Nature - what other libraries say
Contains current [ Pricing ] information and a List of Institutions that have so far [ declined ] or
[ signed ] a site license for online access to Nature (ISSN 0028-0836).
Thanks to the many institutions that have linked back to this site!
We try to be impartial and document both positive and negative
decisions institutions all over the world have made with respect to site licenses for Nature and
its offsprings. (Be aware that several links may have changed content since the recent announcement
of the Nature Publishing Group. In some cases, the former version may still be found in Google's
Cache or via the Internet Archive's
wayback machine, or has been archived locally.) --
For comparison, look at the list of Institutions
with site-wide subscriptions to Science Online (over 575). New: Information from [ consortia ]![[new]](new1.gif)
Latest Update: July 23, 2002, Pricing Table: June 16, 2002 -- Nature's embargo policy ended on May 1, 2001, after 61 days.
To keep the spirit of this documentation, we will not remove any entries from the "declined" part of the list after May 1, but
instead indicate in red decisions from institutions that have signed since then, or
are currently negotiating an agreement.
If you are new to this, you may first want to read the [ Introduction ]
Breaking News: NATURE gives in; library community successful in forcing release of complete content on publication!
Press Release 23 April 2001: NATURE ANNOUNCES A NEW GLOBAL INSTITUTIONAL SITE LICENSING POLICY (effective May 1, 2001)
(May 1) Revised License Summaries
are available for all Nature Journals. The revised Standard
License Agreements for Nature
(the weekly), and finally also the Nature monthlies and reviews are now available (June 19).
The revised standard license agreements continue to exclude any perpetual access rights to the licensed materials and
prohibit retention of backup copies after termination of the license (clause 4.5). For archiving purposes, print copies must be ordered
(no longer included with the site license). Rick Anderson (U Nevada, Reno) and David Goodman (Princeton) just reviewed the Nature site license and
shared their list of "objections and proposed fixes" sent to their sales representative with
Liblicense-L
('Nature Contract Provisions', 2001/05/03, and further messages in this thread.)
Beverlee French, California Digital Library, Update: Nature and licensing of digital version, 2001/07/26
The major unresolved licensing issue is:
Perpetual ownership/right to archive. The UC libraries collectively believe that, for the substantial investments we make in content and in
order to serve future scholars, the rights to own what has been purchased/licensed in digital format are essential. Nature may change hands,
Nature may be archived by a third party, and UC does not expect to pay repeatedly for the same content. UC should have the rights to
archive the digital content it has purchased.
This is a principle that is important to other research libraries as
well and I am hopeful that Nature Publishing Co. is reviewing and will change this policy in the near future.
(Apr 23) The Pricing Structure for Nature and Nature monthlies and reviews changes also: see
Academic Pricing (now only for
Nature Weekly; pricing information for Nature monthlies and reviews removed on April 25; at present,
NATURE won't reveal pricing for monthlies and reviews on their website, you'll have to ask for yourself... but cf.
also our own attempt to compile a Pricing Table.)
Prices for monthlies and reviews have finally come down (June 2001)
The pricing of the Nature Site Licenses is now similar to site licenses to Science Online, although about 20%
more expensive. For large sites (FTE > 12,000), a site license is now less expensive than under the previous
scheme (as applied in proposals made by NPG until end of 2000). For small sites (FTE < 3,000), however, the
price for print+online now is a factor 2...3 higher ($1400...2600). Under the old scheme, such libraries paid
between $1,200 (£850) and $1,500 (£930) for the site license, which included one print subscription to
Nature ($775/£370); now they pay $1,800 (£1,200) (the minimum fee) or $3,000 (£2,000) (for an
FTE count between 1000 and 2999) in addition to the $775 (£370) for the print subscription (no longer included
in the license fee). However, any comparison with pricing of Science Online must mention the fact that the
AAAS (in contrast to the NPG) also offers Library Workstation access (at just $30 per workstation) as a means to
provide a basic electronic access option at least locally for institutions that cannot afford the site license.
Furthermore, site license fees for Science Online have remained constant since 1998.
Institutions which want to provide access to all Nature titles in Print+Online will typically have to pay about
50-60% more than under the previous pricing scheme valid in 2000 (this comparison assumes a single geographical
site and only a single institutional print subscription per title; this will be true for small but not for large
sites). Academic institutions now pay for Print + Site License of the Nature journals prices that are at least
a factor 1.9 (for the complete set of all Nature titles), a factor 3.3 (US) resp. 4.2 (UK) (for Nature alone), or
a factor 2.3 or 2.6 (for a single title purchase of one of the Nature monthlies or reviews) higher than for print
alone (assuming a single institutional print subscription per title).
