UKSG: Improving Procedures for Journals Transferring Between Publishers Bev Acreman 24 Apr 2006 08:30 UTC
NEWS RELEASE New UKSG Working Group Established to Improve Procedures for Journals Transferring Between Publishers Oxford, UK - April 18th 2006 - A new industry-wide group involving librarians, publishers and agents, has been set up to improve the procedures and policies surrounding the transfer of journals. The annual movement of journal titles between publishers with different publishing arrangements currently causes many headaches for librarians who have the responsibility for maintaining seamless access for readers. Issues which librarians confront include the uncertainty of what will happen to their current electronic access, their URL links, their perpetual access rights, the price of the journal, and whether or not the journal will be included in the big deal package of the new publisher, if indeed they have one. With the absence of any universally agreed standards, the transfer of journals also causes major headaches for the publishers themselves, with inconsistent subscriber data for institutional, member, society or consortia customers, differing ownership of backfiles, conflicting formats, granularity of linking, and the imperative to maintain links to the previous publishing platform. Some work has already been done to create standards and best practice for journal movements and other changes. The ALPSP, for example, have published guidance for society publishers, to be found at: http://www.alpsp.org/socjourn1.pdf <http://www.alpsp.org/socjourn1.pdf> The purpose of this Working Group, provisionally called TRANSFER and set up under the auspices of the United Kingdom Serials Group (UKSG - www.uksg.org.), is to create a Code of Practice for the transfer of journal titles between publishers. Publishers that adhere to the Code of Practice could become 'compliant' in much the same way as the COUNTER logo is displayed by publishers and vendors compliant with the COUNTER Code of Practice. The goal is to ensure that the transfer of journals between compliant vendors, and, in time, all vendors, follows agreed standards which will reduce the administrative load for librarians and ensure seamless access. In all aspects the Group must be considerate of anti-trust and anti-competition rules. The first meeting of the UKSG Working Group was held in Oxford, UK, on March 30th, 2006. Proposed members of the Group include: Nancy Buckley, Chair (Blackwell Publishing) Louise Cole (University of Leeds) Jo Connolly (Swets Information Services) Helen Crook (Sage Publications Ltd) Nick Evans (Association of Learned and Professional Society Publishers) Paul Harwood (Content Complete Ltd) Helen Henderson (Ringgold e-Marketing Services) Alison Mitchell (Nature Publishing Group) Ed Pentz (CrossRef) Jill Taylor-Roe (University of Newcastle upon Tyne) If you would like more information about the Group, please contact: Nancy.Buckley@oxon.blackwellpublishing.com Media Contact: Emily Gillingham Blackwell Publishing, Oxford Tel: +44 (0)1865 476425 Emily.Gillingham@oxon.blackwellpublishing.com www.uksg.org/ -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The information contained in this email message may be confidential. If you are not the intended recipient, any use, interference with, disclosure or copying of this material is unauthorised and prohibited. Although this message and any attachments are believed to be free of viruses, no responsibility is accepted by Informa for any loss or damage arising in any way from receipt or use thereof. Messages to and from the company are monitored for operational reasons and in accordance with lawful business practices. If you have received this message in error, please notify us by return and delete the message and any attachments. Further enquiries/returns can be sent to postmaster@informa.com