Cell Press and the California Digital Library

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

*Apologies for Cross Posting*

Recently there was posted to this list and others a press release
regarding the negotiations for Cell Press titles and the California
Digital Library. The publisher of Cell Press has today sent the following
letter to scientists at the University of California. 

Daviess Menefee
Library Relations, Elsevier

Cell Press and the California Digital Library

As has been reported in the media and on several listservs, we are
negotiating with the California Digital Library for access to several Cell
Press titles. Although we do not discuss the details of ongoing
negotiations with our customers in public, the discussions contain several
misconceptions and we would like to clarify our position with the larger
scientific and academic community.

The offer that is currently under discussion provides access to Cell,
Neuron, Immunity, Molecular Cell, Developmental Cell, and Cancer Cell for
$90,000 annually. This offer guarantees access for three years to all
scientists and students at all campuses and major hospitals, including the
approximately 10,000 biomedical researchers, graduate students and
post-docs, who are active users of our content.  The quote breaks down to
roughly $1.50 per top quality journal per year for each active user within
the UC system. This is an excellent value.

Cell Press site license pricing has been historically fair and reasonable.
Except for the UC system, nearly every other major academic institution in
the US has licensed electronic access to Cell Press content.  We
appreciate the current budgetary constraints facing the UC library system,
however in fairness to our current customers we need to maintain our
equitable pricing structure as it applies to all institutions.

This offer is for online access. There is no requirement to maintain
current print subscriptions. Once a site license is in place scientists
often cancel their individual print subscriptions. The first two years of
the offer are significantly discounted below $90,000 to reflect the
gradual nature of this transition. Our offer presents the opportunity for
significant savings to the UC community for access to Cell Press content.

Cell Press, while owned by Elsevier, has a different pricing model from
ScienceDirect, the Elsevier electronic access platform. We have
intentionally not bundled Cell Press journals with ScienceDirect to give
institutions maximal flexibility in their choice of content.

The price of online access to Cell Press content is similar to the pricing
of many other journals including Journal of Cell Biology, Journal of
Physiology and Development.

We appreciate the positive response from many UC scientists to our free
trial and their affirmation of the importance and fair value of the Cell
Press journals. We hope that an agreement with the CDL can be reached as
soon as possible.

Lynne Herndon
President and CEO
Cell Press