommen- dation to the members of STM. This draft recommendation will include the following practical observations: 1) Publishers can speed up the updating of prices in customer databases by sending advance price information to a core group of subscription agents. Many publishers still only send printed brochures and catalogs by mail. Obviously advance information can cut this updating process by at least a few weeks. The introduction of an Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) standard for price/sales catalog information might solve this problem instantly. A subcommittee of ICEDIS comprising publishers and agents is already well underway in preparing such a standard for comput- er to computer transmission of data. However, for the time being we have to rely on paper files, telefax or e-mail messages. 2) Sometimes the prices for only a small number of titles in the whole list are being set at a rather late stage, as when approval by a society is still pending. In principal, publishers do not have to wait until the pricing of all titles is complete to inform agents of the prices which are already final. 3) Publishers who price their journals in a (to them) foreign currency either by using a fixed exchange rate or by setting actual list prices in that currency, should notify their customers (at any rate subscrip- tion agents) well before 1 September. Please note that the request from the ARL working group has been under- signed now by over 95 ARL members; I have been informed that a similar request can be expected from UK libraries. In general publishers' reactions seem to be positive to this request as it is considered to address a very reasonable business requirement. The Asso- ciation of Subscription Agencies supports the request. 79.2 FIRM PRICES Robert Persing, University of Pennsylvania, persing@a1.relay.upenn.edu. I found Bill Miller's letter to Faxon (NSPI #77), informing them that his institution would only pay firm prices, fascinating. If nothing else, it has a boldness to it which is striking in what I've found to be a field grounded in cooperation and dialogue. My question is whether we can docu- ment how prevalent the "soft pricing" situation is. We all see the supplemental invoices coming in every week, and recognize the problem, but I've never seen statistics documenting the extent. Can the major vendors tell us what percentage of publishers set their prices after, say, October 1st for the next year's subs? What percentage of commercial publishers? What percentages of subscription titles have price increases for the current subscription period in an average year? (I'm only thinking about subscription items here, as I assume Bill Miller was. Continuation price increases, though equally troublesome to the budget, are a whole different ballgame.) Can those price increases be broken out into percent- ages for added pages, exchange rate fluctuations, and whatever other rea- sons publishers give? If any vendors out there have this information, I'm sure a lot of people would like to know about it. ----- [I spoke with Dan Tonkery, President and CEO of Readmore, about Bob's ques- tions. Dan said that by October 1, 95 percent of their top 200 publishers have set their prices and told the subscription agents. See the Readmore- supplied lists of those publishers printed in the newsletter last summer (issues 42 (August 4, 1992) and 48 (September 14, 1992)). He reminded me that Readmore notes with an asterisk titles having firm prices for the period being invoiced, whether on a renewal list, an invoice, or a report. Because he was off to catch a plane, Dan didn't have time to respond to the rest of Bob's questions. I hope one or more of the newsletter's vendor subscribers will do so. -Ed.] 79.3 PUBLISHERS' PROMOTIONS Phyllis Brown and Carol Fleishauer >From Phyllis J. Brown, Idaho State University, BROWPHYL@ucs.isu.edu: These great "deals" seem to me to be analagous to the grocery store coupons which are such a pain to me. I use them but I once wondered aloud to the store manager as I was handing them over why they (the manufacturers) did not just lower the price and cut out all the expense of publishing and redeeming them. The store manager said that the coupons are deductable by the manufacturer as a cost of doing business or promotional cost while lowering the cost would not be. I'll bet that these publishers have it all set up so that they will get a tax deduction for all they seemingly are giving away. Maybe this is something that we should take up with the Clinton administra- tion. If their promotional deductions were reduced for this sort of ruse it would go away. Cynic that I am, I am sure they would find another way to fleece us. ----- >From Carol Fleishauer, MIT Libraries, FLEISH@mitvma.mit.edu: I totally agree with Dave Fisher's assessment of Pergamon's, Gordon & Breach's, and Bowker's recent promotional programs. Some