Elsevier has launched an end-user portal focused on cancer research called OncologySTAT. The site carries a broad array of content....However, what seems to have elicited the most comments on the new service is its business model —free to the registered user, paid for by advertisers. Despite the burst of hope that the success of such a model might someday alleviate the sufferings of Elsevier’s licensees and subscribers, both the statements of Elsevier representatives and the current design of the system seem to confirm that the new portal aims to find new revenue through services targeted at end users without threatening existing revenue through “migration” or “cannabilization.” ...
For titles targeted at cancer, users could expect to retrieve all or most of the articles; for journals with a broader range, cancer-related articles will be selected for inclusion....Since Elsevier does not publish all the leading cancer journals, OncologySTAT offers journal scans, consisting of substantive, lengthy (500–700 word) abstracts of important research articles published in 25 other leading journals....
[W]hen it comes to broadening research outside the time limits of 1 year’s worth of Elsevier journal content or even outside of oncology into other medical subjects, OncologySTAT turns to every health researcher’s friend —the National Library of Medicine’s Medline....
Some contend that OncologySTAT may lead to a drop in subscriptions to print publications or their subscription-based online equivalents. Such a migration might play into the hands of the dreaded open access advocates that seem to threaten all STM publishers. Clearly the Elsevier people intend OncologySTAT and any subsequent end-user vertical portals now in development or under consideration to add to their revenue flow, not cannibalize their current revenues.
The chance of OncologySTAT substituting for library or institutional subscriptions to print or Elsevier digital packages, such as Science Direct, range from minimal to nonexistent. For one thing, [Monique Fayad, senior vice president at Elsevier and publisher at OncologySTAT] made it very clear that the journal offerings would never go back further than a year. The Medline searches may find earlier references, but OncologySTAT enables no links to library collections. Fayad said, “We have no plans for it, no live URLs, no detection of users at institutions. OncologySTAT is designed as a one-stop shop to stay current, but not as a hard core research tool.”
The company’s announcement of the new service pointed out that there are more than 1 million oncologists, hematologists, oncology nurses, and other healthcare professionals involved in treating, caring for, or diagnosing cancer patients. And that’s in the U.S. alone....
Fayad pointed out that the prices for Elsevier publications are much lower on the medical and health sciences side than those on the sci-tech side. When combined with discounted prices for individuals, as compared to institutional charges, and other significant discounts through scholarly society membership deals, prices for subscriptions were not that great. She also stated that more than 80 percent of oncology practitioners were in noninstitutional settings that probably did not have access to medical library or institutional collections. At this point, Elsevier hopes to add some 150,000 users to OncologySTAT within the first year of launch.
When it comes to estimating the probabilities of Elsevier’s success in applying an advertising supported model, the odds look pretty good....
As for future development of the site, Fayad indicated that Elsevier might examine Scirus’ open Web content in the future. The company is hoping to add more journals within the next few months and has begun approaching the sci-tech side of Elsevier to add more titles. She also indicated that Elsevier was evaluating several other areas for potential vertical portals....
Posted by
Peter Suber at 9/24/2007 10:51:00 AM.
The open access movement:
Putting peer-reviewed scientific and scholarly literature
on the internet. Making it available free of charge and
free of most copyright and licensing restrictions.
Removing the barriers to serious research.
I recommend the OA tracking project (OATP) as the best way to stay on top of new OA developments. You can read the OATP feed on a blog-like web page or subscribe to it by RSS, email, or Twitter. You can also help build the feed by tagging new developments you encounter.
