[Taxacom] Fwd: FW: [KLAS] Fw: [PERI-CCs] Fw: Harvard University
says it can't afford journal publishers' prices
Fabian Haas
fhaas at icipe.org
Tue May 22 04:06:55 CDT 2012
2012
FYI - interesting!
Harvard University says it can't afford journal publishers' prices
University wants scientists to make their research open access and resign
from publications that keep articles behind paywalls
Ian Sample, science correspondent
Wednesday April 25 2012
The Guardian
http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2012/apr/24/harvard-university-journal-publishers-prices
Exasperated by rising subscription costs charged by academic publishers,
Harvard University has encouraged its faculty members to make their
research freely available through open access journals and to resign from
publications that keep articles behind paywalls.
A memo from Harvard Library [
http://isites.harvard.edu/icb/icb.do?
keyword=k77982&tabgroupid=icb.tabgroup143448<http://isites.harvard.edu/icb
/icb.do?keyword=k77982&tabgroupid=icb.tabgroup143448>"
title="Faculty Advisory Council Memorandum on Journal Pricing] to the
university's 2,100 teaching and research staff called for action after
warning it could no longer afford the price hikes imposed by many large
journal publishers, which bill the library around $3.5m a year.
The extraordinary move thrusts one of the world's wealthiest and most
prestigious institutions into the centre of an increasingly fraught debate
over access to the results of academic research, much of which is funded by
the taxpayer.
The outcome of Harvard's decision to take on the publishers will be watched
closely by major universities around the world and is likely to prompt
others to follow suit.
The memo from Harvard's faculty advisory council said major publishers had
created an "untenable situation" at the university by making scholarly
interaction "fiscally unsustainable" and "academically restrictive", while
drawing profits of 35% or more. Prices for online access to articles from
two major publishers have increased 145% over the past six years, with some
journals costing as much as $40,000, the memo said.
More than 10,000 academics have already joined a boycott of Elsevier [
http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2012/apr/09/frustrated-blogpost-boycott-
scientific-journals"
title="Guardian: Academic spring: how an angry maths blog sparked a
scientific revolution], the huge Dutch publisher, in protest at its journal
pricing and access policies. Many university libraries pay more than half
of their journal budgets to the publishers Elsevier, Springer and Wiley.
Robert Darnton [http://history.fas.harvard.edu/people/faculty/darnton.php"
title="Harvard: Robert Darnton], director of Harvard Library told the
Guardian: "I hope that other universities will take similar action. We all
face the same paradox. We faculty do the research, write the papers,
referee papers by other researchers, serve on editorial boards, all of it
for free ? and then we buy back the results of our labour at outrageous
prices.
"The system is absurd, and it is inflicting terrible damage on libraries.
One year's subscription to The Journal of Comparative Neurology [
http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/journal/10.1002/(ISSN)1096-9861" title="]
costs the same as 300 monographs. We simply cannot go on paying the
increase in subscription prices. In the long run, the answer will be
open-access journal publishing, but we need concerted effort to reach that
goal."
In traditional journal publishing, researchers submit articles to editors
who send them out for peer review, a task that is usually unpaid. The final
versions of the articles are then formatted and sold back to university
libraries. Open access comes in various guises, but one model requires
authors to pay to have their articles published and made freely available
to anyone.
According to the Harvard memo, journal subscriptions are now so high that
to continue them "would seriously erode collection efforts in many other
areas, already compromised". The memo asks faculty members to encourage
their professional organisations to take control of scholarly publishing,
and to consider submitting their work to open access journals and resigning
from editorial boards of journals that are not open access.
It adds that the library must insist on transparent contracts that prevent
universities from discussing in public the fees they pay certain publishers.
In a statement to the Guardian, Elsevier said: "The Harvard Faculty
Advisory Council letter does not specify any specific publisher. We have a
good relationship with the Harvard libraries and have recently concluded an
agreement we believe works for them as it gives them the flexibility to
choose the titles they want.
"We do not believe that the facts in the letter which relate to price
increases pertain to Elsevier. Elsevier's average print list price
increases have consistently been among the lowest in the industry for the
past several years, averaging around 5%."
The statement concluded: "We believe Harvard will continue to see the value
in publishing in Elsevier journals, which include a range of access
options, and contributing as editors."
David Prosser [http://www.rluk.ac.uk/node/371" title="RLUK David Prosser],
executive director of Research Libraries UK (RLUK), said: "Harvard has one
of the richest libraries in the world. If Harvard can't afford to purchase
all the journals their researchers need, what hope do the rest of us have?