Insert: The Case of Small Libraries and Institutions
(Nov 28, 2001) While many of the larger universities and library systems have now managed to achieve acceptable
licensing terms at affordable prices, especially through forming consortia, it is the small libraries and institutions
that are now at a serious disadvantage and will find the new pricing scheme particularly burdensome. Many of them
that in late 2000 still could take advantage of the comparatively attractive offer of $1200 as the minimum fee for
the smallest sites under a site license that came bundled with a free print subscription, or of the --at least for
small institutions confined to a single site-- attractive package prices for the monthlies or reviews (which were
independent of FTE count and again included one copy of each title in print), are now facing renewal invoices for
2002 that come out much higher than before. As the minimum fee is now 40% (EU/ROW) to 50% (US) higher and
a site license does no longer include print, which has to be paid extra, and since institutional
print subscription rates for Nature (weekly) will apparently
rise sharply in 2002
(by almost 50%, as reported by Monique Gomez, IAC, at least in Europe/ROW; US rate increases by about 10%, cf. also
my compilation of print subscription rates for the Nature titles (and Science), many small libraries will be forced to either cancel
their online or their print subscription. Nature obviously recognizes the problem as shown by their generous
offer to these libraries to extend their online access for three months free of charge; however, that will help only
in short-term. Protest is already forming, cf.
the ongoing discussion
initiated by John Grula, Librarian at the Observatories of the Carnegie Institution of Washington on the Special
Library Association's PAMnet list (slapam-l). Shaun Hardy from CIW-DTM
<hardy@dtm.ciw.edu> offered to collect and summarize responses from
other small libraries affected by these policies (see slapam-l,
2001/11/28). Let your voice be heard!
|
Intermedium:
After Nature gave in: The Turmoil about Last Minute Offers and the New Site License Pricing Terms
In April and May 2001, Information about pricing was unreliable and very difficult to obtain, as the following
excerpts from the mailing lists amply show.
That's history by now, but I let it stand here ...
Alert 25.04.2001: Currently no firm prices for Nature monthlies and reviews available.
NATURE keeps changing its pricing and license terms ...
... and refuses to clarify pricing. Rumours abound. April 27, 2001: No wonder that requests to correct wrong or misleading pricing information for the
Nature monthlies and reviews posted on the Nature website are ignored since days, or are only
answered piecemeal. On mailing lists, rumours have been confirmed that there is a deadline
for a special package deal which you only get when you sign before May 1, i.e. even before
the revised, finalized licenses are available. Of course, there are many customers who were not even
offered that deal or given a hint that there was such a deadline even though they just asked for a
price update (for example us, on April 18; instead we were just told we would be contacted again
early next week and then given comprehensive pricing information - after we had provided once again
the relevant statistics for our site). -- Just some sentiments and reactions from the lists:
John Webb, WSU, on liblicense-l, 2001/04/26
I received another call from Groves/Nature correcting pricing information
I had shared with this list yesterday, which corrected pricing information
I had received and shared with the list on Monday. This is positively the
last time I shall ever post pricing to a list. I'm old enough to know
better. (...)
Greg Youngen, UIUC, on slapam-l, 2001/04/26
I don't think you'll find anything in writing. This has been one of the
most frustrating exercises I've ever been involved with. Yes, it's true
that Monday is the last day to take advantage of Nature's price break for
package subscriptions to the Nature monthlies and Nature online. We've
asked for, but have been denied a extension of the deadline. For a
institution our size, it means about a $10k savings.
As much as we'd like to have this in place, I don't think we're going to
make the deadline. It's too close to the end of the fiscal year and the
licensing too cumbersome to react so quickly. It's a shoddy way to
treat your customers. I can only take heart in reading news like this:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/sci/tech/newsid_1296000/1296750.stm
[BBC News Sci/Tech, Thursday, April 26, 2001: Scientists threaten journal protest
"This movement is not going to stop no matter how much the publishers scream" (Dr. Michael Ashburner, Plos group)]
Paula Watson, UIUC, on liblicense-l, 2001/04/26
Sign a flawed, presumably, non-negotiable license, find the money by May 1
and you can save enough money to make it worth your while. Say no now
and it'll cost you even more later. Don't be the last on your block to
get Nature. Tuesday will be too late.
What 's the logic of this marketing strategy?
Gary Davidoff, ANL, on slapam-l, 2001/04/26
How often have you had a presentation for a timeshare, or a health club, or
a purchasing club, or a ..., where they say, "if you buy now, you will
save ... ." It's a pretty shady practice on the personal level, and I've
fallen for it too many times. Somehow, this Nature deadline reminds me of
the same practice. I guess there are used car salesmen everywhere.
