From: "Hamaker, Charles" <[log in to unmask]>
Date: Fri, 2 Aug 2013 03:53:42 +0000

Looking more closely at APS pricing, as I have in the last few days is
even more disheartening for smaller institutions than I had thought.

They introduced as far as I can tell, a new "tiered" system for 2014,
and the tiers are based on usage (downloads), not Carnegie
classifications, and the "deal" for smaller institutions and lower use
institutions is something APS should be ashamed of .

Here's the details,using the APS All package as the comparison point
across the "tiers" . Each tier is based on a range of downloads from
their letter to subscribers of June 6th (which I did not receive
originally) with usage ranges-downloads (based on previous three years
usage )and APS-ALL package costs for the online only option. The
package costs are posted for 2014 on the
web.http://librarians.aps.org/files/Price2014.pdf. The tier you are in
is in your June 6th letter from APS which can be obtained by
contacting them if you missed it. Or from your subscription agency.

Tier 5-40,000 and Above  $33,155   a minimum cost  per donwload of $ .83

Tier 4-14,000 – 39,000     $29,715   a maximum cost of  $2.12 minimum of $.76

Tier 3-4,000 – 13,999       $23,645    a maximum cost of $5.41 a
minimum of $1.69

Tier 2-700 – 3,999            $15,885    a maximum cost of $5.88  a
minimum of $3.97

Tier 1-0 – 699                  $11,800    a minimum cost of $16.88

I guess we know now that APS is NOT interested in dissemination or
even selling any of its product to smaller institutions.  The cost per
article on PPV is $25.00 so if your usage is in the 300 downloads a
year range, the cost per download would be $39.00. If you have less
than 472 downloads per year, it is cheaper to go the PPV route.

What kind of values does a society have when it charges the top dollar
for lower use, smaller institutions?

I wasn't  far off by suggesting they had jumped the shark.

Chuck