"There's always been a problem with this being seen as a library budget
issue. The memo from Harvard makes clear that it's bigger than that. It's
at the heart of education and research. If you can't get access to the
literature, it hurts research."
RLUK negotiated new contracts with Elsevier and Wiley last year after the
group threatened to cancel large subscriptions to the publishers. The new
deal, organised on behalf of 30 member libraries, is expected to save UK
institutions more than ?20m.
"The better deals have given us a little breathing space, but they don't
solve the problem. There is a long-term structural problem with this market
that isn't going to be solved that simply," Prosser said.
Heather Joseph [http://www.arl.org/sparc/about/staff/joseph.shtml"
title="SPARC: Heather Joseph], executive director of the Scholarly
Publishing and Academic Resources Coalition, a US-based international
library membership organisation, said other universities may follow
Harvard's lead.
"Highlighting the role of the faculty is exactly what we need to do.
Libraries have been trying to ring the alarm bell about this for a while,
but it's the faculty members who are the producers and consumers of the
articles. They have got the keys to making significant change in this
market. Having Harvard call this out in front of the faculty is a very
significant move."
She added: "Other universities are likely to follow Harvard's example on
this. If it starts at a university with the stature of Harvard, they will
take a long hard look at whether this is something that makes sense for
them to do as well. People watch Harvard. There's no grey area there."
------- End of Forwarded Message -------
----------------
Dr. Chaminda Jayasundara,
Head - Acquisition and E-Resources Department,
The Library,
P.O.Box 1698,
University of Colombo,
Sri Lanka.
Tel: 00-94-1-12586432/12583043
Fax: 00-94-1-12583043
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FYI - interesting!<br><div class="gmail_quote"><div
class="gmail_quote"><br><br><br>
Harvard University says it can't afford journal publishers' prices<br>
<br>
University wants scientists to make their research open access and
resign from publications that keep articles behind paywalls<br>
<br>
Ian Sample, science correspondent<br>
Wednesday April 25 2012<br>
The Guardian<br>
<br>
<br>
<a
href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2012/apr/24/harvard-university-journal-publishers-prices"
target="_blank">http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2012/apr/24/harvard-university-journal-publishers-prices</a><br>
<br>
<br>
Exasperated by rising subscription costs charged by academic publishers,
Harvard University has encouraged its faculty members to make their
research freely available through open access journals and to resign
from publications that keep articles behind paywalls.<br>
<br>
A memo from Harvard Library [<a
href="http://isites.harvard.edu/icb/icb.do?keyword=k77982&tabgroupid=icb.tabgroup143448
<http://isites.harvard.edu/icb/icb.do?keyword=k77982&tabgroupid=icb.tabgroup143448>"
target="_blank">http://isites.harvard.edu/icb/icb.do?keyword=k77982&tabgroupid=icb.tabgroup143448
<http://isites.harvard.edu/icb/icb.do?keyword=k77982&tabgroupid=icb.tabgroup143448></a>"
title="Faculty Advisory Council Memorandum on Journal Pricing] to
the university's 2,100 teaching and research staff called for action
after warning it could no longer afford the price hikes imposed by many
large journal publishers, which bill the library around $3.5m a year.<br>
<br>
The extraordinary move thrusts one of the world's wealthiest and most
prestigious institutions into the centre of an increasingly fraught
debate over access to the results of academic research, much of which is
funded by the taxpayer.<br>
<br>
The outcome of Harvard's decision to take on the publishers will be
watched closely by major universities around the world and is likely to
prompt others to follow suit.<br>
<br>
The memo from Harvard's faculty advisory council said major publishers
had created an "untenable situation" at the university by
making scholarly interaction "fiscally unsustainable" and
"academically restrictive", while drawing profits of 35% or
more. Prices for online access to articles from two major publishers
have increased 145% over the past six years, with some journals costing
as much as $40,000, the memo said.<br>
<br>
More than 10,000 academics have already joined a boycott of Elsevier [<a
href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2012/apr/09/frustrated-blogpost-boycott-scientific-journals"
target="_blank">http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2012/apr/09/frustrated-blogpost-boycott-scientific-journals</a>"
title="Guardian: Academic spring: how an angry maths blog sparked a
scientific revolution], the huge Dutch publisher, in protest at its
journal pricing and access policies. Many university libraries pay more
than half of their journal budgets to the publishers Elsevier, Springer
and Wiley.<br>
<br>
Robert Darnton [<a