Jonathan M. Lord, UVa, on liblicense-l, 2001/04/30
As I told someone in the New York office of Nature, this marketing
strategy is more suited to a door-to-door vacuum cleaner salesperson,
rather than a publisher of premier scholarly scientific research.
April 30, 2001. Lesley Crawshaw, Hertfordshire, wonders on lis-e-journals,
"whether all this will be a step forward or two steps back". Lesley has been told by NATURE that
pricing information for the monthlies and reviews won't be available till Tuesday and hopes this
might indicate that pricing for monthlies and reviews will become more reasonable. In
reply,
I commented on the issue of FTE counts and perpetual access rights, asking "what do Nature Biotechnology,
Cell Biology, Genetics, Immunology, Medicine, Neuroscience, Structural Biology and the corresponding
Review Journals have to do with the "Physical Sciences" anyway? This sure will lead into problems with universities which have a small life science
department but are strong in Physical Sciences. Perpetual access to licensed content continues to be excluded, according to the present license
summaries (Nature itself may be an exception, the license summary remains silent about that).
So I guess there will be ample need for further negotiations (for quite some time) and neither
we nor the sales offices of Nature will run out of work. (Bernd-Christoph Kaemper, Stuttgart University Library)
May 1, 2001. Perpetual access to licensed content indeed remains explicitely excluded in the new standard site license agreement for Nature (cf. clause 4.5).
Karl A. Kocher, UC Davis, comments on this, on liblicense-l, 2001/05/03
(...) I believe we should all be very grateful to Nature. This is a generous
improvement over the Stockton Press license which obligates us to ensure
that our patrons do not retain any machine-readable copies of licensed
content on their hard drives longer than six (6) [sic? sick?] days. As
Napster's experience demonstrates, we can't trust that our patrons won't
mistype or misname a file in order to hide its content. So it looks like
we won't have to go around and format their hard drives once a week (for
this product) and will only have to do so if we can no longer afford to
pay for our subscription. What a relief!
End of the Intermedium. Back to the ... Future ? Hopefully. But first on to the ...
Introduction
Question: Should we pay $10k just for having timely online access on campus to the peer-reviewed
research literature published in NATURE ?
(... and be content with getting access to the week's hot news and commentary only after three
months ?)
In Spring 1999, after a successful testphase with personal subscribers, NATURE began offering
institutions a single user access per institution and title (for Nature and the monthlies),
free with their print subscription, as part of a trial phase
(e.g., at Stanford,
Speaking of Computers Issue 51) while a site license for institutional
subscribers was being developed. It was fine while it lasted. But when the availability of site
licenses was announced
in September 2000, after 18 months of fine-tuning and market research,
libraries felt letdown, especially after they gradually became aware of the prices (which were not
announced). The site licenses generated considerable controvery, see, e.g.
PAM Bulletin Vol. 28 No. 2
(Nov 2000), and Discussions on Liblicense-L
(Sep 2000). Disappointed were especially those who had been working as a member of
Nature's Library Advisory Council for months with NATURE on this (see message by
Kerry Kresse from UW-Madison).
In November 2000, when it became obvious that negotiations with institutions would be uneasy and
take a long time, NATURE decided to extend the expiration date for user name and password based
institutional access until February 28 (cf. also the
Announcement
of Feb 13, 2001), presumably hoping the uproar would settle soon. That obviously was not the case, as NATURE's
marketing director Della Sar had to admit, when interviewed for Library Journal's LJ Academic Newswire
(Issue of March 1, 2001, Library Community's Reaction to Site License Takes NATURE by Surprise,
as quoted on PAMNET; a statement that provoked strong
reactions by librarians).
A leader article in the Times Higher Education Supplement a day later carried the headline
'College libraries snub pricey online journal'
(THES 1476, 2 March 2001, p.4;
excerpt to be found at Leeds UL and in the Wellcome
Trust's Science Policy Information News (SPIN)
493, 5 March 2001, under "Higher Education").
LJ Academic Newswire of March 8 announced 'Blackout: Nature logs off at Major Universities', and the
Library Journal of March 15 had "library subscribers revolt" in a story titled 'Harvard Libraries Balk at
Nature's Online Restrictions: Librarian calls license terms a "major diminution", referring to online edition as
an "inferior version"' (Library Journal Vol. 126(2001), Iss. 5, p. 12). At the UCLA Graduate School of
Education and Information Studies, the issue was soon taken up by a course
'Social and Cultural Impact of Information',
taught by Howard Besser. Not only librarians and faculty took concern but also Sciences Graduate Students, cf. this
piece: Nature and Uni. having arguments...... /
by Blarney, a story posted March 15 on Kuro5hin: technology and culture,
from the trenches (found through a link from NewBreed Librarian).
