Open Access News

News from the open access movement


Monday, April 24, 2006

Elsevier considers new models, but not price cuts

Mark Chillingworth, Elsevier reviews its journal models, Information World Review, April 24, 2006. Excerpt:
Elsevier is assessing new pricing models which could see archive databases attached to journal subscriptions. The scientific publishing giant is collaborating with major libraries and believes there is demand for a return to title by title subscriptions with the added benefit of access to comprehensive databases. Elsevier senior VP Karen Hunter...believes that the information and publishing sector is in a period of unprecedented uncertainty. “How we make relevant information available and make a business case is not clear,” she said. Elsevier is assessing new models to understand what scientific users will pay for. “Publishers cannot give anything up,” she said of existing services, but also had to modernise and look for new services. “What publishers have to avoid is what happened to computers: every year users expected a better product for a lower price,” she said, referring to the decline of the PC market.