Elsevier Archiving policy and NPE

["Menefee, Daviess (ELS)" <D.Menefee@elsevier.com>]

Dear Readers of this List (with apologies for cross posting),

Over the last few weeks several messages have been posted here with
respect to Elsevier Science's archiving policy and closing of Nuclear
Physics Electronic.  The Publishing Director for NPE replies to these
comments in the following message.

Daviess Menefee
Library Relations
Elsevier Science


We would like to respond to remarks regarding Elsevier's archival policy
in relation to recent changes in Nuclear Physics Electronic.

With respect to Elsevier's archival policy there appears to be a
misunderstanding by Mr. Kaemper what we mean by archiving: our archiving
policy refers to journals on ScienceDirect. All journals covered by
Nuclear Physics Electronic are permanently retained electronically on
ScienceDirect and the guarantee has been given that the files will be
maintained there, and will be migrated as technology changes, in
perpetuity.

Nuclear Physics Electronic was launched in the early nineties, before
ScienceDirect existed, as a temporary solution for the early adopters of
the Web, High Energy and Nuclear Physicists. The service evolved in the
course of time and since 1999 the full text of the articles in the
journals concerned was added. Meanwhile ScienceDirect was launched to
accommodate electronic publishing for all scientific disciplines. Since
that period Nuclear Physics Electronic and ScienceDirect coexisted.  It
has been communicated throughout that period that Nuclear Physics
Electronic would comprise twelve months of material, the same period as
applies to WebEditions on ScienceDirect. Since about a year the amount of
material on Nuclear Physics Electronic had increased such that the service
became increasingly unstable and slow: we had increasing problems to
maintain our quality standards for Nuclear Physics Electronic.
Simultaneously ScienceDirect developed further and is now fully equipped
to perform the same tasks as Nuclear Physics Electronic, in a superior
way.

Hans Laeven, PhD
Publishing Director
Physics & Astronomy