Science abandons JSTOR
July 22, 2007 5:12 pm publishing industrySeveral months ago Nature dramatically hiked its price for academic library consortia. It was a case of robbery. Nature had already forced consortia to empty their wallets to meet one price increase. Not content with that, Nature the demanded that those libraries turn over their ATM card, lead them to the money machine, and surrender their PIN so Nature could take everything to meet the subsequent increase. Nature may score some short-term financial gain through this approach. But it is clear that the losers will be the members of the academic community.
Now Science has shown similar disregard for the good of the academic community and the advancement and dissemination of scientific knowledge. It is severing its relationship with JSTOR I imagine that in the months ahead Science will offer subscribers a “special offer” to license its online backfiles. Perhaps Nature and Science have the strength to flex their publishing muscles and bully libraries. Other journals and publishers, fortunately, don’t have the same cachet. That does not mean, however, that they won’t follow the Nature and Science bad examples.
Below is a large excerpt from the announcement that Michael Spinella, JSTOR’s executive director, sent out on July 20, 2007:
Dear JSTOR participants and other respected colleagues - I am writing to make you aware that, after a very productive association of nearly 10 years, the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) has decided to discontinue its relationship with JSTOR, effective December 31, 2007. The AAAS and JSTOR began working together in 1998 to include Science and Scientific Monthly, a related title that has ceased publication, in the JSTOR archive. During this time, access to the backfiles of Science and Scientific Monthly has been greatly expanded through the availability of the JSTOR Health & General Sciences collection at over 1,000 institutions as well as at 600 other organizations through our special programs providing the full JSTOR archive to secondary schools, public libraries, museums and institutions in developing nations. Libraries have also had the opportunity to repurpose shelf space and lower costs associated with long-term storage and access to these older materials.While JSTOR is disappointed with the AAAS’s decision, we anticipated that there might someday be publishers that would choose to end their participation in JSTOR. JSTOR is an archive, and its publisher license agreements reflect this fact. As an archive, JSTOR’s role is to provide a reliable, accessible, digital collection to library participants and their users over time. For those institutions that have access to Science and Scientific Monthly through JSTOR when this decision takes effect, JSTOR will continue to provide an accessible and useful archive of the preserved AAAS material in perpetuity. This ongoing right is part of all of our publisher agreements.
I want to call your attention to several key details.
For institutions that have access to Science and Scientific Monthly through JSTOR prior to December 31, 2007 (including those institutions that elect to participate in the Health & General Sciences collection or join our secondary schools, developing nations, and other special programs between now and then):
