---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Thu, 26 Apr 2001 08:38:12 -0400
From: Cindy Hepfer <hslcindy@acsu.buffalo.edu>
Subject: Re: Clinical Neurophysiology, Volume 111, Suppl. 1 (fwd)

The following message from Elly Tjoa relates to an inquiry posted to
Serialst April 13 by Wanda Freeman. My library was having the same problem
(we too were claiming v.111, suppl. 1 and hadn't gotten either the issue in
question or an explanation from our agent). So I wrote John Tagler at
Elsevier and asked him to forward the inquiry to the appropriate person in
the company, figuring there would be numerous Serialst subscribers who
would like an answer.  Wanda's original message stated: "We received a
"Supplement 2" for volume 111, dated September 2000 -- yet we never
received a Supplement 1. Our claims agent found no mention of the missing
supplement on the publishers' website, nor has she received a response to
her query dated a month ago. Has anyone out there received a Supplement 1,
or a satisfactory resolution to its absence?"

Very shortly after I wrote John, Wanda forwarded a message from Laurel
Sanders that stated: "Our agents inquired for us in early Jan. and were
told that Suppl. 1 was not  included in the subscription price; it is
devoted to abstracts of a meeting held in Lyon.  At the time they said
there were limited no. of copies available for about $25.00."

Elly Tjoa's message confirms Laurel's information. In addition, it
provides an explanation from the publisher's point of view, and some
insights into how publishers have to deal with the needs of the societies
that own journals.  But I think that the explanation also provides all of
us who manage serials subscriptions (libraries and subscription agencies
alike) with an opportunity to commiserate about a publishing practice that
can result in unnecessary claims -- and work -- and leave what looks like
gaps in our collections.

Cindy Hepfer
*******************************************************
Cindy Hepfer
Head, Collection Management Services
Editor, Serials Review
Health Sciences Library, Abbott Hall
University at Buffalo
3435 Main Street
Buffalo, NY 14214-3002
716-829-3900 x124; Fax: 716-829-2211
hslcindy@buffalo.edu
*******************************************************

> Dear Ms. Hepfer,
> I received your e-mail from John Tagler about the above issue and I'll try
> to explain the situation.
>
> Once in a while we publish the abstracts for congresses of Member
> Societies of the International Federation of Clinical Neurophysiology
> (IFCN) for use at the congress only. The congress organization orders and
> pays for just enough issues needed for the participants and the issue is
> not for distribution to the subscribers. In order not to take too many
> pages away from the normal issues, the IFCN decided to publish this kind
> of issues as a supplement issue to the existing volume.
> Vol. 111, Suppl. 1 consisted of the abstracts of the European Clinical
> Neurophysiology Society meeting in Lyon, August 2000.
> Vol. 110, Suppl. 1 were the abstracts of the XI Int. Congress of EMG and
> Clinical Neurophysiology, Prague, September 1999. Because there was no
> Suppl. 2 to this volume, nobody claimed this issue.
>
> Issues devoted to a particular subject, very often proceedings of a small
> congress, also are published as supplements to a volume of the journal,
> e.g., Vol. 111, Suppl. 2, was a Special Issue with the topic "Sleep and
> Epilepsy". These, very often, sponsored supplement issues are always sent
> to all subscribers, i.e., distributed freely (with no extra charges to the
> subscribers), as they are (we think) of interest to everybody.
>
> I realize this is confusing for you librarians, but for production we have
> to number this kind of issues.
>
> I trust that this information is useful to you.
> With kind regards,
> Mrs. Elly H. Tjoa
> Associate Publishing Editor
> Neuroscience Publ. Group
> Elsevier Science Amsterdam