Academic Publishing

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Experience with consortia a view from a
specialist publisher

• Peter Williams
• Academic Director Professional Engineering
  Publishing
• ASA Meeting February 2008

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Experience with consortia a view from a
specialist publisher

• Brief overview of PE Publishing
• Experience with Consortia
• Usage based initiative
• JISC Business Models Trials
• ALPSP ALJC
• Other avenues
• Observations
• Lessons from the 70s!

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A Brief overview of PE Publishing

• Publishers to the IMechE
• 18 Journals
• Proceedings of the IMechE
• Online Proceedings archive from 1847
• 6 Magazines
• Publishing services for partners
• 40 publishing staff
• 7.9m turnover (2007)

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Experience with Consortia

• PE Publishing Usage Based Model 2003/04
• Negotiable one time set-up fee
• Negotiable download/article fee
• Negotiable of downloads counted
• No existing subscription cancellation
• Usage/access fee CAPPED at current subscription
  rate
• Three year deal
• Year One
• Gratis, online access to PE Publishing Journals
  to all Consortia members
• Year One usage the basis of Year Two access fee
• Year Two
• Access fee based upon of Year One usage
• Access fee capped at current subscription rate
• Year Two usage used as basis of Year Three access
  fee
• Year Three
• Repeat of Year Two. Deal re-negotiated
• All billing and access arrangements negotiable

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Experience with Consortia

• NELINET 600 academic, public, and special
  libraries in the six New England states of USA
• NRW 30 academic libraries in North
  Rhine-Westphalia, Germany
• FinELib Finnish national consortium of 108
  University, Polytechnic, Research Institute, and
  Regional Public Libraries
• iGroup Open Consortia initiatives in Thailand,
  Taiwan, Philippines and Malaysia

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Experience with Consortia

• NELINET 6 months. Email exchanges and phone
  calls. No deal. X
• NRW5 months. Email exchanges. No deal. X
• FinELib11 months. Email exchanges and
  face-to-face meetings. No deal. X
• iGroup18 months. Email exchanges and face-to
  face meetings. Small trial in Thailand. ?

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Experience with Consortia

• Questions
• Unpopular model?
• Cost uncertainty
• Administrative problems
• Unpopular product?
• Existing market penetration
• Subscriptions
• Usage
• Size/importance of publisher?
• Relatively small portfolio
• Perception of engineering in marketplace

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JISC Business Models Trial

• 2005 2006 Trial managed by Content Complete
• PPV converting to subscriptions
• U2S University College London and University of
  Greenwich
• Model (Essentially that previously trialled by
  PE Publishing)
• Access to entire PE Publishing online collection
• Negotiated article download price
• Free content and double clicked downloads
  accommodated
• Usage fee capped at subscription price
• Usage based on Counter returns

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JISC Business Models Trial

• Content Complete Report to JISC in May 2007
• http//www.jisc-collections.ac.uk/news_and_events/
  news_articles/business_models_report
• Key points
• Budget uncertainty for both Libraries and
  Publishers
• Administratively problematic and costly
• Pure usage-based model unacceptable to Libraries
• Usage metrics possible element of future
  consortia models

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ALPSP Learned Journals Collection ALJC

• Considered joining ALJC in 2003 and subsequent
  years. Declined
• Didnt fit desired pricing model
• Management of internal tensions
• Joined ALJC in 2008 collection
• 728 titles from 53 publishers in 2008
• PE Publishing Member of Steering Committee
• Number of interesting Consortia proposals in
  progress

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Other avenues

• Working with a range of companies developing
  Consortia proposals for different regions
• GIST India
• Allied India
• iGroup China and Vietnam
• EmPact South America and Eastern Europe
• PCG Archive content into Europe
• NIC Iran

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Observations

• Consortia deals are both time consuming and
  costly to set up and administer
• Are the true costs to both parties clearly
  identified?
• Is it possible for the smaller publisher to
  enter this market?
• Is it a fair playing field?
• Are large consortia deals legal?
• Anti-competitive?
• Exclusionary behaviour Big Deal bundling?
• The Bundling of Academic Journals. Edlin and
  Rubinfield. American Economic Review Vol 95(2)
  2005.
• Exclusion or Efficient Pricing The Big Deal
  bundling of academic journals. Edlin and
  Rubinfield. American Bar Association Antitrust
  Law Journal Vol 72(1) 2004
• Between a rock and a hard place the big squeeze
  for small publishers. Prosser. Learned Publishing
  Vol 17(1) 2004
• Are large consortia deals good for scientific
  communication?
• Wider access
• Reduced cost/download
• More access - but less choice?
• By-passing the rigours of the market?

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Lessons from the 70s

• 1970s self help books
• I'm Not OK, You're Not OK
• I'm OK, You're Not OK
• I'm Not OK, You're OK

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Lessons from the 70s

• I'm Not OK, You're OK
• During the next weeks, the Consortia
  Negotiations Resource Team (NRT) will continue to
  evaluate the proposals received and, as a result,
  may contact you should further clarifications be
  required on your proposal.  The evaluation period
  may continue until the beginning of December. Due
  to the longer time required for the evaluation
  and considering the upcoming Christmas holiday
  period, it is unlikely that you would be required
  to meet with the NRT prior to January.  However,
  should we contact you for a possible meeting, we
  will give you a 10 working days notice to arrange
  for such meeting.  Until then, please, make your
  schedule as flexible as possible for January and
  be aware that it is probable that not all vendors
  will have an opportunity to meet with the NRT.

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Lessons from the 70s

• 1970s self help books
• I'm Not OK, You're Not OK
• I'm OK, You're Not OK
• I'm Not OK, You're OK
• I'm OK, You're OK

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Lessons from the 70s

• 1970s self help books
• EF Schumaker
• Specialist is beautiful

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