Given the prohibitive Pricing Structure based for Nature on the total number
of Students, Faculty and Researchers at the institution and for the Nature Monthlies and Reviews on the number
of sites (defined as physical locations), and even more the restrictive
Licensing Conditions
[The Internet Archive has copies of the original license summaries for
Nature,
Nature Monthlies
and Nature Reviews]
which (for Nature and the Monthlies) embargoed about 30% of the journal's content for three months after publication,
it is no wonder that libraries think twice before they sign. As Stevan Harnad
notes, the "research libraries of the world can be divided into the (minority) Harvards and the (majority) Have-Nots".
In this case even the Harvards declined to sign.
And they had good reasons. Have a look at the statements and letters of the
California Digital Library
(representing all nine campuses of UC),
Harvard University Library (original vs.), the
Princeton Electronic Journals Task Force
(original vs., cf. also the more detailed explanations provided by
David Goodman on Liblicense-L),
Columbia University's Library
(original vs., based on the responses from users), the
University of Iowa Libraries (original vs.), 13 major libraries of the
DOE national laboratory system (joint letter to Nature),
the Triangle Research Libraries Network Letter to Nature (PDF)
(read together with UNC-Chapel Hill's note),
or the University of Wisconsin-Madison Libraries (original vs.);
from UK we got interesting info from Leeds University Library (original vs.),
from Sweden a statement of the famous
Karolinska Institutet
(original vs.), from the Netherlands the statement of the
Amsterdam University Library
(read together with a recent followup notice)
and from Germany the letter of the
University of Heidelberg (original vs.). Through
communication over listservs like liblicense-l, slapam-l and lis-e-journals, and linking to each other's web sites
and open letters to Nature, gradually a world-wide boycott movement formed as an answer to the publisher's
embargo policy implemented in March 2001. Most important was the support of many faculty members and authors who were likewise concerned and
wrote to the publisher.
There were also libraries that - despite reservations - decided to go ahead and sign a site license for one year.
See Cornell's Weill Medical College (cf. past
and current version) and the
Oregon Health Sciences University Library
(I urge you to read the just published results of a survey of OHSU scientists about the Nature embargo and what
OHSU library should do about it), and several statements of librarians from Caltech on librarian discussion lists
(cf. below).
With respect to NATURE's licensing policy, it is interesting to note that it fell square to
current pressure from scientists world wide to establish an online
Public Library of Science (30000 signatures already)
that would provide the full contents of the published record of research and scholarly discourse in
medicine and the life sciences in a freely accessible, fully searchable, interlinked form. It was
also water on the mills of Stevan Harnard, a
long-time cogent proponent of free access to the give-away refereed research literature, where the
rewards for the researcher comes from the impact of their research, not from the
subscription/license/pay-per-view (S/L/P) toll fees collected by the publisher which translate to
impact barriers for research and researchers and thus generate a blatant conflict of interest for
this nonstandard minority of authors. His approach of freeing all refereed research literature (his
"subversive proposal" of self-archiving preprints and postprints by their own authors on their own
institution's Eprint Archives) has become entirely feasible on a broad scale now that the
Open Archives initiative (OAi) has gained momentum,
without having to compromise or sacrifice either universal availability, peer review or proven
practices of submitting to established journals.
What Harnard has to say on this in his latest paper
(Harnad (2001) should be highly relevant
to researchers and their home institutions as well. A condensed version of that paper has just been
published in the commentary section of Nature: Harnad, S.,
"The self-archiving initiative",
Nature 410, 1024 - 1025, 26 April 2001 (isn't it absurd that this item would have been blocked
on the Nature website for 3 months for institutional subscribers? How convenient that it is available
also for free as an e-print on
the author's homepage). (Now also available for free at the
Nature web debates site.)
What we as institutions can be expected to pay NATURE for, apart from compensation for Quality
Control and Certification, distribution costs and added value for primary research articles, is,
primarily, timely and broad access to its highly valuable editorial content that presently is
immediately available only to personal subscribers.
NATURE now expects us research libraries to pay huge sums for content that - according to common
lore - should be "free" anyway to individual researchers (at least in raw form, without any value
added services that might be provided by the publisher), and at the same time disenfranchises
institutions by not giving them access to a self-contained, complete and fully
functional electronic version of the journal.
It is hard to believe that this approach will work. However, in a broader perspective this is just
one of many current convulsions accompanying the present state of scholarly communications in the
PostGutenberg era.
