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RSS feedsElsevier is assessing new pricing models which could see archive databases attached to journal subscriptions.
The scientific publishing giant is collaborating with major libraries and believes there is demand for a return to title by title subscriptions with the added benefit of access to comprehensive databases.
Elsevier senior VP Karen Hunter said that even in the electronic age, the journal remained as strong as ever. “I don’t see the end of the individual journal,” she said, adding that Elsevier had seen a return to demand for title by title subscriptions in place of all-you-can-eat deals.
Hunter said the development of workflow technologies showed that journals were for reading by humans, not machines. “Researchers continue to appreciate where a journal fits into the world of science,” she said ( click here for more Elsevier news).
Hunter revealed that archive databases could be attached to journal subscriptions as part of a new pricing structure. “Databases need to be branded around the journals. I don’t see them as being different,” she said.
Hunter believes that the information and publishing sector is in a period of unprecedented uncertainty. “How wemake relevant information available andmake a business case is not clear,” she said. Elsevier is assessing new models to understand what scientific users will pay for.
“Publishers cannot give anything up,” she said of existing services, but also
had to modernise and look for new services. “What publishers have to avoid is
what happened to computers: every year users expected a better product for a
lower price,” she said, referring to the decline of the
PC market.
Hunter said Elsevier was working with librarians on their changing role. She sees libraries developing new federated search services to locate information from a wide range of databases from different publishers. “They are the middle ground,” she said. “They understand the needs of their campus.”
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