FW: Statement from Sage Rick Anderson 07 Aug 2002 16:17 UTC

Carol Richman at Sage asked that I forward the following note to SERIALST.

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Rick Anderson
Director of Resource Acquisition
The University Libraries
University of Nevada, Reno      "I'm not against the modern
1664 No. Virginia St.            world.  I just don't think
Reno, NV  89557                  everything's for sale."
PH  (775) 784-6500 x273             -- Elvis Costello
FX  (775) 784-1328
rickand@unr.edu

-----Original Message-----
From: Richman, Carol [mailto:Carol.Richman@sagepub.com]
Sent: Tuesday, July 30, 2002 3:12 PM
To: 'Rick Anderson'
Subject: RE: Statement from Sage

Hi Rick,

I was wondering if you would mind posting another message for SAGE
publications on SERIALST.  Here is the information:

SAGE Publications would like to further clarify its position on its online
publishing program:

The following is a summary of facts relating to Sage's recent decision with
respect to future participation in the ProQuest Information and Learning
databases and the EBSCOhost database.

1.      SAGE's database licensing contracts with both ProQuest and EBSCO
expire at the end of 2002, and we have informed both firms that we will not
renew these agreements.  We have for several years been concerned about the
impact of database aggregations on our subscription business, and recent
research confirmed that we should plan now to discontinue participating in
them.  Because of this long held concern, our agreements with ProQuest and
EBSCO have for several years been one-year, renewable contracts.

2.      Although we have notified both firms of our election not to renew,
our agreements allow both firms to continue to sell our content until the
end of 2002, and to fulfill any active subscriptions until the end of 2003.
In short, Sage has taken no action that has any immediate effect on access
to its content.

3.      ProQuest is honoring the intent of Sage's agreement with them, and
has announced that Sage journals will continue to be available in the
ProQuest databases through 2003.  ProQuest has also announced that it will
continue to index and abstract Sage journals beyond December 2003, in
recognition of the journals' importance in their respective subject areas.

4.      EBSCO has placed information on its Website indicating that Sage
journals are "dropped" from EBSCOhost products. We have advised EBSCO's
senior management of our concerns with respect to this information and
related communications with our customers, and have been advised in response
that they are researching the facts surrounding the concerns we have
expressed.

5.      As Sage has already assured its customers, electronic access to Sage
journals will continue via our existing arrangements with Ingenta,
Swets-Blackwell, Divine, Hans Huber, Minerva, OCLC, HighWire, and EBSCO
Online.  Thus, institutions subscribing to Sage journals will continue to
have electronic access, as we recognize that the availability of electronic
content is critical to the academic community.

6.      Additionally, we have recently announced an exciting new online
product for Sage journals, The Sage Full-Text Collections, to be released in
January 2003.  The Collections will be subject-specific databases in the
areas of Communication Studies, Criminology, Sociology, and Politics and
International Relations.  Each Collection will contain the full text of
journals we publish in that discipline, including a current subscription and
up to 20 years of back files with full linking backward and forward. Each
Collection will be hosted on a platform enabling key word search
functionality, browsing functionality, and reference and citation linking
capability. The Collections are designed to be dynamic research tools for
students and faculty members in the social sciences.  Sage currently plans
to release new Collections in new disciplines each year.

7.      Sage has not withdrawn its content from the ProQuest or EBSCO
databases at this time.  Our content will not, however, be available in
those databases beyond the end of 2003.

> For further information, contact Carol Richman: carol.richman@sagepub.com.
>
> ---
>
>
>
        Thanks and best regards,

        Carol

Carol Richman
Director of Licensing & Electronic Publishing
SAGE Publications
410-327-6808
carol.richman@sagepub.com
www.sagepub.com