The TRANSFER Initiative: Helping Develop Guidelines for Journal Transitions Between Publishers Yvette Diven Director, Serials Product Management ProQuest CSA Beth Bernhardt Electronic Journals / Document Delivery Librarian UNC Greensboro

What we’ll talk about ● Background on the TRANSFER Initiative ● Why journals are transferred ● Impact of journal transfers ● On publishers ● On intermediaries ● On libraries ● How TRANSFER wants to help ● Questions and comments on TRANSFER’s work to date ● Next steps for TRANSFER ● Your comments and insights

About the TRANSFER Initiative Sponsored by United Kingdom Serials Group (UKSG) Begun in April Gained support from STM and ALPSP Working Group Members: Nancy Buckley, Chair (Blackwell Publishing) Louise Cole (University of Leeds) Jo Connolly (Swets Information Services) Helen Cooke (Sage Publications Ltd) Nick Evans (Association of Learned and Professional Society Publishers) Paul Harwood (Content Complete Ltd) Helen Henderson (Ringgold e-Marketing Services) Alison Mitchell (Nature Publishing Group) Ed Pentz (CrossRef) Jill Taylor-Roe (University of Newcastle upon Tyne) Harry Verwayen (Springer Verlag) Elizabeth Winters (Georgia Technical University)

TRANSFER Aims and Objectives To identify and map the data and general information components that come into play when a title moves publisher To develop and implement a set of high-level Guidelines and a Code of Conduct that publishers will be asked to adhere to as closely as possible when involved in title transactions To create a central repository containing mandatory and optional fields that should be completed by publishers when titles move between them Source:

How does TRANSFER operate? TRANSFER’s approach is Consultative Journal transfers affect numerous groups Advisory Board to the Working Group consists of publishers, intermediaries, and librarians  ProQuest CSA (rep., Yvette Diven) is a member of the Advisory Board  UNC Greensboro (rep., Beth Bernhardt) is a member of the Advisory Board TRANSFER’s approach is Phased Guidelines first Code of Conduct is the ultimate goal TRANSFER’s approach is to create a model that is: Trusted Scalable Standards-based

Why are journals transferred, anyway? Commercial publishers transfer titles when imprints and backlists are divested/acquired Scholarly societies transfer titles when they make changes to their publishing arrangements By TRANSFER estimates 1, three-quarters of the top 200 ISI Impact Factor journals are owned by scholarly societies or other non-profits 25% of these titles are contracted out to another publisher Examples of recent activity involving journal transfers: Wiley and Blackwell (acquisition) Springer Science+Business Media and Transaction Publishers (acquisition) Sage Publications and Maney Publishing (journal exchange) American Society of Hypertension, Inc. (ASH) and Elsevier (publishing arrangement and online distribution) 1 Statistics reported in Nancy Buckley’s “Transfer Update”, delivered at the CEIRC: Datasets Coordinators Meeting & DSC Forum, 29 January 2007,

On the upside … a publisher’s perspective Opportunities to move from print to electronic format Growth in reader/user base for smaller journals Increases in market share New partnerships can mean better/wider distribution Publishers can establish themselves as leaders in subject areas Scholarly societies gain the ability to maintain editorial control without taking on technical burdens Sharing in the prestige of a respected name And on and on… Life is good!

On the downside…a publisher’s perspective ● Journal transfers will impact key areas of business operations Content and infrastructure management  Merging input from different systems (a.k.a., This isn’t XML!)  Supporting old platforms and new platforms for delivery Distribution and linking partnerships Transferring and managing subscriber data  Are my account names equal to your account names?  Determining who gets access to what, and for how long  Sales and renewal cycles can differ Customer service and support Marketing and sales channels And on and on…

Another view… impact on Intermediaries A case study: ● Between Jan. and Oct EBSCO logged 5,121 unique titles that moved from one publisher to another. ● 5,121 titles moving between publishers required EBSCO to make just over 47,000 changes to their title file! ● To put this in context there are just over 300,000 titles in the database (about 16% changed).

Journal transfers: a librarian’s perspective ● Being aware of timing and implications of transfer in time to make appropriate changes to library data records (ILS, link resolver, ERM, etc.). ● Retaining appropriate access to previously subscribed content ● Maintaining accurate and comparable usage data (preferably COUNTER-compliant) ● Ensuring no negative impacts in terms of access for our customers (loss of access, link resolver out-of-date, etc.) ● Key factor: having reliable, timely and easily accessible source of data on transfers!

What a librarian has to deal with… ● Titles that move a little at a time ● Titles that move to a publisher with a different pricing structure for online access ● Titles that move after renewals have been sent to the intermediaries ● No knowledge of the transfer!