Given this, it is highly commendable that NATURE itself now has (again) opened up the debate.* -
"Should access to scientific research be free?", ask Declan Butler, European correspondent of
Nature, and Tony Delamothe, web editor of the
British Medical Journal, and provide a moderated forum for a web debate on
Future e-access to the primary literature.
The debate's topic is "the impact of the Web on the publishing of the results of original research", and the
declared aim is to bring these "Internet issues to a broader grassroots audience and debate the implications for
the future dissemination of scientific information". Readers are strongly encouraged to contribute to this debate.
(P.S.: That the promised readers' comments, now overdue since three weeks, have not yet been published
on the website and are probably being delayed until May 1 [or even further], is a strong indication that many
comments have openly criticized NATURE for their now abandoned institutional site licensing policy. And even
if there are other reasons, the failure of any reader's contributions to appear is disappointing and a real
inhibitor to the sort of debate that was intended.)
(2001/06/01) Finally, after a delay of eight weeks, a selection of
reader's comments have been
published (including about 70% of the 50 or so submissions NATURE had received during the first three weeks before it
announced the end of the embargo). Surprisingly, not a single published reader's response questioned Nature's
own access restrictions or embargo policy.
That the problem that gave rise to this website is quite widespread and will be of increasing concern to libraries
and their users, was also elucidated in David Goodman's recent presentation at the E-Libraries Section of the
National Online Meeting, entitled Nature
and Others: Restricted Electronic Access and Financial Discrimination (with examples from Nature,
Science, Current Opinion and Trends Journals, and the Chronicle of Higher Education).
*) Note that Science is also running an on-line debate on the same topic, cf. dEbate responses to
Information Access: Building A "GenBank" of the
Published Literature / Roberts et al. and Science's
Response: Is a Government Archive the Best Option?. A good introduction to the current debate is Julia Karow's
article Publish Free or Perish:
Life scientists are urging publishers to grant free access to archived research articles (Scientific American,
April 23, 2001). Another interesting article on the background of the PLOS initiative is Eugene Russo's
A Science Publishing Revolution (The
Scientist, 15(8), 1, Apr 2001). Cf. also the ongoing discussion in the
American Scientist September98-Forum, which was
inspired by Thomas J. Walkers Article on Free
Access to Traditional Internet Journals (Am. Sci. 86(5), 1998) and is moderated by Stevan Harnad.
Finally, if Slashdot ("News for Nerds. Stuff that matters") takes up an issue,
you can be sure that it really has caught fire, see, e.g.,
Electronic Access to Scientific Journals (2001/04/07),
which refers to the present Nature web debate, or
Scientists Demand Open Access to Research (2001/04/24),
which refers to the Public Library of Science boycott threat, or Jon Katz' earlier, still enlightening "Net riddle"
Buffy and Dr. Varmus (1999/06/10).
Known libraries that have so far declined signing a site license for Nature
For the historical record, we will not remove any entries from the "declined" part of the list after May 1, but
instead indicate in red which institutions have signed since then.
United States
) Nature and Nature Monthlies licensed through funding from BRIN Project, cf. News (Jan 2002) ![[update]](update.gif)
University of Delaware (UD), DE, USA (no longer included in Electronic Journals catalogue) Nature licensed (Nov 2001)
U.S. Department of Energy's National Laboratory System (DOE), USA (Joint Letter to Nature, 2001/02/26)
(protest letter representing libraries serving more than 50,000 scientists and engineers; signed by ANL, PNL, DOE Headquarters, SLAC, PPPL, LBNL, INEEL, LLNL, LANL, ORNL, BNL, JLAB, Sandia NL) -- most libraries have by now licensed Nature (2002)
DOE Headquarters, DC, USA (not included in ejournals list)
Drexel University, PA, USA (cf. Library News, The Wonder of Nature? and detailed Info*; e-journals catalogue) Nature (weekly) licensed through PALINET from 2002 on, cf. Library News Jan 2002"
Duke University, NC, USA (e-journals list; Info, DUMC Library Newsletter April 2001, Who Moved My E-Journal?, cf. also Triangle Research Libraries Network, below) Full text access to Nature being negotiated by TRLN, all Nature titles licensed, cf. This DAY ... (Jan 2002)
East Carolina University (ECU), NC, USA (not licensed, cf. e-journal locator, cf. also message on liblicense-l 2001/02/23 by Stefanie DuBose)
Emory University, GA, USA (only OVID version listed in HSCL's E-Journals Catalogue) now licensed all Nature titles cf. What's New
Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory (FNAL), IL, USA (not listed as electronic journal in library journal list) Nature licensed (2002)
University of Florida (UF), FL, USA (only Nature monthlies, cf. e-journals list, Library News Nov. 2000* and Alert!)
