Astronomy News
Kathleen Robertson
Jessica Moy
Astronomy Reports and Astronomy Letters
МАIК Nauka/Interperiodica, publisher of Astronomy Reports and Astronomy Letters (nee Soviet Astronomy & Soviet Astronomy Letters), has changed distributor. Previously the titles were available from American Institute of Physics (AIP) as the "Astronomy Combo." Now, Springer will distribute these titles, with a hefty price increase. A number of astronomy libraries, including the Institute for Astronomy Library, University of Hawaii, have decided not to renew for 2006. AIP will no longer be hosting the 2000-2005 electronic issues and gave subscribers the opportunity to purchase CDs of those years.
The SpringerLink web pages for these titles have links to 2000-2004 issues, with a pay-per-view option offered for non-subscribers. I sampled several articles; each was priced at $30.00. SpringerLink is not a single bundled product; libraries may subscribe to parts of it. Although the Hamilton Library, University of Hawaii Manoa, has a SpringerLink subscription, it is not yet clear if these two titles will be covered. Both titles are available full text with a one-year embargo via EBSCO's "Academic Search Premier.” Will that continue? It will be interesting to see if the impact factors for these two titles increase or decrease over the next couple of years. Will the shift to a commercial distributor increase access, or will the price hikes decrease subscriptions and marginalize these titles?
Nature Physics
Nature Publishing Group (NPG) launched a new title in the Nature cluster: Nature Physics. Advanced marketing, including widely distributed free first issues, created a demand for this title that physics & astronomy libraries had to appraise based on ongoing budget pressures, collection needs, etc. Some have decided to wait and see, some have suggested personal subscriptions to interested faculty members, and some have started subscriptions. As part of the PAMnet discussion, Dana Roth provided cost/page/IP comparisons of the cost-effectiveness for Nature Materials (another title in the Nature cluster) and 2 other materials titles. Previously, Bob Michaelson had pointed out that two economists, Ted Bergstrom of University of California Santa Barbara, and Preston McAfee of Caltech, had authored "An Open Letter to All University Presidents and Provosts Concerning Increasingly Expensive Journals".
In the discussion of Nature Physics, it was noted that the Bergstrom & McAfee have provided an objective definition for "overpriced" and have developed a Journal Cost-Effectiveness Calculator to assist in cost/value assessments.
Astronomy Roundtable 2006
Pete Banholzer will be moderating the Astronomy Roundtable at SLA in Baltimore. He’d like to know who’s planning to attend and what topics are of interest.
LISA V
Registration is now open. To register, go to: http://www.cfa.harvard.edu/library/lisa/registration.html
For more information about the conference, see: http://www.cfa.harvard.edu/library/lisa/
