RE: What Elsevier really said to the select committee

["David Prosser" <david.prosser@bodley.ox.ac.uk>]

I'm sure that for completeness Tony would also want us to note Crispin
Davis' oral evidence to the Committee, in particular his answer to
question 65:

'It also means a very significant transfer of funds from, for example, the
commercial sector. Twenty five% of our revenue comes from the commercial
sector and this could be companies like the Ford Motor Company or Boeing
or Merck Pfizer. Under the open access system they would get all the
research free of charge, they would pay nothing, while the producing
institutions, whether that is Imperial College or Yale or Oxford, would be
the ones who paid or the authors would pay. That is a very debatable shift
of funds.'

http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm200304/cmselect/cmsctech/399/
4030106.htm

As industry is paying for a proportion of the research being carried out
at the producing institutions (as suggested by Don King's figures) they
would also pay for a proportion of the publication costs in an open access
environment.  They would not, therefore, pay nothing.

Happy New Year

David

David C Prosser PhD
Director
SPARC Europe
E-mail:  david.prosser@bodley.ox.ac.uk
Tel:       +44 (0) 1865 277 614
Mobile:  +44 (0) 7974 673 888
http://www.sparceurope.org

-----Original Message-----
[mailto:owner-liblicense-l@lists.yale.edu] On Behalf Of Mcsean, Tony (ELS)
Sent: 07 January 2005 04:37
To: 'liblicense-l@lists.yale.edu'
Subject: What Elsevier really said to the select committee

Jan makes two assertions about Elsevier which are factually incorrect.
Elsevier did not tell the UK parliamentary select committee that industry
subscriptions to STM publications amounted to 30% of the total.  On page 9
of our written evidence, available at
<http://www.elsevier.com/authored_news/corporate/images/UK_STC_FINAL_SUB
MISSION.pdf>, we refer to an estimate that corporate organisations may
currently account for "around 20% of annual global STM journal spending"
and that under an author-pays OA model they would pay 10% of their current
costs. The 20% figure is an approximation based on SIMBA data
<www.simbanet.com> relating to institutional subscriptions to STM
journals. (Incidentally, using BMC's current prices, the figure would fall
from 10% to between 4.3% and 1.6%.)

To say that we "failed to substantiate figures" is incorrect.  We were
scrupulous in providing all of the information requested by the Select
Committee.

I don't wish to labour the point.  But in view of the seriousness of the
allegation - that Elsevier lied to a parliamentary working party - I
thought it important to put the facts on record.

Tony

Tony McSean
Director of Library Relations
Elsevier
+44 7795 960516
+44 1865 843630