quick and dirty data-gathering clearly illustrated how ludicrous the Pergamon PLUS program is. In 1992, the average price of Pergamon journals to which MIT Libraries subscribed was $735. Ergo, a library would have to be "nominated" for the $25 credit approximately 29 times to purchase one journal for one year! Clearly Pergamon's motives in establishing this program are more related to public relations than to altruism. PRICE PROJECTIONS, SHORT AND LONG TERM Tara Lynn Fulton, Bucknell University, TFULTON@jade.bucknell.edu. I gather I'm one of the few coll dev officers who has to prepare budget request information this early in the year! We've been asked to speculate on future serials pricing issues, including crystal ball estimates of how much prices will rise over the next five years. I don't recall seeing any- thing like that in anything I've run across. I'm hoping you will tell me I missed something, or several sources. I have Faxon's latest projection for 1993. If no one wants to go beyond that, are there any eloquent statements you know of that I can quote that explain why the situation is too volatile to anticipate? This, by the way, may be a need/dilemma all coll dev offic- ers face that might warrant summary in the newsletter. Meanwhile, I'd ap- preciate any advice you can offer. Thanks in advance. My fax number is 717- 524-1237 in case there is anything concise to share. 79.5 AUSTRALIAN LAW BOOKS PROBLEM Pamela Bluh, University of Maryland Law Library, PBLUH@UMAB.UMD.EDU. In reply to item 74.5, Toby Burrows' comments about the Canadian abridge- ment, I find it hard to believe that an agent would tell a customer that unless they buy something, their subscription to an entire set would be cancelled. We recently bought the new 10 volume cumulation directly from Carswell. They are a reputable company and have never made any kind of precondition to acquisition as that attributed to the Australian vendor. If Law Book Company makes these kind of demands, perhaps Carswell should be notified. I would think they would not be very pleased with that kind of sales technique. 79.6 HAS ANYONE CONSIDERED? Koster D. Annora, Johns Hopkins University, annora@jhunix.hcf.jhu.edu. This is my second year of having to cut science serials subscriptions. I had to cut one title that was apparently vital to only one faculty member on the Homewood campus. Has anyone tried out the idea of offering forty- eight hour to one week delivery of an article found in a journal that has recently been cancelled? It would appear to be a temporary (!) solution to some of the pain to our patrons. It might be a useful bargaining tool, to aid in cancellation also. If it is known that they can receive a desired article from a cancelled journal, especially if it is not a critical jour- nal, within a specified time period, then maybe some of the pain can be numbed or massaged away. It is obviously only a surface solution. But it is all I can think of as I don't want to estrange my patrons more than they already are by further cuts. 79.7 FROM THE MAILBOX The mailbox is: tuttle@gibbs.oit.unc.edu. >From Fred Friend, Librarian, University College London, ucylfjf@UCL.AC.UK: I am not usually an old cynic, and I wish Ted Dobb the best of luck in implementing the resolution of the Simon Fraser University Senate, but experience of such resolutions from Senates in UK universities leads me to respond that it is one thing to secure such a resolution and another thing to have it implemented. Faculty will swear on the Bible that there are no library resource implications for new courses in order to get their course approved but then try to manipulate the library selection policy to get what they want after the course has been approved. Such resolutions from Senates need teeth to be effective. ----- >From Peter Graham, Rutgers University, "Peter Graham"@gandalf.rutgers.edu: Re: Ann O'Neill's note [no. 74]: aside from all her other points: she says Thor Power Tool hasn't made any difference. I was rather under the impression it had, in that it had contributed to the publisher perception that only quick turnover items should be published and that backlists can't be allowed as they once were. These both have been significant, or so I have thought, in restricting the real availability of more marginal and less mainstream works both in the arts and in works of scholarly interest. +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Statements of fact and opinion appearing in the _Newsletter on Serials Pricing Issues_ are made on the responsibility of the authors alone, and do not imply the endorsement of the editor, the editorial board, or the Uni- versity of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ 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. +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ *****ENDOFFILE*****ENDOFFILE*****ENDOFFILE*****ENDOFFILE*****ENDOFFILE*****