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COC3: Chemical Abstracts/SciFinder Scholar 

COC3 Reports #4
February 23, 1998


CHEMICAL ABSTRACTS SERVICE (CAS)

Susan Brown, Director of Marketing
Eileen Shanbron, Manager, Product Marketing

CAS has long had direct relationships with their subscribers.  They were
invited to the Coalition of Library Consortia meeting to describe current
product offerings for academic institutions and to begin to explore
opportunities for consortia.  CAS holds and publishes the world's largest
compendium of chemical info.  CAS is not for profit, but self-sustaining.
Staff are scientists, mostly chemists and they produce detailed indexes &
summaries for a huge array of information in the fields of chemistry.
CAS's scientists cover all fields of chemistry.  CAS was established in
1907.  The Abstracts index 8,000 journals from 150 countries;  cover
patents from 32 countries and 2 world organizations  CAS offers in depth
analysis, indexing of new/novel concepts and substances.  It provides
English language abstracts of documents in any of 50 languages.  4500
documents and substances are added daily.

CAS encourages the advancement of chemistry, promotes research, diffuses
knowledge.  The American Chemical Society (ACS) has 26,000 members in
academia and has been creating academic programs since 1956.  These
include:

CAS Products:

o Chemical Abstracts in print and on CD (since 1996)
	- $19,800 per year, with an ACS grant to academia for price of
	  $17,820
	- Small colleges in US and Canada receive reduced prices for print
	  CA
	  based on enrollment
	- Price breaks for CD for those who already subscribe to print

o STN and ChemPort online and on WWW
	- STN began in 1983
	- STNEasy is the new web version of STN (since 1997) -- it is a
	  point/click
	  access to CA and Registry
	- Overall:  STNEasy is easier to search (like "windows" -- pull
	  downs, etc.)  Easy is more for new, infrequent, quick users.  It
	  is a Web product vs 	STN/dialog type systems

o ChemPort
	- ChemPort -- a WWW product that connects STNEasy to to 8
	  publishers' collections
	- Will add publishers
	- Academic discounts to STNEasy and Chemport -- also After Five

o STN Express --software package used with searching STN
	- New program with Search Wizzards
	- Coming to academic community in March 1998

o CA Student Edition -- contains core chemistry journals
	- Developed for undergraduate chemistry programs with OCLC 
	- An OCLC product, marketed by them
	- 246 chemistry journals included:  all ACS journals and those
	  recommended by ACS Committee for professional training 
	- Via FirstSearch
	- $3900/year for CA subscribers
	- Non subscribers for $15,000 
	- Up to 10 concurrent users
	- Not time restricted
	- Have prepared special price quotes for consortia interested in
	  CA Student Edition
	- Little interest to date -- would like feedback

o Journals have increased 86.3% in price from 1992 - 1996 (per Index
  Medicus study); CAS has increased 4% for the last five years.
o All the academic-only prices are discounted for academia and the online
  products are accessible After Five (p.m.)
o Commercial companies have accounts for their work; these accounts are
  more expensive and the online materials are available during the day.
  Academia can purchase such accounts for daytime work.
o CAS offers other special academic rates include discounts for
  documentation and training at 50% discounts
o Customers have voiced interest in flat-rate pricing; being considered.

New Product:  SciFinder Scholar:

o SciFinder Scholar is newest academic program offering
o Award-winning interface
o A graduate research tool
o Full content of databases
o Easily conducts most popular, routine searches that chemists need to do
o Biggest database of its kind

SINGLE INSTITUTION PRICING  (if institution holds a subscription to print
or CD ROM)

1 SU  		CA subscriber 	non CA subscriber
		$15,000		20,400
Each addn	6,000		8,400

Also available "After Five"
o Otherwise buy subscriptions to the commercial version
o "After Five" means in your local time zone -- after local business hours

Pricing comparison between industry and academiia, for example:

o In Industry:  250 users = $451,000; these are only for personal use, not
  concurrent users
o Academia:  $39,000 for 5 concurrent users

CONSORTIAL PRICING FOR SciFinder:

o Are considering consortial discounts based on volume of total business
for SciFinder Scholar:

$$$ of Business	% discount
$150,000-250,000	7.5%
$251,000-400,000	10%
$401,000-600,000	15%
more than 600 -- negotiated

For example:  5 schools with 5 users each (assuming all are currently CA
subscribers):

5 x $15,000 + 5 x 3 @ $6,000 = $195,000
minus 7.5% = $180,375

Question:  Can the consortium pool the concurrent users?
Answer:  Each school needs to pay for least one SU. 

Question:  How many SciFinder does a 20,000-30,000 university need, if it
has a large contingent.
Answer:  Average user choice looks to be 4?

Question:  Is there a similar project for CA Student Edition?  (that's an
OCLC product).
Answer:  There is currently no counterpart product.

Reprise:

o Print/CD/STN/ SciFinder -- all have different functionalities
o SciFinder is a tool for bench chemist, a new thing
o Replaces no existing product "out there"  -- Takes the research process
  further
o Frequently the Chemistry Department contributes to paying the additional
  fee, as this is a very faculty oriented product
o All CAS products already enjoy substantial discounts within academia
o CAS looks forward to working with consortia to ensure even more
  widespread availability of CAS products
o Objective is to broaden access -- community colleges might have some
  interest
o Willingness to look for alternative pricing for Student Edition

alo


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