Apologies for cross posting! For those of us who have been watching how the pricing of electronic journals will evolve vis a vis printed versions. Hitherto, many publishers have claimed that its impossible to produce an electronic journal significantly cheaper than the conventional type. This announcement by ACS of a a new journal in organic chemistry which is anticipated will be much cheaper than if it had been lauched in print is therefore one to watch! Of course, is it cheaper to an institution, or is it the personal subscriptions that will be cheaper?

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This is a very significant announcement from ARL. It is the first new journal to be announced under the SPARC initiative, and it will cost about one-third of the commercial journal with which it will compete. As ACS is backing it, it should attract high-quality contributions from academics. I have forwarded to lis-sconul on a previous occasion the general information on SPARC, but it can be found at www.arl.org. Fred Friend

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ARL Announces ..

Joint Press Release American Chemical Society Association of Research Libraries June 30, 1998

For more information, contact: Rick Johnson, SPARC--(202) 296-2296 Mary Case, ARL--(202) 296-2296 Kirk Monroe, ACS--(202) 872-4445

RESEARCH LIBRARIES AND CHEMISTS TO COLLABORATE ON NEW REDUCED-COST SCIENCE JOURNALS American Chemical Society Is First to Partner with Association of Research Libraries in Innovative Coalition

WASHINGTON, D.C. -- In a shift away from a contentious debate in scholarly publishing, the Association of Research Libraries (ARL) today welcomed the world's largest scientific society, the American Chemical Society (ACS), as its first partner in a collaboration aimed at distributing research results faster and at significantly less cost to library subscribers.

The partnership announced today is "a major step forward in resolving the debate between libraries and publishers over academic journal costs and access, especially as the benefits and challenges of electronic publishing become more evident," said Duane E. Webster, ARL executive director. He noted that the coalition's aim is to substantially reduce the cost of scholarly publication while shortening the time required to deliver information, especially in the form of journals.

ACS--a non-profit scientific society which currently publishes 26 peer-reviewed research journals--is the first scientific publisher to collaborate with ARL's newly established Scholarly Publishing & Academic Resources Coalition (SPARC) to publish at least one new scientific journal each year for the next three years.

"Today, we replace debate with dialogue and action, moving forward together to make cutting-edge scientific research available to the academic community in the most efficient and cost-effective way possible," said Robert D. Bovenschulte, ACS director of publications. "We're especially pleased to be the first scientific publisher to enter into a partnership with SPARC, a creative, forceful and welcome initiative by ARL. We're also confident that this collaboration will result in publishers being able to offer higher quality products than are currently available."

The first new journal will publish letters in organic chemistry, ACS officials said. Under the agreement, SPARC members advised ACS by identifying the subject area of interest, and in return the 81 participating libraries will help provide instant market acceptance by endorsing the project and ensuring purchase of the new publication.

Richard K. Johnson serves as enterprise director for SPARC, which is seeking additional publishing partners. "One of the key advantages SPARC offers to a publishing partner," said Johnson, "is the commitment of coalition members to subscribe to SPARC products. This reduces the time to market acceptance and cost-recovery of a new title."

"We are very pleased to have the prestige and power of ACS in this first partnership," said Kenneth Frazier, director of the University of Wisconsin Libraries and chair of the SPARC working group. "We hope that other scientific publishers--both non-profit and for-profit-- will recognize the significance of this collaboration and join us in this effort to fundamentally change academic publishing."

Comprised of 81 ARL member libraries with a purchasing power of nearly $500 million, SPARC was created as a result of the growing concerns among librarians and researchers over the rising cost of academic publications, particularly scientific journals. Library materials budgets, which have increased over the past decade at almost seven percent a year have not been able to keep pace with the 12- percent annual increase in the average price of science journals, according to ARL. Both the high prices and steep annual increases charged by some major scientific publishers forced libraries to cancel thousands of journal subscriptions, prompting publishers to raise prices even higher to make up for the loss.

The advent of electronic publishing also has created concern among both publishers and librarians, despite its distinct advantages over print in terms of delivery time, additional features, and flexibility. Higher subscription costs, licensing agreements for access, and the uncertainty of archiving all have been sources of increasing tension between academic publishers and their customers.

The new organic letters title will include the enhanced features which ACS developed for all of its 26 journals that it began offering on the World Wide Web last year. The most important of these is "Articles ASAP" (As Soon As Publishable), which releases journal articles on the Web as soon as they are finished, accelerating publications by two to 11 weeks over print.

ACS announced additional services this year that will help improve the cost efficiency to the subscriber or non-subscriber, such as: free access to tables of contents since January 1996; supporting information on experimental details, also at no charge; and the option to purchase single articles without subscribing. ACS also altered its licensing arrangements with academic libraries, eliminating restrictions on use of the Web editions of ACS journals in interlibrary loan programs. ACS publications are generally higher quality and more heavily cited by researchers, and they are considered among the more reasonably priced scientific journals.

A nonprofit organization with a membership of more than 155,000 chemists and chemical engineers as its members, the American Chemical Society publishes scientific journals and databases, convenes major research conferences, and provides educational, science policy and career programs in chemistry. Its main offices are in Washington, D.C., and Columbus, Ohio. <http://www.acs.org/>

The ARL is a not-for-profit membership organization comprising the libraries of 121 North American research institutions. The ARL articulates the concerns of research libraries and their institutions, forges coalitions, influences information policy development, and supports innovation and improvement in research library operations. SPARC is a start-up enterprise launched by ARL in 1998. <http://www.arl.org/>

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