Elsevier 2004 subscription pricing

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

**Apologies for cross-posting**

The following is a letter that has been sent today to all Elsevier customers
as advice of the 2004 journal prices.

Kind regards,
Daviess Menefee
Library Relations


15 July 2003
Dear Librarian,

As has become customary at this time of the year, we are writing to you
today to announce the price increase for Elsevier journal subscriptions in
the coming year and to provide a brief update on key Elsevier initiatives.

In 2004, the average increase for the core journals programme will be
approximately 6.5%. This represents inflationary increases as well as
volume growth.  This increase continues the promise we made in 1999 to
keep the average price increase below double digit. Our promise covers not
only the entire broad range of journals from Elsevier but also the former
Harcourt and Academic Press titles.  To be clear, this is an average
increase and some journals may increase more and others less. With respect
to the invoicing currencies, our policy is unchanged.  For most journals,
Elsevier will continue to invoice in three currencies regionally, US
dollars, Euros and Japanese Yen, in order to minimize the impact of
currency fluctuations on the majority of our customers. Our complete 2004
price list will be available through www.elsevier.com after August 1st,
2003.

Elsevier is proud of its initiatives in the advancement of electronic
publishing and the creation of digital archives.  Over the past twelve
months, Elsevier has added some 300 former Harcourt and Academic Press
titles to ScienceDirect which makes available over 4 million articles.  
The Backfiles Programme continues to grow and we expect the number of
records to have doubled by the end of 2004 thus creating a truly deep
scientific database covering much of existing scientific literature.

Last year we concluded an historic agreement with Dutch Royal Library to
archive and preserve every digital record that Elsevier creates.  This
relationship sets in place the foundation for a permanent archive, a goal
that many of you have expressed to us.  We are also pursuing similar
relationships with other libraries around the world.

This past year also saw Elsevier participating in a number of industry
initiatives that have an impact on libraries around the world.  With other
STM publishers, Elsevier has provided some 700 journals free of charge to
developing countries in association with the World Health Organization's
HINARI program.  Focused on the life sciences, HINARI brings a wealth of
research to the countries that can least afford it.  Elsevier is pursuing
similar initiatives in other disciplines with other United Nations bodies.

Towards the end of 2002, Elsevier also created the Elsevier Foundation,
which will support the transmission of knowledge and information and the
sharing of educational resources as well as the recognition of excellence
and innovation in research and information services within the global
scientific, technical and medical communities.

In yet another area, Elsevier, through ScienceDirect, has worked with the
COUNTER group to formulate an industry standard for producing and
delivering usage statistics from online products.

Finally we have recently launched the "Library Connect Newsletter". This
new communication tool provides a regular update on Elsevier and includes
information on steps we have taken to improve our customer service as well
as on our advocacy program for libraries.  We hope you find this
informative and useful.

Kind regards,			

Arie Jongejan							
CEO Science & Technology					
Elsevier							

Brian Nairn
CEO Health Sciences
Elsevier