Newsletter on Serial Pricing Issues 081 (May 9, 1993) URL = http://hegel.lib.ncsu.edu/stacks/serials/nspi/nspi-ns081 ISSN: 1046-3410 NEWSLETTER ON SERIALS PRICING ISSUES NO 81 -- May 9, 1993 Editor: Marcia Tuttle CONTENTS 81.1 FAXON RESPONSE TO ARL WORKING GROUP ON FIRM PRICES, Jim Smith 81.2 ANOTHER VIEW OF _AMERICAN ZOOLOGIST_ PRICE INCREASE, Betty Oktay 81.3 _AMERICAN ZOOLOGIST_ PRICE REDUCTION METHOD, Cindy Kaag 81.4 CLARIFICATION OF STUBBS CITATION BY HAMAKER IN NEWSLETTER 74, Albert Henderson 81.5 PERIODICAL CLAIMS, Dave Fisher 81.6 "THANK YOU" LETTER FROM CCC, Jim Thompson 81.1 FAXON RESPONSE TO ARL WORKING GROUP ON FIRM PRICES James L. Smith, Vice President US Sales & Marketing, Faxon Company. To: ARL Working Group on Firm Serial Prices From: The Faxon Company, Westwood MA Date: April 30, 1993 Re: Subscription Renewal Pricing Thank you for your letter of March 2 expressing your request for more time- ly information about STM serials pricing. Faxon is in full support of the ideas you have expressed in this letter. Over the years, we have taken many steps to urge and help publishers to supply prices earlier so our clients' renewal decisions could be made ear- lier. Firm pricing is good for all of us; libraries will make more sure decisions, agents will simplify the billing and payment cycles, and pub- lishers will reduce the number of late orders and cancellations. This year, in response to your request, Faxon is initiating a program to improve pricing information to clients, while at the same time encouraging publishers to support the ARL group's proposal. ----- 1. All quotations and invoices from July onwards will indicate which serial title prices are firm, which are firm but may float due to currency fluctu- ations, and which have not been updated by the publishers at all. In addi- tion, we will flag titles that are published by the members of _The STM Group_. This new information should allow libraries to evaluate the status of any title and make decisions accordingly. 2. In addition, we are developing a new quotation summary that will consol- idate the above information by total price and by percentage. We will break out the total for each category for your evaluation, and will provide sta- tistics. For example, you may compare the total percentage of these STM titles whose prices are firm with those whose currency may float or whose price has not been set. We will provide this information for non-STM titles as well in a sparate summary. Although you have not requested that non-STM titles comply with firm pricing guidelines, it seems clear that this is desirable information. 3. For ARL members who request additional information on their STM serial titles, we will create a special report of historical data. This report will list only those STM titles in your collection, their current pricing status (firm, firm with floating currency, or unknown), and the price you paid last year. This report may give you helpful data in evaluating titles whose publishers have not yet supplied pricing data. 4. We are already redesigning our pricing and quotation systems. Although this year we cannot offer quotations that list only firm prices, our plan is to provide significant new quotation options and pricing information for your 1995 subscriptions. 5. We are sending a letter to _The STM Group_ and other publoishers empha- sizing your need to receive prices early, and alerting them that their pricing status will be visible on all quotes and invoices. We believe that your concerns are being heard by STM publishers, and that most are making extra efforts to accommodate your needs. 6. We are working closely with all publishers that are able to exchange pricing data electronically with us. Faxon is a long-time proponent of EDI for improving this very type of information flow, and we are pleased that a gradually increasing number of publishers is making strides to provide this type of data. ----- Change is long overdue in our industry. Tight budgets and international currency fluctuations are villains for all enterprises in today's world. Therefore, a streamlined pricing process will be a significant advantage to all of us. I look forward to hearing from you further on these matters. 81.2 ANOTHER VIEW OF _AMERICAN ZOOLOGIST_ PRICE INCREASE Betty Oktay, Vassar College, OKTAY@vaxsar.vassar.edu. [First appeared in _Acqnet_, vol. 3, no. 45. Used with permission. -ed.] The subscription price of _American Zoologist_ is going up from $133 to $400 effective with vol. 33 #1, 1993. I just checked the journal issue myself to confirm this information. Faxon kindly brought it to our atten- tion with a notification dated April 21, 1993 and Jean Regan, Publication Services noted that the increase would NOT affect us until the 1994 renew- al. I called a member of our biology faculty to share this news with him. He is a member of the American Society of Zoologists and already knew about this dramatic increase in the subscription. He then went on to explain the fi- nancial situation of the society. They changed their management staff due to a retirement and soon became aware of their debts -- even have asked members to contribute $200 each to keep the Society in business, etc. For purposes of comparison it might be helpful to note that a related jour- nal published by Academic Press, _Journal of Theoretical Biology_, costs $1600 per year. Explanations don't provide funds but they certainly help in deciding whether or not to continue a subscription. 81.3 _AMERICAN ZOOLOGIST_ PRICE REDUCTION METHOD From Cindy Kaag, Washington State University, KAAG@WSUVM1.CSC.WSU.EDU. In the discussions on the price increase for _American Zoologist_, has anyone noticed that "single copies for institutions are available at $33 each"? There are 6 issues a year. 6 X $33 = $198 per year. An insitutional subscription is $400 per year. For the cost of kicking out six orders, you could get the same journal at half the regular price. 