[A2k] Library Journal: Max Planck Society Dumps Springer Deal Over Pricing

[Manon Ress]

--
[ Picked text/plain from multipart/alternative ]
Library Journal: Max Planck Society Dumps Springer Deal Over Pricing
http://www.libraryjournal.com/info/CA6493729.html?nid=3D2673#news2


The Max Planck Society (MPS), a major German research organization,
issued a strongly worded statement this week to announce it was
cancelling access to Springer's online collection of journals over
pricing. The cancellation will take effect as of December 31, 2007.
MPS Vice President Kurt Mehlhorn said negotiations to extend the deal
failed because, according to an MPS evaluation based on factors
including usage and comparisons with other publishers, Springer was
intent on charging "approximately double the price" the organization
regarded as "reasonable."

Under MPS's current agreement, researchers have full access to the
approximately 1200 electronic journals published by Springer. MPS
officials said that in the absence of an agreement it would piece
together access to Springer journals in a "more cost-effective" manner.

The public announcement represents a rather extraordinary moment.
While it's not at all uncommon for budget-pressured academic
libraries to cancel or scale back their journal deals, the Max Planck
Society is an extremely well-funded, world-leading research
institution with more than 12,000 staff members, 9000 Ph.D. students,
post-docs, guest scientists and researchers, and student assistants
working in over 80 affiliated research institutes. To have their
price point broken, MPS officials said, represents "a watershed" in
how the Society would deal with "various globally-active scientific
publishing houses." Open access advocate Peter Suber said the
announcement was indeed big news. "For the combination of an affluent
institution and large hit list," he told the LJ Academic Newswire,
"the Max Planck cancellation may be unprecedented."

In a statement, MPS officials suggested the breakdown in negotiations
with Springer was representative of "extreme price developments in
the supply of information, as well as usage restrictions," and that
scientific organizations throughout the world should "rethink" their
information policies. "If publishers have the market power to
effectively implement such prices and if legislators are unwilling to
subject such inappropriate behavior to legal controls, the only way
left open to science will be to take matters into their own hands."

************************************************************************
***
Manon Anne Ress
manon.ress@keionline.org,

1621 Connecticut Ave, NW, Washington, DC 20009 USA
Tel.:  +1.202.332.2670, Ext 16 Fax: +1.202.332.2673

1 Route des  Morillons, CP 2100, 1211 Geneva 2, Switzerland
Tel: +41 22 791 6727

24 Highbury Crescent, London, N5 1RX, UK
Tel: +44(0)207 226 6663 ex 252 Fax: +44(0)207 354 0607

Il vaut mieux remuer une question, sans la d=E9cider, que la d=E9cider,
sans la remuer.
Pens=E9es, essais, maximes et correspondance de J. Joubert  p.249
http://visualiseur.bnf.fr/Visualiseur?Destination=3DGallica&O=3DNUMM-88671
Translation: It is better to debate a question without settling it
than to settle a question without debating it