Frequently Asked Questions
- For Publishers
Which publishers are participating
for 2007?
How is the price to each consortium
worked out?
How are my existing sales
to the same libraries be affected?
Can I retain existing
deals?
How is the money shared between
publishers?
How are previous print subscriptions
ascertained?
Does the package include print?
Does the package include
back volumes?
What about my existing
on-line journals?
What if my journals aren’t
already on-line?
Can I include non-journal
materials?
What happens if my titles
are available under the Open Access model?
How is the package branded?
Will I lose my own publisher or journal identity?
How are customers authenticated?
Who is the contract with – ALPSP
or Swets Information Services?
What is the licence like?
Do I have to sign licences
with each customer?
What input do publishers have?
How is the collection sold?
What sales information do
I get?
What usage information do
I get?
Do customers have to purchase
the collection via Swets Information Services?
What returns can I expect?
How long am I signing up for?
What’s the timescale
for publishers?
I’m not an ALPSP member – can
I take part?
I have more questions – who
do I ask?
Which publishers are participating
for 2007?
The complete 2007 list of journals and publishers can be found here.
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How is the price to each consortium
worked out?
The pricing model has been simplified in response to feedback from publishers.
The price of the ALJC package is calculated by looking at
the participating publishers’ existing print sales
to the member libraries, including recent cancellations,
plus an increase to 20076 subscription price levels and an
increment for electronic access to all the journals in the
collection. Both ‘print plus electronic’ and ‘electronic-only’ options
are available. Prices will increase by 5% (plus an adjustment
for new journals added) in 2008 and 2009. Current year values
will apply to new journals added in subsequent years.
The price thus both preserves publishers’ existing
print revenue for the next three years, and adds additional
revenue from electronic access to all their journals (whether
previously subscribed to or not). More details are available
to interested publishers on request from Caroline Mackay
(info@alpsp-collection.org).
In future years, the model may need to be revised in the
light of experience and market developments; the Steering
Committee will oversee this.
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How are existing sales
to the same libraries affected?
Your print revenue is protected against cancellations for the next three years,
and – if the electronic-only model is applied – you can expect
to make some print sales in addition. You also stand to gain additional revenue
from any of your journals which you were not previously selling to that customer.
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Can I retain existing deals?
If you already have deals in place with certain consortia, or if - despite
the considerations outlined above - you feel you would be better off continuing
to sell to certain customers through your existing channel, then your journals
can still be included in the collection; they will be excluded, however, from
the pricing and revenue sharing calculations relating to that customer.
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How is the money shared between
publishers?
The revenue-sharing model has also been simplified in the light of publisher
feedback.
That part of the charge which is based on previous print subscriptions continues
to come to publishers as in previous years. The additional e-access charge
is shared between publishers in proportion to the 2006 print subscription price
for each journal.
Publishers receive payment twice yearly, in June and December. The revenue-sharing
formula will be reviewed by the Steering Committee after the first year and
may be refined in the light
of experience.
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How are previous print
subscriptions be ascertained?
Swets Information Services ask both the publisher and the libraries to provide
their own figures; if these should differ, a figure is agreed between them.
Given this cross-checking, the cost of an external audit is not felt to be
necessary.
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Does the package include print?
Both print-plus-electronic and electronic-only options are available. In the
latter case, publishers are encouraged to consider offering deep-discount
print subscriptions to participating libraries as this has been found to
be effective in retaining some subscriptions; Swets Information Services
provide the necessary subscription details to make this possible. Of course,
libraries can continue to purchase print subscriptions through their preferred
route.
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Does the package include
back volumes?
The package includes all back volumes from 1997, where these are available
from the publishers. If publishers have runs of earlier back files for sale,
Swets Information Services’s sales staff are happy to offer these alongside
the collection; access is seamless to both the collection and the additional
back files, via SwetsWise.
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What about my existing
on-line journals?
These are accessed via the SwetsWise gateway (there is a dedicated web page
for the collection), but can continue to be hosted wherever you wish.
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What if my journals aren’t
already on-line?
We are only able to include on-line titles in the Collection although we are
happy to include titles which will become available online from the year in
which they are included in the Collection. Please note however we need to test
your titles’ compatibility with the Swets Wise online content platform
prior to accepting them into the Collection.
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Can I include non-journal
materials?
Yes! E-books, databases or other content are also very valuable additions to
the collection.
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What happens if my titles
are available under the Open Access model?
If a journal became Open Access it could, of course, still be accessed through
the ALJC gateway but would receive no share of the money and would be taken
out of the pricing calculation. The publisher would have to collect author-side
payments itself.
