You're missing the point.  It isn't that the journal only costs $500 so why
are institutions being charged $10,000.  It's that *because* the
institution pays the $10,000, Elsevier feels they can then charge just $500
for personal subscriptions.  They describe the associated personal price
fee as follows:

"As a service to your scientific community, we are able to offer those
associated with institutions where a regular rate subscription is currently
in place, the opportunity to subscribe at a low price. Associated Personal
Subscriptions are sold at a price which covers our print run-on, despatch
and handling costs only. Now you can receive your own copy, delivered to
you personally, without waiting for your turn on the circulation list."

Just to be clear, I'm not defending Elsevier's pricing structure at all.  I
think there are a myriad other ways they could develop a pricing model that
would work better for all different kinds of institutions.  However,
librarians seem to think we're all in this scholarly communication thing
together, and that everyone should play fairly and in the best interests of
scholarship. I'm not sure I still believe that's true.

Kim Maxwell

At 09:02 AM 4/20/2005 -0500, you wrote:
>Tetrahedron Letters, Tetrahedron and Tetrahedron are all very expensive
>titles -- even for institutions. It doesn't make a whole lot of sense to
>me, that the publisher can give a professor an individual rate of less
>than $500 (which if you read their website, it says it covers costs
>only) and then charge over $10,000 for an institution to receive the
>same journal. Seems to me that if it is only costing the publisher less
>than $500, that having the institutional price over $10,000 is one heck
>of a markup. We used to subscribe to all three of these and had to cut
>them one by one when budgets were not keeping up with the increases in
>serials pricing. I realize that these journals are considered cutting
>edge research, but I don't think the pricing structure is reasonable at
>all.
>
>
>Debra Ham
>Library Specialist, Serials
>Reinert Alumni Memorial Library
>Creighton University
>2500 California Plaza
>Omaha, NE 68178
>
>dldham@creighton.edu
>
>-----Original Message-----
>From: SERIALST: Serials in Libraries Discussion Forum
>[mailto:SERIALST@LIST.UVM.EDU] On Behalf Of John Lucas
>Sent: Wednesday, April 20, 2005 8:47 AM
>To: SERIALST@LIST.UVM.EDU
>Subject: Re: [SERIALST] Elsevier 'associated' subscriptions -John Lucas
>
>I just have two quick questions about the Associated Subscriptions.
>
>Does anyone know of other Elsevier titles besides Tetrahedron?
>
>I have looked at 2 other Elsevier 'biggies'    BBA   and Brain Research
>and neither have Associated Subscriptions information.
>
>Are we 'blowing' this situation out of proportion?
>
>Just My Two Cents,
>
>
>
>John Lucas
>
>Serials Librarian
>University of Mississippi Medical Center 2500 North State St Jackson, MS
>39216-4505
>
>(PH) (601) 984-1277
>(FAX)  ( 601) 984-1262
>JLUCAS@ROWLAND.UMSMED.EDU