[NHC List] Alarming Jrnl Pricing trends: Small societies: ASLO & Wildlife Society publications

[Ruth Gustafson]

Hi, All:  Apologies to those of you who do not subscribe to these
journals.

Yet another small society publisher in 2006 is no longer offering "print
only" pricing for their journal(s).

American Society for Limnology and Oceanography did this (and raised their
2006 prices by 85% for online only with two added new titles which
subscribers have no choice but to get) and now the Wildlife Society!

For Journal of Wildlife Management and/or Wildlife Society Bulletin, your
2006 choice is online only, or online&print (no more print only option).
Even individual subscribers (not just institutions) no longer have the
"print only" choice.

This is forcing small libraries to pay much more for Wildlife Society
journals online only (depending on whether you are buying one or both
titles it can be a 20% jump).

Can small marine/research labs really afford to pay the big jump in price
to online only for ASLO?  Can museum or special libraries afford the jump
in price to the Wildlife Society online only choice?  What about libraries
in developing countries which may prefer lowest cost and/or print only?

Individual libraries which already have Wildlife Society publications
newly online through BioOne (through consortia or group institutional
arrangements) will now be forced to cancel their print copies they may
have planned to keep because they do not want to pay twice for the online!

I've called Wildlife Society to complain about this pricing change.  Did
they even survey their subscribers??

Since the XXV Charleston conference was just held, I wonder if this trend
of removing "print only" pricing was noted or discussed.  I checked their
program and there are related topics on:

* Economics of Going Electronic from the Publisher's and Learned
Societies' Point of View
* Pricing Models: What Works and What Doesn't
* Publishing: Can the Little Guys Survive?

How do bioscience libraries feel about this trend?

1) Is this a new trend or are the small bioscience societies following
leaders in other areas?

2) What are our options for talking with these publishers. They often
can't afford to come to our conferences so have so little "face time" with
librarians?

Did anyone hear this discussed at Charleston??

-- Ruth Gustafson
Animal & Ecology Librarian Subject Specialist
SLA Natural History Caucus Convener


--

                         Ruth Gustafson
                       Reference Librarian
      Biological & Agricultural Sciences Reference Department
              http://www.lib.ucdavis.edu/dept/bioag/
Shields Library   			Phone: (530)752-1883
University of California, Davis		FAX:   (530)752-5251
100 North West Quad			ragustafson at ucdavis.edu
Davis, CA  95616-5292			bioag at ucdavis.edu