81.4 CLARIFICATION OF STUBBS CITATION BY HAMAKER IN NEWSLETTER 74 From Albert Henderson, Bridgeport CT, 70244.1532@CompuServe.COM. Following is the message I received, in its entirety, in response to my query to the editor of SCIENCE AND ENGINEERING INDICATORS regarding the Hamaker article in no. 74: -------- Forwarded Message -------- [Headers removed. -ed.] TO: Albert Henderson Thank you for your letter of 3/15 enclosing a copy of the NEWSLETTER ON SERIALS PRICING ISSUES No.74, March 15, 1993. You highlighted a quotation from a letter by Kendon Stubbs to the ARL di- rectors in which he noted that, "In its Science and Engineering Indicators, 1991, the National Science Board displays a table showing that from 1981 to 1987 the number of US scientific and technical articles increased by only 2% while R&D expendi- tures in real dollars increased by 40%" It is unfortunate that Mr. Stubbs did not read the fine print in the foot- note to the table before broadcasting the above incorrect interpretation of the data. If he had done his job properly he could have read that the data are based on a "fixed journal" set of "more than 3,200 US and foreign jour- nals on the 1981 Science Citation Index Corporate Tapes." Footnote to Ap- pendix Table 5-27, p.389 in the National Science Board's, SCIENCE & ENGI- NEERING INDICATORS - 1991. Thus, these data tell us ONLY about the growth of articles within that set of journals. It says nothing about the growth of journals or articles not included in that set. Mr Stubbs also incident- ally erred in claiming that the growth he noted referred to the number of "US scientific and technical articles," whereas the 2% growth depicted in the table referred to "world literature," of which the US share was a lit- tle less than 36%. SCIENCE & ENGINEERING INDICATORS has not published data on total growth of scientific literature for over a decade because of difficult problems with available databases. It is, of course, common knowledge that there has been rapid growth in the area. But precisely how much, and in what areas, re- mains to be well charted. Any suggestions are welcome! Carlos Kruytbosch Senior Specialist in S&T Indicators Science Resources Studies National Science Foundation 81.5 PERIODICAL CLAIMS Dave Fisher, University of California-San Diego, Dave_Fisher@ucsdlibrary.ucsd.edu. It's not unusual for us to submit up to 4 or more claims for some missing issues to our vendor (Faxon), the first one going out in a timely fashion. We receive no response from the publisher, then after many months and claim cycles have passed, receive a report that the claim was submitted too late and we will have to pay for a replacement copy, or the issue has gone out of print. These reports come from some of the biggest science publishers in the industry. Our Faxon customer service representative reports that we are not alone in this predicament. I'm curious what experience others are having in this regard and what they are doing about it. I'm inclined to believe the problem lies not in our vendor service but at the other end of the line. Our library handles over 3500 active periodicals with a single individual devoting 50% of her time to checkin and claiming and the other 50% to binding activity so we don't have a whole lot of extra time to pursue problem claims. If publishers have a problem with claims being routed through an intermediary they would be well advised to suggest an economical alternative. I balk at being asked to pay for something claimed within the publisher's time frame but which the publisher fails to acknowledge until after their claim period has expired. Our claims are printed off the InnoPac system so only the date of the lat- est claim shows on the form although the number of the claim does print, e.g. CLAIM 1, CLAIM 2, etc. "THANK YOU" LETTER FROM CCC Jim Thompson, University of California - Riverside, THOMPSON@UCRAC1.UCR.EDU We recently received the letter below from the Copyright Clearance Center. It's fascinating, though Orwellian, to find that the CCC considers its members to be the CREATORS of information, rather than profiteers milking the real creators (and users) of information, i.e. scholars and their li- braries. ----- National Library Week, April 19-23, represents an opportunity to reflect on the important role of libraries in all aspects of our national cultural, economic, and intellectual life. We would like to take this opportunity to thank you for your demonstrated respect for the principles of copyright and your valued participation in the Copyright Clearance Center. The CCC has long recognized librarians' pivotal role in providing broad and timely access to information, which inevitably includes significant quanti- ties of copyright protected material. Thus, we have worked hard to assist you in achieving those goals by creating and refining comprehensive permis- sions mechanisms and licensing systems. Recognizing the challenges libraries now face as you manage many conflict- ing requirements, we wish to renew our commitment to work with you to meet these challenges. CCC firmly believes that a balance of the principles of open access to information as well as protection of the rights of creators is key to our country's continuing creative productivity. Thank you again for your support of copyright and of the Copyright Clear- ance Center. Best regards, Sincerely, Joseph S. Alen President +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ 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). 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