Re: Springer 2010 price list (and SCOAP3)

[<bernd-christoph.kaemper@ub.uni-stuttgart.de>]

(Answering a mail from PAMNET, but also posting to liblicense-l 
and lis-e-resources. Please excuse duplicate reception.)

Dear colleagues,

at Springer Business as usual.

In the Springer Alert on the 2010 Price List, August 2009 
(http://is.gd/24SH0 ) no mentioning of the global economic crisis 
and its impact on libraries.

Average price increase 6% (both in USD and EUR), Gabler-Verlag 
USD -7% (EUR +5%), Birkhauser Basel, Urban & Vogel, Springer 
Japan 3-4%, Humana Press 5%, Springer Berlin Heidelberg, Wien, 
London, Paris, Springer Netherlands 5,5%, Springer US, New York, 
Milan, India, Chinese Society Journals, Higher Education Press 
6%, Allerton Press, MAIK Nauka / Interperiodica 7%, Birkhauser 
Boston 8%, Versita 9%, Science in China Press, Science Press 10%, 
Vieweg+Teubner USD +11% (EUR +5%), Korean Societies 14%, VS 
Verlag fur Sozialwissenschaften USD +17% (EUR +30%), Spektrum 
Akademischer Verlag 32%.

Price increases for titles that are announced with "more content" 
range from 5% to 25% (11% on average, about 240 titles).

That Springer published its newest price list only as pdf, is 
less than helpful for agencies and libraries. We have converted 
it back to an XML table which you can load into Excel, cf.

http://www.ub.uni-stuttgart.de/ejournals/Springer/

(You can do this by loading it in Acrobat - not Acrobat Reader -, 
then save as "Table in xml format"). We corrected a typo in the 
Print/e-only price of the Journal of Population Economics (USD 
1145 instead of USD 145), check the EUR price list for 
comparison. Springer should recheck these prices as the relation 
between combined price and p/e price is somewhat different 
(1,126) then usual (1,2) in this particular case.

The old 2009 price lists (in Excel!) are still available at "For 
Librarians" - "Journal Prices", e.g. (login for your country)

http://www.springer.com/librarians/price+lists?SGWID=0-40585-12-507900-0 
(EUR)

http://www.springer.com/librarians/price+lists?SGWID=0-40585-12-507899-0 
(USD)

Bernd-Christoph Kaemper, Stuttgart University Library


Robert Michaelson schrieb:

> Colleagues,
>
> I'm sure you've all gotten the price list that Springer emailed 
> out this morning. I haven't actually compared the new prices -- 
> and in fact that wouldn't be easy for me to do, since Springer 
> has taken down its 2009 price list and I can't compare the 2010 
> prices with what we paid for 2009 because of complications due 
> to consortial arrangements.
>
> However, a couple of things strike me:
> 1.  Springer jovially announces that they are launching 26 new journals for
> 2010! See:
> 
<http://www.springer.com/librarians/forget-me-not?SGWID=0-152902-12-615199-0>
>
> What universe are they living in?  Which libraries do they 
> believe will be delighted at the opportunity to buy new 
> journals (with what funds??? Which libraries do they believe 
> will even consider buying their new launches???
>
> 2. They prominently announce that they are taking over the 
> Journal of High Energy Physics (from IOP, although they 
> don't mention that). Of course JHEP has been part of IOP 
> packages, which is how most of us get it.  We don't have the 
> money to purchase a new stand-alone title, and since our IOP 
> package price for 2010 did not come down in price 
> sufficiently for us to purchase this as a stand-alone, we 
> probably must forego buying it.  On the one hand, since 
> nobody really needs JHEP (essentially all of the content is 
> available in arXiv), that isn't a problem. On the other 
> hand, JHEP is one of the journals in the SCOAP3 project 
> plans. We signed an expression of interest with SCOAP3, and 
> we'd like to support this venture, but since the actual 
> launch of SCOAP3 with refunds to libraries for existing 
> journals in order that we can apply that money to the SCOAP3 
> consortium is off in the unknown future, we probably will 
> need to modify the extent to which we will be able to 
> support SCOAP3.
>
> Both points 1 and 2 show that Springer thinks it is still 
> playing in the old world where they can stick it to libraries 
> for whatever they decide to do, and we will passively accept 
> it.
>
> Welcome to the new world.
>
> Bob Michaelson
> Northwestern University Library
> Evanston, Illinois 60208
> USA
> rmichael@northwestern.edu