(finally declined, because of pricing: ... subscription fee for the Nature title alone remains prohibitive, at $8000 for the single title. 2001/06/13.)
Florida Institute of Technology (FIT), FL, USA (not included in e-journals catalogue)
Florida State University (FSU), FL, USA (only OVID vs., cf. FSU's online catalogue)
Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, Arnold Digital Library (FHCRC), WA, USA (not included in e-journals list) Nature and Nature Monthlies licensed
George Mason University (GMU), VA, USA (only OVID vs. included in full-text electronic journals list, but cf. also library catalogue) Nature licensed (May 2002)
George Washington University Medical Center (GWUMC), DC, USA (only OVID version included in Electronic Journals list) Nature licensed
University of Georgia (UGA), GA, USA (not included in Full-text Electronic Journals list, cf. note)
Georgia Institute of Technology (GaTech), GA, USA (not included in Full-text Electronic Journals list)
Harvard University, MA, USA (incl. Countway Library of Medicine, cf. cached Info and letter*, e-resources list)
(access stopped Feb 28; after mid April, access to Nature cont'd on a trial basis) all Nature titles licensed now
Harvard, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (BIDC), Harvard Medical School, MA, USA (local copy of former What's new)
(no license for BIDMC in 2001; will reconsider purchase in 2002 - personal communication, Margo Coletti, 2001/07/31. HMS has access through Harvard U.)
Haverford College, PA, USA (personal communication, 2001/04/17, Julie T. Miran) Nature + Nature Monthlies now available online (through Tri-College Consortium), plus Nature Reviews Molecular Cell Biology
Hawaii Medical Library, HI, USA (only OVID version listed in e-Journals list) Nature Monthlies and Reviews licensed, cf. Newsletter Apr 2002
University of Houston (UH), TX, USA (no longer included in the Electronic Journals list)
Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI), MD, USA (cf. message on liblicense-l, 2001/03/15, Cathy Harbert)
University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC), IL, USA (only OVID vs. listed in catalogue, cf. Library-News no. 82) no. 92, Sep 26, 2001: now has access to Nature (weekly) through CIC; negotiations for the Monthlies ongoing, access expected by end of the year; no. 100, Feb 7, 2002: all Nature titles licensed
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC), IL, USA (e-journals list; original Info*) all Nature titles licensed, 07/2001
Illinois Institute of Technology (IIT), IL, USA (not included in Full-text Electronic Journals list)
Indiana University, Bloomington (IUB), IN, USA (only OVID vs. listed) now access to all Nature titles
Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI), IN, USA (only OVID version, cf. e-journals list) Nature licensed
(through the Ruth Lilly Medical Library (RLML) there is also access to the Nature monthlies) Nature Reviews added, all Nature titles licensed at RLML (2002)
University of Northern Iowa (UNI), IA, USA (not included in electronic resources list) Nature licensed cf. UIowa News
University of Iowa (UIowa), IA, USA (e-journals list; original Info*) Nature licensed (Oct 2001), Nature monthlies and 3 reviews added (Jan 2002), cf. News*
(By joining with CIC and the Iowa Regent libraries, the UI Libraries were able to save over 60% of the earlier list price. Permanent ownership and persistant archival rights ... remains a serious concern, but we felt that the advantages of campuswide access to Nature Weekly outweighed this disadvantage.)
Iowa State University (IASTATE), IA, USA (cf. e-library and short note on liblicense-l, 2001/02/01, David Fowler) Nature licensed (Oct 2001), all Nature titles licensed (2002)
Jackson Laboratory (JAX), ME, USA (not included as full-text resource in online catalogue, in contrast to Science Online)
James Madison University (JMU), VA, USA (not included as electronic journal in library catalog)
Thomas Jefferson University (TJU), PA, USA (subscription discontinued, cf. e-journals list) Nature and Nature Monthlies licensed, Back to Nature (At Last) (June 2002)
Jefferson Lab, Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Facility (JLAB/CEBAF), VA, USA (no longer included in Online periodicals list) Nature licensed
Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), CA, USA (not included in Full-text Electronic Journals list) Nature and 2 Monthlies licensed cf. News (Oct 2001)
(Access is not yet available through JPL's Virtual Private Network (VPN), but negotiations with the publisher are underway.)
