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Jere and all, As Andy said, good questions. Speaking for myself, presently in an acceptable economic position. I'd like to be member of more associations, and I'd like to receive half a dozen of journals more (to cut the list very short). However, - no time to work for the associations, so I would only collect memberships and spend money - not enough published on my specialty in these journals; a wild guess: 80% of most journal contents are not for me. - not enough space on my book shelves, neither at home, nor at my work place. This is a serious problem because, even that I can afford to buy more shelves, I certainly cannot afford to move into a larger flat every five years; :-). I would love to get Journal of Paleontology only as e-journal but this is 10$ more expensive than getting it in paper. I have space on my hard disk. And I would certainly not downlowd entire volumes, even if I were interested. There is no time to read it all. So I vote for ALL papers in e-format, a reasonable low membership fee which includes the right to download say, up to 10, 20 (30) (xy) articles or alternatively, which includes the right to buy articles at a low fee for members (4$-6$, just a number). Very often, I have to make external library loans, and I get very often a bad xerox copy (especially a nuissance when with fotos), that costs me between 4 to 16 Euros (and the article may be 1-20 pages long, depends on whether local, national or international loan). Actually, I would prefer to buy the article directly at 4 Euros and have it on my hard disk shelf. And when I need it in paper I print it out myself. Another idea: (from the Spiegel online newspaper, there are probably many others that offer that) They sell at a very good price so-called dossiers. That's a bundle of articles on the same topic published by them over the last few years. You can buy single articles or the entire dossier. I am absolutely sure this would have a market for science journals, too. Of, course, don't include out-of-date papers, or only if interesting in a historical context. Does this help? Cheers, Niko > > If you really want to find out why membership is flagging, then why not > ask > people who are thinking of dropping their memberships? That is, > paleontologists in marginalized circumstances. You won't find many of > these > demoralized people at national meetings (except at the job fair), but you > can reach some of them on this very list. What can you do to help them > enjoy > paleontology again? That's the question. > > Andy > > Andrew K. Rindsberg > Geological Survey of Alabama > Coeditor, Ichnology Newsletter, 1997-2004 > Member, PS, GSA, SEPM, IPA, NAGT > Chair, SE PS > > -----Original Message----- > From: paleonet-owner@nhm.ac.uk [mailto:paleonet-owner@nhm.ac.uk] On Behalf > Of Jere H. Lipps > Sent: Wednesday, November 24, 2004 12:02 AM > To: paleonet@nhm.ac.uk > Subject: paleonet Paleo Society Memberships > > > PaleoNetters: > > While at GSA a couple of weeks ago, several (maybe a dozen) of us talked > about memberships in the societies. Something is up and we did not have > a > consensus on what is happening or whether it is good or bad for > paleontology. Here's the scoop: > > Cushman Foundation for Foram Research has lost a huge number of members > and > institutional subscriptions in the past few years. > > Paleo Society is down about 15% in the past 4-5 years. > > Micropaleontology subscriptions are down. > > Society of Vertebrate Paleontology is up some. > > And AAAS, the publisher of Science magazine, is down about 10-15% in the > last 3-4 years. > > > PS and AAAS attribute this decline to going on-line with their > journals. SVP went on-line but increased their membership. Cushman and > other micropaleo groups are down but have not yet gone on-line. Maybe the > decline of oil exploration affected the micropaleo memberships while the > on-line journals did cut into PS and AAAS. SVP has a component of > amateurs > that may contribute to an increase, but that won't account for much of it, > I am told. > > Several questions arise: > > What is causing this decline in all but SVP in North America? > > Are other journals elsewhere in the world declining in > subscriptions/memberships? > > Should struggling journals publish papers from non-members gratis or > charge > for it since the members now pay? > > What will the impact of e-publication of our journals be? > > Does any of this matter? > Here's my view on this last question. If we look at the Paleo Soc, for > example, it has a membership of around 1800 or so. Of those, maybe 350 > vote in its elections for officers, by-law changes, etc. Maybe 300- come > to the annual luncheon. So clearly, about 1500 are members for the > single > reason that they get the journal since they do not participate > otherwise. While that is fine, it raises the question of whether or not > we need large memberships once our journal costs decline by going-on-line > (as we have been promised). If they do, then we don't need large > memberships and we can concentrate our efforts and smaller income on > services and benefits to the "real members" while e-publication continues > to be supported by those fewer members and libraries. Those who want > hard > copies can pay for "on-demand" printing, and could or could not be > members, > as we choose. > > Quite a few of us in the societies are trying to anticipate the new > future. It will be very different from the past with e-publications, but > how? And what impact will it have? Can we modify the members benefits > sufficiently to maintain a large membership or should we go "smaller, > cheaper and more efficient"? > > This will have impact on all paleontologists and so should be worth some > discussion on PaleoNet. So should e-publishing and the various business > models and publication modes. Maybe we can discuss this one too. > > Jere > > > -- ------------------------------------------------------------- cc: nikolaus.malchus@uab.es --- Dept. de Geologia/Unitat Paleontologia Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona Campus, Edifici Cs 08193 Bellaterra (Cerdanyola del Vallès), Catalunya SPAIN --- Tel 34-93-581-1464 Fax 34-93-581-1263 -------------------------------------------------------------- --------------------------------------------------------------
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