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How is the package branded?
Will I lose my own publisher or journal identity?
The ALJC as a whole is branded as an ALPSP package, but each individual journal
retains its own distinctive title and publisher branding.
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How are customers be
authenticated?
Customers are authenticated (by IP address if possible, and otherwise by username
and password) by Swets' proxy server, and passed to your own journal system
as pre-authenticated customers. This gives users of the system immediate access
to the whole collection (or subset) once they have authenticated themselves
to the ALJC gateway; otherwise they could be presented with a whole variety
of different prompts for authentication from the different publishers' sites,
which would be extremely customer-unfriendly. It is, therefore, a condition
of participation for publishers; customers are, however, free to access the
licensed content through any other route if they prefer.
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Who is the contract with – ALPSP
or Swets Information Services?
Each publisher contracts directly with Swets Information Services – ALPSP
is acting as a facilitator.
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What is the licence like?
The collection is offered under a single standard licence, based on well established
models, which is available here.
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Do I have to sign licences
with each customer?
No – Swets Information Services is acting as agent for all of the participating
publishers. Your agreement with them grants them the right ('power of attorney')
to sign on your behalf.
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What input do publishers have?
The ALJC project is managed by a Steering Committee of representatives of ten
of the participating publishers, plus a representative of ALPSP; Swets Information
Services provides the Committee with regular progress reports, and consults
the Committee over pricing, marketing and other matters. The Committee will
also adjudicate if any disagreements should arise.
The members of the Steering Committee consists are;
Sally Morris, ALPSP
Nick Evans, ALPSP
Delia Siedle, Royal Society of Medicine Press
Jo Cheshire/Caroline Smith, IChemE
Julie Neason, British Psychological Society
Phil Hurst, Royal Society
Robin Beecroft, Intellect
Steve Byford, Society for Endocrinology
Steve Dane, Brill Academic Publishers
Toby Green, OECD
Tommi Grover, Multilingual Matters
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How is the collection sold?
Interested consortia can sign up for a 30-day free trial.
Swets Information Services is focusing its sales efforts first on those countries
where the participating publishers have the largest market penetration (and
their subscriptions are thus most at risk from cancellation due to ‘Big
Deals’ taking up more of the available funds), and/or where national
or regional consortia have already successfully negotiated multiple year deals
with publishers of large collections. Swets Information Services’s experienced
international Consortia/Multi-site Services team are overseeing the sales activity.
See the press release for details of sales to date.
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What sales information
do I get?
Swets Information Services provide monthly reports to particpating publishers
on the licences which they have sold.
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What usage information
do I get?
For accesses to the collection via SwetsWise Counter-complaint usage statistics
are provided to both publishers and libraries on a regular basis.
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Do customers have to purchase
the collection via Swets Information Services?
No – they are free to use their preferred subscription agent, who in
turn deals with Swets Information Services. In this instance, Swets Information
Services are acting as the publishers’ agent/aggregator.
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What returns can I expect?
It’s impossible to predict accurately, but the project has been created
on the basis that most, if not all, of the consortia sales will be sales which
the participants could not have made individually, and will therefore represent
incremental revenue. The pricing model in any case protects your print subscription
revenue for the next three years.
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How long am I signing up
for?
The agreement with Swets Information Services runs for three years in the first
instance, so if you sign up for the 2008 Collection you will be agreeing to
participate until the end of 2010; we hope to add more publishers year by year
as the benefits of participation become increasingly obvious and that existing
participants will roll their agreements forward in due course to allow Swets
Information Services to sell further 3-year licences in 2008 and beyond.
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What’s the timescale for
publishers?
For the 2008 Collection the list is now complete. In order to maximize sales,
the Collection is announced in late July/early August for the following year.
In view of this, new publishers have to sign and return contracts before 1st
July. If you express an interest in joining, we will contact you in March for
the following year to give you plenty of time to sign contracts before the
1st July deadline. If you are interested in adding your journals to the Collection
for 2007, please complete the form or contact Caroline Mackay (info@alpsp.collection.org).
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I’m not an ALPSP member – can
I take part?
The collection is only open to journals published by or on behalf of members;
however, you are welcome to join ALPSP in order to take part in 2008. You will
find details of how to join at www.alpsp.org/memship.htm.
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I have more questions – who
do I ask?
Contact Nick Evans at ALPSP, email nick.evans@alpsp.org, tel +44 (0)20 8789
2394, or Caroline Mackay at Swets Information Services, email info@alpsp-collection.org,
tel +44 (0)1235 857553.
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