What we DO get from various journal publishers varies.  My answers
below are what the answers SHOULD be:

Friday, September 29, 2006, 8:24:26 AM, you wrote:

SL> Hello. I'm with a publisher of various scientific/medical materials and
SL> was hoping that some of you would be willing to share information to
SL> assist us with structuring our online pricing. We would like to start
SL> offering online only subscriptions to institutions, but are at a loss as
SL> to how to price these subscriptions. If any of you would be willing to
SL> share general information and actual prices that you've been quoted from
SL> other publishers, I would greatly appreciate it.

SL> Here's what we're looking for:
SL> -general information
SL> -pricing information and what all that price includes

No more than the print journal costs.  Should be, and often is, a bit
lower.

SL> -access information (do you access by username/password or by IP address?)

If you don't have IP authentication we don't play.

SL> -Do you have access to current or past content after your subscription
SL> expires?

You should have such access.  Also, the publisher should participate
in LOCKSS (www.lockss.org) or similar organizations.

SL> -Is there a limit to how many users may log on at any given time?

No.

SL> -Is there a limit to how many IP addresses may be included?

No.  Many institutions will have a class B, like we do, at 132.178.*.*
We won't touch anything that limits to specific IPs, partly because
most users are on DHCP.  In "the olden days" some would say only the
IPs of the relevant department, but that doesn't work any more on most
campuses.

SL> -Are you able to access through a proxy server?

If not we don't play.  Actually, they'd probably never know if we did,
but we try to follow the rules/contracts.

SL> -Are you provided usage statistics? If so, in what form?

Should be according to COUNTER or other standards as appropriate.

SL> -If you have more than one location (such as different campuses), are you
SL> required to purchase multiple subscriptions?

All depends.  For example, Boise State has a small branch (about a
thousand students) 20 miles away.  Some make us pay extra, most don't.
They're in the same IP range so no one would even know about it if we
didn't tell them.  But we answer all questions honestly.

Of course where it is a mess is if the University of California tries
to say that they're all "branch campuses" in LA, Berkeley, etc.  That
would be nonsense if they tried to do that.

SL> Thanks in advance for any responses. It will be a big help to us. We want
SL> to create a system that will be the most beneficial to subscribers such as
SL> libraries, and while staying competitive, we still want to set this up
SL> within an average library's budgeting situation.

If prices are the same, and we have reasonable assurance of access to
backfiles, we are switching all subscriptions to electronic except for
a few "mass market" popular things like Time, Sports Illustrated, etc.

SL> I appreciate your attention and any information you are willing to provide.

Let me know if you want more info.

dan

SL> Regards,

SL> Sharon Landers

--
Dan Lester, Data Wrangler  dan@RiverOfData.com 208-283-7711
3577 East Pecan, Boise, Idaho  83716-7115 USA
www.riverofdata.com  The Road Goes On Forever....