The American Chemical Society (ACS) Publications
Division is pursuing a series of product, platform and pricing initiatives in 2009-2010 designed to
meet the information demands of scientific readers and the research libraries that support them. The
move is in response to its customers expressing strong preferences for accessing research advances
online, rather than in print.
ACS representatives have cited two interconnected trends driving
the changes. One is the decade-long shift in preference to the Internet for time-sensitive creation and
delivery of journal content. The other is the economic downturn that has particularly squeezed budgets of
institutional libraries since 2008.
ACS publishes 36 peer-reviewed journals and a weekly news
and industry magazine, Chemical & Engineering News, in print and digital formats. Key among the changes
is an immediate shift from traditional size print to a novel 'rotated and condensed' print format that will be
used for most of the Society's publications. Three ACS titles - Journal of the American Chemical Society,
Chemical Reviews and Accounts of Chemical Research - will remain in their traditional format. The weekly
magazine, Chemical & Engineering News, which is subscribed by the Society's base of 154,000 members,
will also remain in its traditional format. In addition, effective 2010, ACS will end two discount programmes,
one for libraries and one for its members, applicable solely to its print-format journals. The Society will
maintain its practice of offering deeply discounted electronic subscriptions. It has also announced a time-limited,
print-to-digital upgrade programme in 2009 to further assist customers in controlling costs, ending subscription
duplication, and transitioning to ACS' web platform.
Beginning in 2010, ACS will no longer extend the
special sales programme that offered institutions a deeply discounted print rate as an adjunct to their web editions
purchases. This programme, originally introduced to help buffer libraries from the costs of maintaining duplicate
subscriptions in print and digital format, represented less than 10 percent of ACS library subscriptions in 2009,
and was no longer cost-effective to maintain.
Similarly, given market data showing the majority of its
active member users preferred to access scientific research via the web, ACS is ending its discount on print editions.
The Society will continue its practice of offering members discounted subscription access to web editions of journals
on a title-by-title basis for personal, non-commercial use.
In briefing customers about the format change,
ACS also announced a Print-to-Digital upgrade programme for its institutional library customers. This programme credits
customers who cancel their discounted print subscriptions before September 30, 2009, with a rebate equivalent to
30 percent of their 2009 print purchases to be applied to their 2010 ACS Web Editions renewals. Several of ACS'
largest customers have already taken up this programme.
In order to share the cost-saving benefits of
the new format with library customers, ACS has announced plans to keep prices flat on its print journals for 2010.
What the Society elects to do thereafter will depend on market conditions and customer demand during the next 12-18
months.
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