href="http://history.fas.harvard.edu/people/faculty/darnton.php"
target="_blank">http://history.fas.harvard.edu/people/faculty/darnton.php</a>"
title="Harvard: Robert Darnton], director of Harvard Library told
the Guardian: "I hope that other universities will take similar
action. We all face the same paradox. We faculty do the research, write
the papers, referee papers by other researchers, serve on editorial
boards, all of it for free ? and then we buy back the results of our
labour at outrageous prices.<br>
<br>
"The system is absurd, and it is inflicting terrible damage on
libraries. One year's subscription to The Journal of Comparative
Neurology [<a
href="http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/journal/10.1002/(ISSN)1096-9861"
target="_blank">http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/journal/10.1002/(ISSN)1096-9861</a>"
title="] costs the same as 300 monographs. We simply cannot go on
paying the increase in subscription prices. In the long run, the answer
will be open-access journal publishing, but we need concerted effort to
reach that goal."<br>
<br>
In traditional journal publishing, researchers submit articles to
editors who send them out for peer review, a task that is usually
unpaid. The final versions of the articles are then formatted and sold
back to university libraries. Open access comes in various guises, but
one model requires authors to pay to have their articles published and
made freely available to anyone.<br>
<br>
According to the Harvard memo, journal subscriptions are now so high
that to continue them "would seriously erode collection efforts in
many other areas, already compromised". The memo asks faculty
members to encourage their professional organisations to take control of
scholarly publishing, and to consider submitting their work to open
access journals and resigning from editorial boards of journals that are
not open access.<br>
<br>
It adds that the library must insist on transparent contracts that
prevent universities from discussing in public the fees they pay certain
publishers.<br>
<br>
In a statement to the Guardian, Elsevier said: "The Harvard Faculty
Advisory Council letter does not specify any specific publisher. We have
a good relationship with the Harvard libraries and have recently
concluded an agreement we believe works for them as it gives them the
flexibility to choose the titles they want.<br>
<br>
"We do not believe that the facts in the letter which relate to
price increases pertain to Elsevier. Elsevier's average print list price
increases have consistently been among the lowest in the industry for
the past several years, averaging around 5%."<br>
<br>
The statement concluded: "We believe Harvard will continue to see
the value in publishing in Elsevier journals, which include a range of
access options, and contributing as editors."<br>
<br>
David Prosser [<a href="http://www.rluk.ac.uk/node/371"
target="_blank">http://www.rluk.ac.uk/node/371</a>"
title="RLUK David Prosser], executive director of Research
Libraries UK (RLUK), said: "Harvard has one of the richest
libraries in the world. If Harvard can't afford to purchase all the
journals their researchers need, what hope do the rest of us have?<br>
<br>
"There's always been a problem with this being seen as a library
budget issue. The memo from Harvard makes clear that it's bigger than
that. It's at the heart of education and research. If you can't get
access to the literature, it hurts research."<br>
<br>
RLUK negotiated new contracts with Elsevier and Wiley last year after
the group threatened to cancel large subscriptions to the publishers.
The new deal, organised on behalf of 30 member libraries, is expected to
save UK institutions more than ?20m.<br>
<br>
"The better deals have given us a little breathing space, but they
don't solve the problem. There is a long-term structural problem with
this market that isn't going to be solved that simply," Prosser
said.<br>
<br>
Heather Joseph [<a
href="http://www.arl.org/sparc/about/staff/joseph.shtml"
target="_blank">http://www.arl.org/sparc/about/staff/joseph.shtml</a>"
title="SPARC: Heather Joseph], executive director of the Scholarly
Publishing and Academic Resources Coalition, a US-based international
library membership organisation, said other universities may follow
Harvard's lead.<br>
<br>
"Highlighting the role of the faculty is exactly what we need to
do. Libraries have been trying to ring the alarm bell about this for a
while, but it's the faculty members who are the producers and consumers
of the articles. They have got the keys to making significant change in
this market. Having Harvard call this out in front of the faculty is a
very significant move."<br>
<br>
She added: "Other universities are likely to follow Harvard's
example on this. If it starts at a university with the stature of
Harvard, they will take a long hard look at whether this is something
that makes sense for them to do as well. People watch Harvard. There's
no grey area there."<br>
<br>
<br>
</div></div>
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