Answers librarians want to know ● Who owns this journal now? ● When will the transfer occur? ● Will the backfiles be transferred? If so when? ● How much time do I have to make the switch? ● Has my pricing model changed? ● Has my license agreement changed? ● What changes do I need to make to my EZProxy and OpenURL configurations?

Answers intermediaries want to know ● When does the transfer occur in terms of subscriptions? In terms of content? ● Is all subscriber data being transferred to new publisher? Do we need to provide any data to ensure appropriate access for our customers? ● Have the access terms for the journal changed due to the transfer? ● Do any/all of the previous access rights apply (for example, if old publisher offered access to all content and new offers only current year or paid years)?

Answers intermediaries want to know ● How has the pricing model changed and how do we notify customers? ● Is the previous publisher keeping old content? If so, do previous subscribers have access rights at the old publisher site? ● Will subscribers have access to previous content at new publisher site? ● How long will the new publisher take to load the back content? Will it be ALL back content or just back to a certain point?

How TRANSFER wants to help Guidelines For transferring publishers For receiving publishers A formal Code of Conduct Voluntary, but strongly-urged participation Monitored for compliance Database of information that can be accessed and shared by all of the parties impacted

Code of Conduct (Phase 1) for Transferring Publishers Access to the title: The transferring publisher will continue to provide access to its customer base for at least three months (six months or longer is recommended). Subscription list: Each transferring publisher will make the subscription list of the journal available to the receiving publisher immediately after the signing of the contract, or four months after the effective transfer date (whichever is sooner). Journal URL: Each transferring publisher will transfer any title- related journal domain name to the receiving publisher (if one exists). If the journal title home page URL is part of the transferring publisher’s domain then the transferring publisher will provide a URL link to the receiving publisher or create redirect for a minimum of 12 months. Born Digital (recent) Archive - current: Each transferring publisher will transfer copyright to the society for the born digital-current journal content and make available all digital files in its possession at the time of signing at no cost to the receiving publisher.

Code of Conduct (Phase 1) for Transferring Publishers, cont’d Digitized Archive (backfile/ legacy): Each transferring publisher will transfer copyright to the receiving publisher for the digitized archive journal content and offer all digital files in its possession at the time of signing at a mutually agreed cost price to the receiving publisher. Communication: Each transferring publisher will clearly refer customers to the receiving publisher by placing the following text on the journal homepage: ‘This journal will no longer be published by as of. Please go to as of that date.’ DOI Ownership (Mandatory): each transferring publisher actively sign-over DOI’s to the receiving publisher. Transfer Database: Each transferring publisher will add all relevant key data on the journal to the Transfer Database (when completed).

Code of Conduct (Phase 1) for Receiving Publishers Access to the title: Each receiving publisher will provide access to the title to the transferring publisher’s list of subscribing institutions for at least three months after the official transfer, and within one month of receiving the subscriber list. DOI Ownership (Mandatory): Each receiving publisher will ensure appropriate transfer of DOI pointers for archive content according to the DOI ownership transfer policies. TRANSFER recommends that receiving publishers do not assign new DOI’s when they acquire content, but rather resolve the existing DOI to the newly acquired content according to the CrossRef DOI Ownership Transfer Guidelines. In accordance with CrossRef guidelines TRANSFER recommends that receiving publishers do not assign, but rather update the existing DOI’s to the newly acquired content. Transfer database: Each receiving publisher will add all relevant key data on the journal to the Transfer database (when completed).

Questions publishers ask about TRANSFER Can small publishers meet the technical requirements? How will the Code of Conduct be maintained? What types of industry trends or changes impact it? How many versions of the Code would be issued? How often? Is subscriber data generic enough to track consistently? What is the model for the TRANSFER database? Where will the data reside? How will the data be shared? Is TRANSFER useful outside of STM or society publishing? What does the Working Group consider a ‘critical mass’ of participation? Will TRANSFER policies be applied to print-only journals? Should the Code of Conduct apply to aggregators of journals? Other questions?

Next steps for the TRANSFER Initiative Review ongoing Advisory Board feedback on the Code of Conduct Decide on a model for Code of Conduct compliance  Sherpa model (red, amber, green)?  COUNTER model? Put out RFP for the TRANSFER Database Launch the new logo: Get the word out to publishers, intermediaries and librarians

Your comments and insights ● What suggestions do you have for making the journal transfer process more manageable? ● Other comments?

Learn More about TRANSFER For Working Group reports and more about the TRANSFER Initiative, visit: