Journal Supply Chain

["Woodward, Hazel" <H.Woodward@Cranfield.ac.uk>]

Colleagues

Please find below information about the Journal Supply Chain 
Efficiency Improvement Pilot. We are particularly interested in 
receiving feedback/ comments from librarians about this project 
and would be delighted to hear from any librarians who would be 
interested in participating in the ongoing pilot.

Dr Hazel Woodward
University Librarian &
Director of Cranfield University Press
Kings Norton Library
Cranfield University
Cranfield, Bedfordshire
Email: h.woodward@cranfield.ac.uk

PRESS RELEASE

Beaverton (USA), Lisse (The Netherlands), London (UK)
27 September 2006

JSCEI Pilot: Initial findings now published

The participants in the Journal Supply Chain Efficiency 
Improvement Pilot have announced today the publication of the 
Pilot's Mid-year Status Report. Given the continued positive 
results and feedback on the project, it has been decided that the 
JSCEI Pilot should be extended into 2007. The full Mid-year 
Status Report can be found on the JSCEI Pilot website, 
<http://www.journalsupplychain.org/>, along with other comments 
and feedback on the project.

The JSCEI Pilot project, which began on 20 January 2006, sees a 
number of esteemed parties joining forces to explore the 
creation, prototype implementation and value of a common 
institutional identifier that can be used throughout the entire 
journal supply chain, from purchaser to end user. The Mid-year 
Status Report published today outlines the progress made so far 
within the first phase of the project and also notes the planning 
for the second phase. The parties involved in the JSCEI Pilot are 
The British Library, HighWire Press and a number of HighWire 
affiliated Publishers, Ringgold and Swets.

As an important first achievement of the Pilot, we have mapped 
the existing supply chain, which is as complex as expected. This 
Mid-year Status Report shows that existing institutional 
identification numbers do not meet the needs of the JSCEI Pilot. 
The benefits of an institutional identifier in the order/renewal 
process have been investigated and it is concluded that the level 
of granularity determines whether an institutional identifier can 
be used as primary or secondary check. At this time, the general 
view of the JSCEI Pilot participants is that improvements in the 
electronic supply chain for journals are a necessity and that the 
need for such improvements is immediate. This will be further 
investigated in the second part of the Pilot.

In the short term, an identifier used in common throughout the 
supply chain would be likely to provide benefits, particularly 
for publisher marketing. While all parties in the supply chain 
will benefit, suppliers are likely to experience the most direct 
benefits.

About the participants in the pilot:

About The British Library

The British Library is the national Library of the United 
Kingdom. It provides world class information services to the 
academic, business, research and scientific communities and 
offers unparalleled access to the world's largest and most 
comprehensive research collection. Further information is 
available on the Library's website at: <http://www.bl.uk/>

About HighWire Press

HighWire Press, a division of the Stanford University Libraries, 
is a not-for-profit electronic journal developing and hosting 
service, producing the definitive online versions of high-impact, 
peer-reviewed journals and other scholarly content. In its 10 
years of operation, HighWire has partnered with a community of 
influential societies, university presses and other scholarly 
publishers to create a vast database of the some of the finest, 
fully searchable research, medical and social science literature 
available on the Internet. Visit HighWire Press at 
<www.highwire.org>.

About Ringgold Inc.

Ringgold provides support for suppliers and publishers, helping 
them define products and services, fitted to the working 
environments of potential buyers. It was formed in 2005 from the 
merger of Information Power Ltd based in Oxford, UK OpenRFP based 
in Portland, USA and Biblio Tech based in Bristol, UK. Ringgold 
has been working with academic publishers for over 3 years to 
create a database of customers with standard metadata including 
demographics for marketing purposes. This database of 60,000 
institutions has been researched by experts around the world and 
will be used as the basis for the pilot data.

About Swets Information Services

Swets is the world's leading subscription management company, 
building on more than 100 years of experience to bring economic 
and administrative value to clients and publishers in today's 
complex and fractured marketplace. The company has offices in 
over 20 countries, servicing clients and publishers from over 160 
nations, managing more than 1.8 million subscriptions. Swets 
relationships include more than 65,000 publishers and over 60,000 
clients, including one-third of the Fortune 500 companies. Swets 
is the only subscription management company to be ISO 9001:2000 
certified on a global basis.

Media Contacts
Ringgold Inc.
Don Chvatal
President, Ringgold Inc
PO Box 368
Beaverton, OR 97075-0368
USA
E don@ringgold.com
www.ringgold.com

Swets Information Services
Corporate Headquarters
Damian Leslie
The Netherlands
E dleslie@nl.swets.com
www.swets.com

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