---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Thu, 9 Dec 1999 13:27:53 +0500
From: Frieda Rosenberg <friedat@EMAIL.UNC.EDU>
Subject: Re: Cost of the Journal of Molecular Structure & others (Albert              Henderson)

Mr. Henderson,
Do you think you're winning favor with us by pitting us against our
employers?

You seem to think that your money is in our pocket and that we are not
doing enough to fill our pocket.  You will give us the daggers and robe of
holiness to go out and get the money.  For this service you see yourself
as a savvy fairy godmother with a rather slow Cinderella.  You shout at us
"Don't you GET it?"

The value of the Mellon report to you is that it cost $12m, *and* proves
your point.  Otherwise it would have been a gigantic waste of money.

Your market is telling you that your added value is
overpriced--particularly in science, where the major proof of scientific
validity is not peer review, but the replication of the finds by other
researchers. Fast, the way the e-archives allow it to be done.

University administrators are finally demanding some quality in published
research, which trend in previous messages you have repeatedly disparaged.
If quality increases while decreasing cost outlay and increasing
university profits, this is a plus to them as administrators.  JUST AS IT
WOULD BE TO YOU IN YOUR BUSINESS.  Tell us, isn't that the motive for your
messages as well??

Frieda
----------
Frieda Rosenberg
Univ. of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
friedat@email.unc.edu