UKSG: Improving Procedures for Journals Transferring Between Publishers

[<Beverley.Acreman@tandf.co.uk>]

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>

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
Emily.Gillingham@oxon.blackwellpublishing.com
www.uksg.org/