RE: National Online: Nature and Others...

["Rick Anderson" <rickand@unr.edu>]

> Science, without making public announcement, has just added
> pre-publication versions of some of its key articles available
> electronically, but only to individual, not institutional, subscribers.
> For the "Current Trends" group of journals now owned by Elsevier, only the
> most expensive of the several options for electronic access gives the
> whole publication, instead of only the signed review articles.

David, it sounds to me like the "discrimination" you're talking about here
is the kind you'd normally see from any company that has high-paying and
low-paying customers.  Pay more when you fly, and you get a bigger seat
and better food.  Pay more for a journal (as an individual subscriber) and
you get more content; pay less (as a member of an institution) and you get
less. We institutional subscribers might not find a particular deal
acceptable (e.g. Nature), but what's inherently unfair about the basic
principle of paying a higher price for more content?

-------------
Rick Anderson
Electronic Resources/Serials Coordinator
The University Libraries
University of Nevada, Reno
1664 No. Virginia St.
Reno, NV  89557
PH  (775) 784-6500 x273
FX  (775) 784-1328
rickand@unr.edu