Fwd: RE: EMBO Journal / Archival access to paid-for content

[kaemper@ub.uni-stuttgart.de]

[Crossposted to liblicense-l, lis-e-journals, erwerb-l. Please excuse 
duplicate receipts.]

Dear all, 

Please find attached the answer submitted by Ms Rachel Goode from OUP to
my query about archival access to paid-for content from The EMBO Journal.

I have asked NPG as the new publisher to answer the remaining questions
and offered to post their answer to the relevant listservs
(lis-e-journals, liblicense-l, and erwerb-l in Germany).

Bernd-Christoph K�mper, GASCO Nature Consortium

-------- Original Message --------
Subject: RE: EMBO Journal / Archival access to paid-for content
Date: Fri, 6 Feb 2004 07:44:05 -0000
From: "GOODE, Rachel" <rachel.goode@oupjournals.org>
To: "'kaemper@ub.uni-stuttgart.de'" <kaemper@ub.uni-stuttgart.de>
CC: "RICHARDSON, Martin" <martin.richardson@oupjournals.org>,"GEDYE,
Richard" <richard.gedye@oupjournals.org>,"ROGERS, James "
<james.rogers@oup.com>

Dear Dr Kaemper,

I have attached a response to your queries regarding archival access to
paid-for content from The EMBO Journal. I have not posted it directly the
the listservs, but please feel free to use this text in any response you
wish to make to them.

If you have any further queries, by all means contact me directly again,

With regards,

Rachel Goode
Communications Manager
Journals Division
Oxford University Press

Response:

The transfer of a journal from one publisher to another is complex, and it
is recognised across the industry that during transition, much care should
be taken to ensure uninterrupted access to the journal content for
subscribers. For this reason OUP support the guidelines produced by ALPSP
('When a society journal changes publisher', www.alpsp.org/socjourn1.pdf).

The issue of archival access to paid-for content ('perpetual access') in
respect of The EMBO Journal was highlighted during the hand-over
discussions between OUP and NPG.

OUP cannot comment on the current rights license for The EMBO Journal with
NPG, but can clarify matters regarding the OUP rights license and our
policies when handling the transfer of journals from one publisher to
another.

OUP's general policy is to provide perpetual access to all institutional
subscribers whenever we have the rights to do so. This policy was in place
for The EMBO Journal during and before 2003, giving lapsed institutional
subscribers online archival access to 'paid-for content'.

However we can only guarantee this for the time that we publish a journal.
If that journal changes publisher, as did The EMBO Journal at the end of
2003, then our right to grant perpetual access to past subscribers is
transferred to the new publisher.

When OUP acquires a new journal our policy is to use all reasonable
efforts to continue to provide perpetual access to material published
online by the previous publisher.

-------- Original Message --------
Subject: EMBO Journal / Archival access to paid-for content
Date: Sun, 01 Feb 2004 23:36:41 +0100
From: Bernd-Christoph Kaemper <kaemper@ub.uni-stuttgart.de>
To: Allison Lang <a.lang@nature.com>,Rachel Goode
<rachel.goode@oupjournals.org>,Frank Gannon
<frank.gannon@embo.org>,Bonnie Zavon <bzavon@stanford.edu>
CC: institutions@nature.com, jnl.info@oup.co.uk

To: Allison Lang, Publisher, EMBO Journal
    a.lang@nature.com
cc: NPG customer services, institutions@nature.com    

To: Rachel Goode, Communications Manager, Journals Division
    Oxford University Press, rachel.goode@oupjournals.org
cc: Oxford University Press, Journals Subscription Dpt.
    jnl.info@oupjournals.org

To: Bonnie Zavon, Library - Publisher Liaison, HighWire Press
    bzavon@stanford.edu

To: Prof. Frank Gannon, Executive Director, EMBO

Dear all, 

Until the end of 2003, while EMBO Journal was published by Oxford
University Press on behalf of EMBO, subscribers had "Archival access to
paid-for content", cf.

http://www3.oup.co.uk/access/instagmt.html

However, looking at the actual license agreement, we find that this
doesn't necessarily apply to a journal transferred to another publisher:

� 2.5 On expiry of the Subscription Period, the Licensee shall be entitled
to continue to exercise the non-exclusive rights granted herein (subject
to the terms and conditions thereof) but only in respect of Material
published for the first time during the Subscription Period. Nothing in
this sub-clause requires the Licensor to continue to host the Material on
its servers after the expiry of the Subscription Period or to make the
Material available in any other form to the Licensee. The rights granted
in this sub-clause will terminate immediately in respect to any Material
which the Licensor ceases to have the right to publish.

Of course, this situation is very unsatisfactory for libraries that have
paid for volume 2003 and will now soon loose access if they cannot afford
to pay for a site license (as you know, many libraries now are asked to
pay NPG two or three times as much than what they had to pay to OUP in
2003).

Would you please clarify whether this question has been discussed when it
was decided to transfer the EMBO Journal from OUP to NPG? This seems
especially important as the NPG site license does NOT include any
permanent access rights to archival or paid-for content.

I would however expect (and I am sure the library community in general
would do so) that the new publisher will grant the same archival rights
for material published in 2003 that subscribers previously thought to
acquire when they purchased the 2003 volume of the EMBO Journal.

As all back issues of the EMBO journal older than 12 months are freely
accessible anyway, we only need to discuss the practical matter how to
ensure that non-renewing former subscriber will not loose access to 2003
issues when the current grace period for electronic access will end (that
is, after March 31, 2004).

In my view, it would not be necessary to establish access rights to former
subscribers on the NPG website. Rather, it would suffice to leave these
access rights intact on the HighWire platform.

I would be grateful, if you could answer this request in a way so that it
can be posted to the relevant international listservs (lis-e-journals,
liblicense-l), or directly post a corresponding statement to these
listservs.

Thank you very much in advance,
Bernd-Christoph Kaemper, GASCO Nature Consortium

--
Bernd-Christoph Kaemper, Dipl.-Physiker, Bibl.-Rat 
Fachreferent f�r Physik und Koordination elektronischer Ressourcen 
Universit�tsbibliothek Stuttgart, Postfach 104941, 70043 Stuttgart 
Tel +49 711 121-3510, Fax +49 711 121-3502, kaemper@ub.uni-stuttgart.de