Johns Hopkins University, MD, USA (original Info, update, cf. also e-journals list and WebPac) all Nature titles licensed (Aug 2001)
Kent State University (KSU), OH, USA (cf. e-journals list
Kansas State University (KSU), KS, USA (no longer included in Electronic Journals list)
University of Kansas (UKANS) and University of Kansas Medical Center (KUMC), KS, USA (no longer included in the E-journals lists of KU or KUMC; original Info) Nature licensed, Featured Topic (Oct 2, 2001)
(KU-Lawrence and KUMC licensed this resource jointly, the first such "one-university" license ... The single license and order provides access on the KUMC Kansas City and Wichita campuses, as well as in Lawrence and at the Regents Center)
Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL), CA, USA (e-journals list; access info, Info) now has access to all Nature titles, cf. News (Dec 7, 2001)
(states that all of the major DOE contractor libraries have written a letter to Nature stating that they will not subscribe until their policies change)
Lehigh University, PA, USA (not included in Full-text Electronic Journals list) Nature and all Nature Monthlies licensed, cf. note (Feb 2002)
Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL), NM, USA (Info Oct 2000, Info* in Library Newsletter March 2001, update 07/12/2001) Nature is back (weekly and monthlies) cf. Info Oct 2001
University of Louisville (UofL), KY, USA (only OVID version included in E-Journals title list) All Nature Journals are now online! (Oct 2001)
University of Maine System (UMS), ME, USA (cf. library catalog URSUS) electronic access to Nature (weekly) at USM and UMA
Marine Biological Laboratory/Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (MBL/WHOI), MA, USA (News*, 2001/03/22) Nature licensed (Mar 2002)
(A personal subscription to Nature costs $159 and includes unlimited online access. The library subscription price model is *much* different.)
University of Maryland HS/HSL (UMB), MD, USA (only OVID version included in Electronic Journals list; The Nature of Nature, HS/HSL unplugged, May 2001) Nature and Nature Monthlies licensed, cf. HS/HSL unplugged, Oct 2001, announcement of Mar 2002
University of Maryland, Baltimore County (UMBC), MD, USA (not included in Electronic Journals list)
University of Maryland, College Park (UMCP), MD, USA (not included in e-Journals list, cf. also FAQ) all Nature titles licensed (Feb 2002)
University of Massachusetts, Amherst (UMass Amherst), MA, USA (library doesn't have online access, cf. catalog entries) now has Nature online
University of Massachusetts, Boston (UMass Boston), MA, USA (cf. e-journals list entries) Nature, all Monthlies, 6 Reviews licensed
University of Massachusetts, Lowell (UMass Lowell), MA, USA (only OVID vs. avail, cf. e-journals listing)
University of Massachusetts Medical School (UMassMed), Lamar Soutter Library, MA, USA (only OVID vs. avail, short note in ejournals catalogue) Nature licensed through NERL. Now also Monthlies and Reviews licensed (Oct 2001)
Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), MA, USA (News, Info; e-journals list) Nature licensed as part of NERL deal; now also all Monthlies and Reviews, Aug 2001
MCP Hahnemann University (MCPHU), PA, USA (only OVID vs., cf. e-Journals list, personal communication, 2001/03/23, Carl Anderson) Nature monthlies and reviews licensed cf. News
(We have not included Nature itself in the license agreement at this time, as we have a continuing subscription to Nature through Journals@OVID. At the end of that subscription period we will evaluate relative costs and benefits of subscribing to Nature directly from the publisher.)
University of Michigan, MI, USA (Nature reviews will be licensed, rest not, cf. News from the Science Library, March 2001, Info, cf. also e-resources entry and ejournals list) access to Nature reviews established, negotiating for Nature and Nature monthlies; now access to all Nature titles (Aug 2001)
(The May 2001 Newsletter has a story from LJ Academic Newswire of Apr 24, 2001: Nature Backs Down, Announces New Site License Terms)
Michigan State University (MSU), MI, USA (Info, cf. also e-journals list) all Nature titles licensed (Feb 2002)
(The proposed pricing, based on total headcount of all students, faculty, and researchers, is unrealistic and unsupportable.)
University of Minnesota - Twin Cities (UMN), MN, USA (only OVID vs., info, update Aug 16) all Nature titles licensed (Feb 2002)
(June 6: As of April 23, Nature ... At present, both the licensing terms and costs of the publisher's proposal remain unacceptable.)
(August 16: Nature weekly is back (through CIC). The new license has a fairer price relative to peer publications ... The CIC will continue to negotiate for long-term "archival" access to Nature in subsequent renewal periods. License does not include the Nature monthlies and reviews ... for which CIC continues negotiation.)
