Re: ALPSP library survey

[Phil Davis <pmd8@cornell.edu>]

While I understand the logic of this survey, I hope that the ALPSP will 
first determine whether there is evidence that articles placed in public 
archives decrease publisher downloads (the stated and untested assumption 
behind their survey).  To date, I have not seen evidence of this 
connection.  As a consequence, one could equally assume that public 
archiving increases the number of publisher downloads, since archiving 
(especially of preprints) makes material more public.  In essence, the 
effect on downloads would be cumulative, and public archives would not be 
previewed as parasites on the publishing system, but as an additional 
source for promotion.  Before we start looking at the cancellation 
behaviors of librarians, it would be more helpful to establish whether 
public archives decrease publisher-site article downloads, and if so, by 
how much.

Phil Davis
Cornell University


At 08:07 PM 1/9/2006, you wrote:
> **cross-posted**
>
> Dear Librarian
>
> ALPSP (the Association of Learned and Professional Society Publishers, 
> www.alpsp.org) would like your kind assistance with a survey addressing 
> the possible impact of pre-print archives on journals.
>
> As you may be aware, some publishers are becoming concerned that if 
> self-archiving of postprints, or even preprints, of journal articles 
> becomes sufficiently widespread, this may lead to a decline in usage at 
> journals' own websites, and that this in turn may lead to cancellations. 
> In order to understand whether or not our fears are well-founded, we 
> would like to understand more about the process by which you make the 
> decision to cancel journals, what the crucial factors are, and how you 
> would rank them in importance, both now and in the future.
>
> We would be extremely grateful if you could spare a little time to 
> complete this survey to help us reach a better understanding of the 
> situation. We shall make the aggregated results of the survey publicly 
> available as a contribution to this debate. (Individual responses will of 
> course remain anonymous.) To complete the survey, please click on this 
> link:
>
> http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.asp?u=960811615855
>
> Thank you in advance for your help with this.
>
> Regards
>   -Mark Ware (on behalf of ALPSP)
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> Mark Ware Consulting Ltd
> T:  +44 (0)117 959 3726
> E:  mark@markwareconsulting.com
> W: www.markwareconsulting.com