Re: Blackwell Policy

[Keith Seitter <kseitter@ametsoc.org>]

I was going to jump in on this discussion thread anyway, but Monica's
comments about our American Meteorological Society subscription policy
provides the perfect introduction.

I think the approach has to match the nature of the resulting access.  
For the AMS journals, you are purchasing true perpetual access to a volume
year so our pricing policy follows what we have all been used to in the
print world. In print, you would pay for the full volume year regardless
of when you subscribed, but receive all the back issues for the year and
then own them for the future.  For the AMS Journals Online, you also pay
for the full volume year regardless of when you subscribe, but, as with
print, you now "own" access to that complete volume year for the future --
regardless of your subsequent status as a subscriber.

Thus, the subscription price does not simply represent licensed access for
the year of the subscription but, rather, the purchase of the volume year
for continuing access into the future.  Given that, it would be
inconsistent to charge someone subscribing to a particular volume year in
July half of what we charged someone subscribing to it in January.

I should also mention that unlike the journals in some fields of study,
the research published in the AMS journals does not quickly go "stale" for
the research and educational community.  In ISI's Journal Citation
Reports, all of our journals over 10 years old have "cited half-live"
values of about 5 years or greater, and for four of our journals, the
value is greater than 9 years.  This aspect of journal usage within a
community needs to be a factor in discussing the pricing and access policy
that a publisher employs.

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Dr. Keith L. Seitter               phone:  617-227-2426 ext. 220
Deputy Executive Director          fax:    617-742-8718
American Meteorological Society    e-mail: kseitter@ametsoc.org
45 Beacon Street
Boston, MA 02108-3693              http://www.ametsoc.org/AMS
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________________

At 08:28 PM 4/1/01 -0400, you wrote:

>Regarding Blackwell's policy to exact a January-December subscription
>period with no prorating, I have experienced the same with the American
>Meteorological Society.  Their journals include:
>
>                         Journal of the Atmospheric Sciences
>                         Journal of Applied Meteorology
>                         Journal of Physical Oceanography
>                         Monthly Weather Review
>                         Journal of Atmospheric and Oceanic Technology
>                         Journal of Climate
>                         Journal of Hydrometeorology
>                         Bulletin of the American Meteorological Assoc.
>                         Earth Interactions
>
>Monica Metz-Wiseman, Virtual Library Project Manager
>University of South Florida Libraries
>LIB 122 4202 E. Fowler Ave.
>Tampa, FL  33620
>813 974-9854   813 974-4105 (fax)
>
>On Fri, 30 Mar 2001, Selden Durgom Lamoureux wrote:
>
> > Last fall we initiated a conversation with Blackwell Science (which later
> > included Blackwell Publishing) for their electronic journal package.
> > Their pricing and content are attractive.  But they just sent us the
> > license this month, and with it the news that their policy requires a
> > January - December subscription year and prohibits them from prorating.
> >
> > I have a strong initial reaction to this, but insufficient experience to
> > judge wisely.  Do other publishers have and exercise such policies for
> > their electronic packages, or is Blackwell outside the norm?
> >
> > -Selden