Newsletter on Serial Pricing Issues 101 (December 3, 1993) URL = http://hegel.lib.ncsu.edu/stacks/serials/nspi/nspi-ns101 ISSN: 1046-3410 NEWSLETTER ON SERIALS PRICING ISSUES NO 101 -- December 3, 1993 Editor: Marcia Tuttle CONTENTS 101.1 FAXON COMPANY CONTINUES FAMILY OWNERSHIP IN COURT DECREE 101.2 GORDON AND BREACH EXPLAINS PRICING STRUCTURE, Chris Schneider 101.3 AMERICAN PHYSICAL SOCIETY ELECTRONIC PUBLISHING EXPERIMENTS 101.4 "DUKE MATHEMATICAL RIPOFF," Anthony Ferguson 101.5 FROM THE MAILBOX 101.1 FAXON COMPANY CONTINUES FAMILY OWNERSHIP IN COURT DECREE Press release, Kevin Butler, The Faxon Company, 617 329-3350. Westwood, Massachusetts, November 29, 1993 -- As a result of a decision of a Massachusetts Probate Court, Judy Davis, descendant of the company's founder, is the sole voting shareholder of The Faxon Company. The Faxon Company is a serials subscription agency, providing journal subscription management, current awareness services, and back-issue fulfillment to li- braries and information centers worldwide. The company has been a privately held specialized library service company for more than 100 years. "The Faxon Company has always been owned and operated by the same family," commented Ms. Davis. "The court has preserved the continuity of leadership. We are pleased and relieved to be able to continue business as usual, to serve our library clients with the quality they have come to expect." The Faxon management team remains in place. All Faxon enterprises continue their services to clients as before. Ms. Davis has named Dr. Peter Pyclik as President of The Faxon Company. Dr. Pyclik has served as Group Managing Director of Faxon U.S. and Latin Ameri- ca and as Chief Operating Officer of The Faxon Company. Judy Davis continues her role as Vice President of Information Systems. She will lead strategic product and service developments, including Faxon Source, a subscription management service and on-line serials information system; Faxon Finder, a current awareness and document delivery service; and EDI/X12 standard data transactions. 101.2 GORDON AND BREACH EXPLAINS PRICING STRUCTURE Chris Schneider, Gordon and Breach New York, gbreach@CIX.COMPULINK.CO.UK. [Reprinted from serialst.] STBS sent a letter to all library subscribers in early Fall about the end of year renewal. Following is the paragraph in question from this letter. The rest of the letter mentioned Subscribers Incentive Plan and other pro- motional news. -------------------------------------------------------------------------- "We have sent renewal invoices to you or your subscription agent for the 1994 volumes of Gordon and Breach and Harwood Academic journals. Your re- newal invoices reflect the current volume rates. However, there will be rate increases on 1994 volumes that will vary and may reach 5%. We are pleased to announce a deferment of these increases until January 1994. To retain these current rates for 1994 subscriptions, payment for these in- voices must be received at STBS, from agents and libraries ordering direct, before December 31, 1993. After this date all unpaid invoices will be re- invoiced at the new rates. We have already notified your subscription agent about this deferment, but we recommend that you consult with them to ensure uninterrupted service at these lower rates." --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Gordon and Breach publishes on the "flow" system. To ensure the quickest publication of accepted author's papers, our publication schedule is flexi- ble where we do not limit the number of volumes to be published in any given year. For subscriptions, we anticipate the number of volumes we will be publishing in the new year and invoice accordingly in Fall. However, the volumes do not publish in strict sequence like once a month, bi-monthly, etc. But we do anticipate publishing all volumes in the course of the full year for which we billed. We do not renew a journal in Fall if we do not anticipate publication of new volumes soon after the New Year. In fact, _Molecular_Crystals_and_Liquid_Crystals_ is this month already publishing its first '94 volume. It is quite important, therefore, to check with us about the date of publication of the next volume before registering a claim. But we take any fulfillment claim quite seriously and, if you have had unresolved claims, you can contact our customer services department in New York (212 206-8900), Langhorne-PA (215-750-2642), Reading, U.K. (+44 0734 560-080) or Singapore (+65 741-6933). As for Ms. Mary Page's original posting, I had contacted her and we are currently resolving a specific billing/fulfillment problem with her agent. In the meantime, we have sent all missing volumes to her library by UPS Blue. If you'd like to contact me directly, please mail . 101.3 AMERICAN PHYSICAL SOCIETY ELECTRONIC PUBLISHING EXPERIMENTS From _APS Publishing News_, Issue 1 (October 1993), page 5. [Reprin- ted with permission. To subscribe to this publication at no charge, please fax your name and mailing address to the editor: Barbara Mey- ers, 301 434-0126.] At the current time, the APS has three electronic publishing projects "in the works," they are: 1) APS/Los Alamos National Laboratory Collaboration An electronic version of past volumes of the _Physical Review_ is being undertaken via a Wide Area Information Server (WAIS) in collaboration with the Center for Nonlinear Studies (CNS) at Los Alamos National Laboratory. The intent is to scan past issues for full-page displays and to employ existing electronic files of past _Physical Review_ volumes (from approxi- mately 1987 to the present) and to make these files available in a form compatible with existing electronic search software (e.g., WAIS). Processes for incorporating equations and figures will be reviewed and an effective method for embedding them into the text will be developed. Beyond this six- year accumulation of _Physical Review_ material, procedures will be devel- oped for optically scanning the entire archive of _Physical Review_ from its first issue, published in 1893. This is intended to be a two-year ex- periment during which time APS will gain experience in managing online journals and develop appropriate mechanisms for creating easy user access, charging algorithms, cross-referencing, etc. Gary Doolen (CNL), and Timothy Thomas (Computer Research) are co-principal investigators at Los Alamos. 