Re: Clinical Evidence-Institutional site license

[Pete Goldie <pg@lbin.com>]

I believe this instance of a seemingly high "journal" price is an prime
example of the generalizations which confuse those reading this list.  I
learned about Clinical Evidence a few years ago from one of the main
editors... each topic presented in this publication represents a digested
compendium of research articles which address a specific clinical question
posed by the editors.  As such, it is not a standard journal with
unrelated primary research articles, but is an invaluable digest of basic
research that can provide specific answers to clinicians and health care
practices.  As such, its applied value to health care delivery is very
high, much higher in my opinion than most other clinical journals.

Librarians should exercise care when positioning the value of publications
in simplistic terms of cost per page or cost per workstation.  The high
apparent cost may be trivial in terms of health care savings.

Pete
Pete Goldie Ph.D.
Director, Professional Services/Western Region
XyEnterprise
2325 Third St. Suite 324
San Francisco, CA  94107 
 
415-621-5746 voice
415-621-5898 fax

_______________

At 10:47 AM 3/12/01, Tobia, Rajia wrote:
>This message is directed primarily to health sciences librarians that may
>read liblicense.
>
>I recently received a request from one of our faculty members to
>investigate an institutional site license to Clinical Evidence, a British
>Medical Journal publication.  The print form of this publication comes out
>twice a year and has institutional pricing of $245 USD for the 2001
>subscription. The terms of the institutional site license for the online
>version of this journal are posted at
>http://www.clinicalevidence.org/subscription/pricing-e-access-institutions.h
>tm.  In reading the terms, pricing is based on FTEs and for our
>institution with around 2,500 FTEs the cost would be at least $27,500 ($11
>USD per FTE). Needless to say, my jaw dropped when I saw this price.
>
>My questions are:  Has any library out there subscribed to the
>institutional site license for Clinical Evidence?  Were you able to
>negotiate a better deal with BMJ than the terms posted on the Website?
>Is Clinical Evidence online worth the cost?
>
>Rajia Tobia
>Associate Library Director for Collection Development
>University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio
>Briscoe Library MSC 7940
>7703 Floyd Curl Drive
>San Antonio, TX 78229-3900
>Phone:  210/567-2400
>Fax:  210/567-2490
>mailto:tobia@uthscsa.edu