RE: New pricing policy from BSA for American Journal of Botany On line

[Phil Davis <pmd8@cornell.edu>]

I don't fully agree with AJB's new subscription model and partially agree
with David (although not his tone) that $50 may prove to be more of an
annoyance than benefit to the publisher, journal vendors and libraries
alike.  While I think that the BSA can be more innovative with their
subscription model, I was one of the lucky librarians they interviewed, so
I felt that BSA is being responsive to the library community.  AJB is a
superior and affordable journal that has been very accessible (thanks to
HighWire).  BSA may find that the $50 is more trouble than it is worth,
but this is something that they will find out themselves, and feel
confident they will call us again if they decided to test something else
out next year.

Phil Davis
Life Sciences Bibliographer
Mann Library, Cornell University

At 11:46 AM 5/25/2002 -0400, you wrote:
>This is altogether too harsh.  The folks at AJB are to be commended for
>their efforts to involve librarians in their pricing arrangements, right
>from the beginning (how unfortunate and typical that only now will they
>get the bulk of the feedback).  They are also to be commended for arriving
>at a very reasonable and sustainable price for institutions, and for
>caring enough to attempt to be "sure that there are no barriers to being
>able to afford AJB."  If only commercial publishers had that concern.
>
>I agree that BioOne would have been a good way to go, but Highwire Press
>accomplishes many of the same goals... if any other top tier science
>journal is available online for $50 for institutions, please contact me,
>I'll sign on immediately, no complaints about the processing cost...
>
>Jonathan Nabe
>Reference Librarian and Liaison,
>College of Agriculture & Natural Resources
>University of Connecticut
>Storrs, CT
>jnabe@lib.uconn.edu
>PH: 860-486-6688
>FAX: 860-486-6100
>
>-----Original Message-----
>From: David Goodman [mailto:dgoodman@phoenix.Princeton.EDU]
>Sent: Friday, May 24, 2002 1:03 PM
>To: liblicense-l@lists.yale.edu
>Subject: Re: New pricing policy from BSA for American Journal of Botany
>Online
>
>I think, Scott, you will find that adding online access for $50 for the
>print subscribers will cost you more than that in administering the
>system.
>
>It will also cost libraries and subscription agencies to handle this add
>on. I think our actual costs in activating the "complementary" add-on this
>year and checking that the transition goes smoothly this year and next
>year will be more than $50. You are complicating your life, and ours, for
>a trivial sum of money.
>
>This has been characteristic of many of the smaller professional
>societies: they understand their profession. They do not understand
>electronic publishing.
>
>Have you considered using BioOne instead?
>
>David Goodman
>Research Librarian and
>Biological Sciences Bibliographer
>Princeton University Library
>dgoodman@princeton.edu            609-258-7785