Newsletter on Serial Pricing Issues 097 (October 15, 1993) URL = http://hegel.lib.ncsu.edu/stacks/serials/nspi/nspi-ns097 ISSN: 1046-3410 NEWSLETTER ON SERIALS PRICING ISSUES NO 97 -- October 15, 1993 Editor: Marcia Tuttle CONTENTS 97.1 FROM THE EDITOR, Marcia Tuttle 97.2 UPDATE TO LIST OF PUBLISHER PRICES RECEIVED AT READMORE Sandy Gurshman 97.3 1994 PUBLISHERS' PRICE LISTS AND 1994 PUBLISHERS PRICE INCREASES, Han Nouwen 97.4 DOLLAR LOSES GROUND AGAINST EUROPEAN CURRENCIES BUT SOME EUROPEAN STM PUBLISHERS POST PRICE REDUCTIONS, Laura Ralstin 97.5 FROM THE MAILBOX 97.1 FROM THE EDITOR Marcia Tuttle, tuttle@gibbs.oit.unc.edu. Throughout 1993 we have seen an effort made by librarians -- initiated by members of the Association of Research Libraries -- and supported by sub- scription agents to have journal publishers set and announce their 1994 prices by late summer (Northern Hemisphere). The targets of this initiative are the large scientific-technical-medical publishers, whose journals ac- count for a large percentage of any research library's serials budget. Reports in this newsletter and elsewhere have documented that the agents have in fact received 1994 prices by the requested time. I have for several years been wary of any effort to have these prices fixed any earlier than usual, because it seems obvious to me that such action can only raise the prices libraries must pay. In general, (some) publishers agree with me and subscription agents disagree. It is my firm belief that the earlier journal subscription prices are set, the more is unknown about conditions during the term being paid for: volume of content, salaries, paper and labor costs, and -- if prices are fixed in foreign currency -- exchange rates. The publisher is going to do all it can not to lose money on its journals, but to maximize profits. And rightly so; that's why the publisher is in business! Are we librarians opening the door to higher prices? A few weeks ago I had a message from a librarian asking about the effect (or the perceived effect) of this "firm prices" effort. The message men- tioned a higher-than-expected increase from a European vendor. The editor- ial board and I discussed the situation and our feelings about it. They have given me permission to quote some of their messages (anonymously!). I would like to hear how librarians view this whole efforrt, and if agents see any difference in the behavior of publishers. On the whole, I think the bulk of the problem is the small publishers who don't even know to inform the agents. And occasionally a big one that gets delayed for some internal reason. I do think that even the best intentioned publish- ers sometimes have problems that can't be helped. I'm ready to be a nay-sayer as well, but then I see all the information as to publishers that really did set prices earlier this year. The piece of informtion we will never have is how much they had to pad their prices to protect themselves from unanticipated cost increases. I always thought that this push for firm prices might result in higher prices, much as the insistence a few decades ago from librarians that they know the price in dollars and be billed in dollars. How do the rest of you see this issue? What has been your experience? 97.2 UPDATE TO LIST OF PUBLISHER PRICES RECEIVED AT READMORE Sandy Gurshman, Readmore Subscription Agency, sandyg@readmore.com. By September 1, the majority of major STM and academic publishers had is- sued their price lists. The first list of prices in NEWSLETTER #92 covered publishers whose lists were received by August 1. Regrettably, that list omitted some publishers whose lists did, in fact, arrive at Readmore before August 1: AMERICAN MATHEMATICAL SOCIETY, BRITISH LIBRARY, COMMONWEALTH AGRICULTURAL BUREAU (CAB), KLUWER, OPTICAL SOCIETY OF AMERICA, ROCKEFELLER UNIVERSITY PRESS, SAGE, SAUNDERS, SLACK, SPRINGER VERLAG, TAYLOR & FRANCIS, THIEME, TRANSACTION, TURPIN, UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN PRESS Since August 1, lists have been received from the following publishers: ACADEMIC (UK) AMERICAN CHEMICAL SOCIETY AMERICAN INSTITUTE OF PHYSICS ASPEN BLACKWELL BRITISH MEDICAL ASSOCIATION CAHNERS CHEMICAL ABSTRACTS CRC CURRENT SCIENCE MARCEL DEKKER GUILFORD IEE LIPPINCOTT LITTLE BROWN LIVERPOOL UNIVERSITY PRESS MARY ANN LIEBERT MCB UNIVERSITY PRESS MUNKSGAARD PASHA PAUL PAREY PROUS SHARPE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO PRESS UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS PRESS VAN NOSTRAND WILEY 30 of the publishers whose lists we received by September 1 issued their prices at least 3 weeks earlier than in 1992; 35 lists were received 1 to 2 weeks earlier than last year. 97.3 1994 PUBLISHERS' PRICE LISTS AND 1994 PUBLISHERS PRICE INCREASES Han Nouwen, Swets Subscription Services, h.nouwen@swets.nl. Following the recommendations of the ARL, and SCONUL and COPOL in the UK, with regard to the early availability of prices for 1994, every effort has been made by Swets to obtain firm prices from publishers as early as possi- ble and to provide customers with improved information for renewal deci- sions. We thought your readers might be interested in our analysis of re- ceipt times of prices from our top 320 publishers. As at September 24th we had received pricelists from 222 of these publishers (69,38 percent). These break down as follows: Received in March - 1 April - 1 May - 1 June - 10 July - 79 August - 86 September - 44 At the end of the year we shall prepare a list of the receipt times of the pricelists from the 320 publishers and a copy will be available on request. With regard to the price increases for 1994, on September 24th our records showed that, based on all prices received by that date, the publishers' price increases for 6 of the main publishing countries were: USA - 9.59 percent UK - 12.36 percent Holland - 12.54 percent Germany - 6.13 percent Switzerland - 10.81 percent France - 3.66 percent Although this does not represent the final situation, it does include the major publishing houses. Prices for many small publishers will be received in the months to come and we will give an update in late November. These are publishers' price increases only and are exclusive of the effect of individual exchange rates which might be employed at renewal time with publishers compared with the 1993 renewals, and of course the significance of the location of a library subscriber vis-a-vis the strength or weakness of its own currency. 