2) APS/NRL Library Collaboration An experiment is being initiated based on collaborative efforts between the APS and the Naval Research Laboratory (NRL) Library to scan past issues of _Physical Review Letters_ and _Physical Review E_ and storing them on opti- cal disks. The technology for this project has already been developed and successfully implemented at the NRL Library. Users having access to the resulting database will be limited to members of the NRL research community via the Library's InfoNet. Access will be monitored in order to learn de- tails concerning usage patterns of the APS journals. The experience gained will be used in future APS online initiatives. Laurie E. Stackpole, Chief Librarian, is the director of this project. 3) On-line Version of _Physical Review Letters_ A Request for Proposal (RFP) will be sent to suitable vendors requesting bids for the creation of an online version of _Physical Review Letters_. The APS is seeking a vendor who will work with the Society to deliver PRL online with a full range of enhancements, the intent being that after sev- eral years the electronic product would become self-supporting. The Society is requiring that only current issues be made available, starting with the first issue of Volume 74 (July 1, 1994). The Society will consider auxilia- ry proposals in which sequentially produced volumes (beginning with Volume 73 and working backwards) would be made available electronically as well. In this pilot program, the electronic product is to be produced concomi- tantly with the printed version, which will continue to be published un- changed. The electronic version will be portable and accessible to users through a variety of the most commonly used operating systems. Secondary products, such as CD-ROM versions, are to be available at modest incremen- tal cost. A preliminary version of the RFP has been sent to a select group of science librarians for comment and reaction before preparing the final RFP. ----- Questions or Comments about the Society's experiments in the area of elec- tronic publishing should be sent to the Editor or directed to: Mr. Robert Kelly, Director of Journal Information Systems, The American Physical Soci- ety, 500 Sunnyside Boulevard, Woodbury NY 11797; Voice: 516 576-2365; FAX: 516 349-7817; E-Mail: rakelly@aps.org. 101.4 "DUKE MATHEMATICAL RIPOFF" Anthony W Ferguson, Columbia University, ferguson@columbia.edu. The other day I got the following message from one of our bright young science librarians: Beginning wtih 1994 volume, _International Mathematics Research Notices_ (IMRN) will not be a part of our subscription to the _Duke Mathematical Journal_. For library subscribers only, an electronic version will be availa- ble at no extra cost to those who sign a site license. The cost of IMRN is $600 for library subscribers, $300 for individu- als. This is the first time that I have seen a publisher trying to do this kind of business: Ask the library to support the electronic version. We always have this kind of fear. Finally, the nightmare comes true. I will send each of you a copy of the letter sent by Duke Mathemat- ics Press. That letter explains how the publisher is doing the business. I have asked the math faculty about the journal. Of course this is a simple twigging of a journal with the library paying more -- twice as much as the individual subscriber. I guess the fear is that publishers will now mask such twigging in the name of providing addi- tional access via an electronic version. I wonder if your other readers have such a reaction? 101.4 FROM THE MAILBOX The mailbox is: tuttle@gibbs.oit.unc.edu. >From Deana Astle, Clemson University, dlast@clemson.clemson.edu (dated October 13, 1993): I have just been given two rate increases for journals acquired by JAI Press (sent by Faxon). _Journal of Retailing_ increased from $45 to $125, and _Columbia Journal of World Business_ increased from $65 to $125. Looks like a continuation of the game of acquire and jack up the price. ----- >From Chuck Hamaker, Louisiana State University, notcah@lsuvm.sncc.lsu.edu (dated October 10, 1993): >From the Federal Register v. 58 no. 188 (Sept. 30, 1993) Notices p. 51113. National Science Foundation Grant Policy: Change Agency: National Science Foundation Action: Notice of change to National Science Foundation grant policy. Summary: On December 18, 1992, the NSF published a notice in the Federal Register soliciting comments on a proposed change to Section 517d of the NSF Grant Policy Manual. The proposed change eliminated the prohibition on use of NSF grant funds for payment of page charges associated with publish- ing scientific research in journals operated for profit. NSF received num- erous responses expressing divergent view on the proposed change. After considering all the comments received, NSF has decided to adopt the proposed change and allow use of grant funds for publication of scientific research in journals operated for proft. Grant policy Manual Transmittal Memorandum NO. 8 implements this policy change. [Note: Thanks to Al Henderson for bringing this change to our attention. His note to the editor of the newsletter queried: Will this level the play- ing field, pricewise?] ----- >From Dana Roth, Caltech, DZRLIB@ROMEO.CALTECH.EDU: I fully agree with you on the matter of firm US$ prices. Publishers are going to protect themselves and libraries will likely pay what amounts to an insurance premium for the cost of forward $US contracts without the benefit of a rebate if the dollar increases in value. I would prefer to take my chances with exchange rate variations especially since our adminis- tration fully understands the problem and does not expect the library to compensate by making wholesale cancellations. +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ 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 27514-8890; Telephone: 919 962-1067; FAX: 919 962-4450. Editorial Board: Deana Astle (Clemson University), Jerry Curtis (Springer Verlag New York), Janet Fisher (MIT Press), Fred Friend (University College, London), Charles Hamaker (Louisiana State University), Daniel Jones (University of Texas Health Science Center), James Mouw (University of Chicago), and Heather Steele (Blackwell's Periodicals Division). 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