From: JJE Esposito <[log in to unmask]>
Date: Mon, 28 May 2018 22:11:57 -0500

The use of list prices in discussions of  journals is at best irrelevant and probably cynical.

May I raise a data question? What is the cost per article across a library's many vendors? I am not suggesting that this is a good or useful metric; I am simply attempting to ascertain what that figure is. So, for example, if a library gets 1 million articles for $1 million, the cost per article would be $1. Are these figures commonly calculated? Are there any publicly available summaries?

Thank you.

Joe Esposito


On Sun, May 27, 2018 at 10:33 PM, LIBLICENSE <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
From: David Prosser <[log in to unmask]>
Date: Fri, 25 May 2018 09:31:11 +0000

A couple of comments.

Firstly, Gemma mentions the ‘journal subscription list prices’.  Data from Elsevier shows that less than 10% of their journals revenue comes from customers paying list prices.  Most are paying through big deals and so any list price adjustment is irrelevant.

Secondly, a sample of 36 UK institutions showed that in 2016 they were paying a 17% premium on top of their big deals to make UK-authored papers OA.  The vast majority of that was for hybrid i.e., content that was included in the big deal subscription price.

David

On 25 May 2018, at 03:19, LIBLICENSE <[log in to unmask]> wrote:

From: "Hersh, Gemma (ELS-LOW)" <[log in to unmask]>
Date: Thu, 24 May 2018 20:08:54 +0000

Hi

 

I wanted to clarify one of the comments made below regarding double dipping.

 

Elsevier has a strict no double dipping policy, as described here. Our journal subscription list prices are calculated based only on the subscription articles in a journal. We do not charge twice for access to the same article.  

 

Understandably, as open access content continues to grow, some have wondered why this is not translating into a corresponding decrease in subscription prices. And this is fueling concern about double dipping. However, it is important to note that while OA is growing, the subscription model is growing too. Certainly for Elsevier, the volume and quality of the articles we publish continues to grow, across both the subscription and open access business models.

 

Kind regards

Gemma

 

Gemma Hersh

VP, Open Science

Elsevier I 125 London Wall I London I EC2Y 5AS

M: +44 (0) 7855 258 957 I E: [log in to unmask]

Twitter: @gemmahersh