LIBRARIANS ESTABLISH ELECTRONIC JOURNAL LICENSING PRINCIPLES A coalition
of 15 Dutch scientific research libraries, concerned over the
anticompetitive implications of the proposed merger of two major
scientific journal publishers, Reed Elsevier and Wolters Kluwer, has
adopted a set of principles aimed at bolstering their position in
negotiations with publishers over electronic journals. The principles
stipulate that libraries that subscribe to a print version of a journal
should not have to pay more than an additional 7.5% for electronic access
to that same journal, and that libraries should not pay more than 80% of
the print rate to subscribe exclusively to the electronic version. A
group of German librarians who helped draw up the principles are expected
to sign on as part of the coalition, and it's hoped that many European
libraries will follow suit. "We've been talking about a 'journal crisis'
for years," says one of the Dutch librarians. "It looks like it's finally
arrived. We're fed up."
(Science 28 Nov 97)