The new Science site license

[David Goodman <dgoodman@Princeton.EDU>]

Science magazine now, finally, has a site license publicly available for
institutions. (see http://www.sciencemag.org/subscriptions/libinfo.shtml).
There are some distinctive features:

I.

5.Science Online subscriptions allow access to the full text database of
all Science issues published on the Web over the course of a period of 51
weeks (a one year subscription). There is no physical archive provided
with this subscrption. Online subscribers are encouraged to purchase a
print subscription for archiving purposes.

In other words, the library is purchasing only a one year window.

II.

Site-wide Subscriptions - desktop access by IP address for the entire
institution.
  .......
Educational institutions: Total number of employees and students.

All other institutions: Total number of employees. 

Site-wide Subscription Rates
 
FTE Count  <1000      1000-2999    3000-11,999   12,000-25,000   >25,000
Rate       $1500.00    $2500.00       $3500.00        $4500.00   $5500.00

      Connection fee for each affiliated remote site is $250.00 

2. Library Workstation Subscriptions - online access by IP address for
workstations that are physically located in a library. 
	 Price: $25.00 per workstation.

Minimum order is 10 workstations if the library does not have a Science
print subscription. --

This means that for site-wide access, my university would need to pay
$3500; we currently have 10 institutional print subscriptions with one
workstation access each, at a total cost of 10(295+25)=$3,0000. To change
to a site license would cost us 117% more than what we now pay, or 119%
above the print price. And this would be only for a one year window! I am
speaking only for myself, but I consider this exceptionally poor value,
and I hope the other selectors here agree with me.

In my view, for a publisher to offer libraries a one year window would
only be appropriate for access to an electronic version supplied without
extra cost, as a bonus for the print subscribers.  I think most of us
would not pay for access to the current year only of a print journal.
Although I recognize that subscription costs per se are not really a
concern of this list, I think the general concept of the extent of any
appropriate differential costs for print and online is relevant, as are
some specific examples.

 
David Goodman 
Biology Librarian, Princeton University Library 
dgoodman@princeton.edu         http://www.princeton.edu/~biolib/
phone: 609-258-3235            fax: 609-258-2627