[Pharm-policy] Re: [Ip-health] tiered pricing for Access to biomedical journals

[Alan Story]

Udo:

A couple of points:

>From experiences here in the UK, Blackwell has emerged as
one of the more enlightened publishers. And the BMJ online is also a welcome
initiative.

On one issue you raise:

Will South Africa (and similiar counties that have elements of first,
second and third world economies within a single political unit) be included
in this new "free journals" initiative?

Here is a quote from a Washington Post story on Monday....

"Under the proposed rules, institutions in countries where the per capita
gross national product (GNP) is less than $1,000 a year would get the
journals free. In countries where the per capita GNP is $1,000 to $3,000,
there would be a minimal charge."

David Brown, Free Access to Medical Journals To Be Given to Poor Countries
> http://washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A33714-2001Jul8.html
>  From _The Washington Post_

Although I have not checked the per capita income in South Africa, I would
take it from this quote that S.A. is not covered. Perhaps we can find an
"official" version of the rules to verify which countries will and will not
be included.


Best
Alan Story


 Original Message -----
From: "Prof. Udo Schuklenk" <bioethic@chiron.wits.ac.za>
To: "Alan Story" <a.c.story@ukc.ac.uk>; "James Love" <love@cptech.org>;
"IP-Health list" <ip-health@lists.essential.org>; "pharm-policy"
<pharm-policy@lists.essential.org>
Cc: "Richard Smith" <rsmith@bmjgroup.com>; "Julian Savulescu"
<j.savulescu@cshs.unimelb.edu.au>
Sent: Friday, July 13, 2001 12:09 PM
Subject: Re: [Ip-health] tiered pricing for Access to biomedical journals


> Alan,
>
> I agree with the sentiments of your point, but I do see quite a few
> advantages. Quite a few libraries here should be able to reduce
subscription
> costs,and get more journals to subscribe to by virtue of this initiative.
> Quite rightly they'll wonder years down the track about possible cost
> increases, while for now at least they will effectively be able to
increase
> the number of journals accessible to their researchers, teachers, and
> students. That is a good thing.
>
> The BMJ comes actually free of charge, and there's lots of folks in
> developing countries (and presumably elsewhere) who hope it'll stay that
> way. I wonder whether this new initiative is actually changing that.
>
> When I read an Editorial recently in the Journal of medical ethics (BMJ
Publ
> Group) announcing that online access to it would be available free of
charge
> to developing country based libraries I got really excited... only to
> discover that their definition of developing country excludes for instance
> South Africa, but includes India. The trouble here is, that some libraries
> could afford to pay something, but many simply won't subscribe, because
it's
> too expensive at the full rate.
>
> I do hope that the WHO initiative won't hover along similarly ridiculous
and
> obviously arbitrary lines of distinction between who is and who isn't
> developing country.
>
> Being a journal (co-)editor myself, who has to rely on commercial
> infrastructure to produce journals (Blackwell this time), I sympathise
both
> with your views but also with their commercial motive. I would not be able
> realistically to produce the journal as reliably and professionally
without
> em (and the various ongoing on-line non-profit 'alternatives' at this
stage
> only reinforce my views on this ... I would not submit a piece there).
What
> we did, for better or worse, as Editors was to negotiate drastically
reduced
> prices. The individual subscription rate for residents of developing
> countries (and South Africa is considered a developing country here) just
> about cover the production and postage expenses. Each year we haggle about
> this issue, but my experience with Blackwell so far as been that they
heeded
> our advice and kept the price at the same level (considering inflation
you'd
> argue that they actually reduced the price by keeping it the same).
>
> No ideal solution, I know, but we can live with it.
>
> Udo
>
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