97.4 DOLLAR LOSES GROUND AGAINST EUROPEAN CURRENCIES BUT SOME EUROPEAN STM PUBLISHERS POST PRICE REDUCTIONS Laura Ralstin, EBSCO Corporate Communications, Birmingham AL, 205 991- 1492. BIRMINGHAM, Ala. -- The recent strengthening trend of the US dollar against major European currencies has subsided, but the predicted 10.5 percent publisher price increases for 1994 subscriptions will still be softened by gains the dollar has made in the past few months. In early August the dollar had gained an average of 9.43 percent against a composite of European currencies (the British pound, Dutch guilder, French franc, German mark and Swiss franc) since November of last year, when most publishers were paid for 1993 subscriptions. The dollar has now lost about 6 percent of that gain against the composite currency average and on Sept. 14 was an average of 3.4 percent stronger against major European currencies than it was last November. If publishers were paid at conversion rates effective Sept. 14 the average European subscription (if not priced with a fixed conversion rate or US dollar rate) would cost libraries buying with US dollars approximately 7 percent more than last year. However, libraries buying with US dollars should see little or no ultimate price increase, and in some cases a decrease, for titles from major European STM (scientific, technical and medical) publishers setting fixed conversion rates or US dollar selling prices. One major STM publisher based in The Netherlands is posting a price reduction of about 8 percent; two other major STM publish- ers' prices remain the same as last year or are slightly lower. For subscriptions from publishers not setting a fixed conversion rate or a US dollar selling price, the final cost will depend on prevailing exchange rates when those publishers are paid later this year. Individual changes in currency rates since last November are as follows: Approximate Approximate % of Change Predicted Cost Country 11/2/92 - Increase of Origin Currency 9/14/93* for 1994 Subscriptions France franc 5.38 5.12 Germany mark 2.55 7.95 Netherlands guilder 2.28 8.22 Switzerland franc .09 10.41 Great Britain pound -0.90 11.40 *Represents change in currency per US dollar. Based on the current value of the dollar (as of Sept. 14), libraries buying with US dollars could pay about 5 percent more for French journals, 8 per- cent more for German journals, 8 percent more for Dutch journals, 10 per- cent more for Swiss journals, and 11 percent more for British journals than they paid for 1993 subscriptions. Again, these percentages are for journals from publishers that do not set a fixed exchange rate or US dollar selling price. Released: Sept. 15, 1993 97.5 FROM THE MAILBOX The mailbox is: tuttle@gibbs.oit.unc.edu; fax: 919 962-0484. >From Susan Davis, State University of New York at Buffalo, UNLSDB@UBVM.cc.buffalo.edu: Thanks to Deana Astle for quanitifying what I had intuitively realized about MCB. We indeed cancelled one of their library science publications because it was too costly. MCB has also taken over publication of several titles from the Library Association, and we noticed an abnormally large price increase. In an informal conversation with one of our British vendors I specifically mentioned our reason for cancelling the MCB title, and they applauded our action as they had also recognized price increases out of line with other publishers. Must be something about having a B in your name.... ----- >From Eleanor Cook, Appalachian State University, COOKEI@conrad.appstate.edu: Thanks to Deana Astle for her thorough analysis of the pricing of MCB Uni- versity Press journals. She confirms what many of us have suspected for some time. I examined the three marketing journals from MCB that we sub- scribe to and two of them are rather expensive; $1390 and $1840, respectiv- ely. The third one is just $106. They are all on slightly different topics but are similar layout and frequency. I do not understand why two of these publications are so expensive, and the other one is not. I also have always wondered why they are called a "university press." ----- >From Fred Friend, Librarian, University College London, ucylfjf@ucl.ac.uk: Dividing up the periodicals budget by academic department is something we have been doing for two years at UCL, although I have no wish to offer our method as one to be followed. As part of a cancellation exercise a couple of years ago we asked our academic departments to grade our 8000 current subscriptions A, B, or C according to their level of interest in the title. Cunningly we then used the gradings to apportion the cost of each title to departments as part an institution-wide devolving of all expenditure to departments. By and large departments have accepted the results, although we are having to refine the initial crude results by going into more detail on specific titles. +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ 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, Blackwell's CONNECT, and Readmore's ROSS. EBSCO customers may receive the Newsletter in paper format. 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. 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). +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ *****ENDOFFILE*****ENDOFFILE*****ENDOFFILE*****ENDOFFILE*****ENDOFFILE*****