University of Missouri-Columbia (MU), MO, USA (not included in Full-text Electronic Journals list and UM System list, UM Health only has OVID version) Nature and Nature monthlies licensed for UM Health (Feb 2002), Nature Reviews added (June 2002)
University of Missouri-Kansas City (UMKC), MO, USA (only OVID vs. included in HSL's Full-text Electronic Journals list)
NASA Headquarters, DC, USA (Science, but not Nature available to all NASA Headquarters employees, cf. homepage and holdings list)
NASA Ames Library, CA, USA (cf. e-journals list) now with license for Nature and 5 Monthlies
National Radio Astronomy Observatory (NRAO), VA, USA (Info* and Nature entry in e-journals list) license for Nature signed
(Progress report, 1 June 2001: NRAO has submitted to Nature a request to change several items in the new license we find problematic or unacceptable; 23 July 2001: NRAO and Nature have both signed a revised license agreement)
University of Nebraska-Lincoln (UNL) and UNMC, NE, USA (no electronic access, according to library catalogue at UNL and UNMC) Nature and Nature Monthlies licensed through funding from BRIN Project, cf. News at Creighton (Jan 2002)
University of Nevada, Reno (UNR), NV, USA (original Info and e-journals list) Nature licensed (Aug 2001), 5 Monthlies added (Nov 2001)
(cf. also message on liblicense-l, 2001/03/08, Rick Anderson, and his review of the new Nature site license, liblicense-l, 2001/05/04)
University of New Hampshire (UNH), NH, USA (cf. library catalog and e-journals list) Nature licensed now
University of New Mexico (UNM), NM, USA (HSCL Info*, update*, HSCL e-journals list) Nature, then Nature Monthlies licensed (early 2002)
(Nature subscription decision pending. HSC and UNM Libraries will not reinstate electronic versions of any Nature Monthlies ... cost is prohibitive. 2001/05/03.
We are still trying to get access to the online version of NATURE. Their contract has a clause that a state university cannot accept.)
New Mexico State University (NMSU), NM, USA (not included in Full-text Electronic Journals)
University of New Orleans (UNO), LA, USA (according to serials record, not online available)
Noble Foundation (NF), OK, USA (Nature no longer included in Electronic Journals full-text subscriptions list)
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (UNC-CH), UNC HSL and Triangle Research Libraries Network, NC, USA (UNC-CH e-journals list; UNCLE Info*) Negotiations for online access to all Nature titles have resumed. We hope to reach an agreement soon., Nov 6, 2001 Nature and 7 Monthlies licensed, Dec 2001, Online access restored to all Nature titles, Feb 2002
(With other TRLN libraries, HSL agreed not to purchase Nature online this year, in objection to its pricing and restrictive access requirements (HSL FY 2000-2001 Annual Report). License issues: the policy may still contain language that prevents the UNC-CH Libraries from signing ..., May 16, 2001)
North Carolina Central University (NCCU), NC, USA (cf. e-journals list) now with access to Nature online
North Carolina State University (NCSU), NC, USA (ejournals list; cf. Newsletter vol. 28 no. 9, Apr 2001, Nature Subscription declined)
Northeastern University (NEU), MA, USA (cf. full-text electronic journals list) Nature now available online News Aug 17, 2001
(Note: Northeastern University's online subscription does not currently include access to other specialist publications in the "Nature" family.)
Northwestern University (NWU), IL, USA (except Galter HSL, cf. Info; e-journals list) all Nature titles licensed
University of Notre Dame, IN, USA (e-journals list; Info Oct 17, CD Forum minutes Feb 1, UCL minutes Apr 12, Info June 2001, update Sep 2001) licensed Nature through NERL deal, added 3 Monthlies in September
(June 2001: We are still considering the Nature Monthly journals, which remain very expensive.)
Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), TN, USA (cf. DOE entry, Joint Letter to Nature) All Nature titles licensed (cf. catalogue)
Ohio University, OH, USA (not listed on ALICE; cf. also message on liblicense-l, 2001/03/08, Kent Mulliner, emphasizing prices) Nature weekly licensed (for Athens, Eastern, Lancaster, Zanesville Campus only)
Ohio State University (OSU), OH, USA (not listed as Full-text in online catalog) Nature weekly licensed
University of Oklahoma (OU), OH, USA (not included in Full-text Electronic Journals list)
(The Oklahoma University Health Sciences Center (OUHSC) has also no site license for Nature and offers only the OVID version)
Oklahoma State University (OSU), OK, USA (no longer included in the list of online full-text periodicals)
University of Oregon (UO), OR, USA (formerly had trial access to Nature and Nature monthlies, no longer included in e-journals list)
(library is reviewing change in licensing and fees prior to making a decision about continuing access. Personal communication)
Oregon Graduate Institute of Science and Technology (OGI), OR, USA (not included in e-journals list) now access to all Nature titles
Oregon State University (ORST), OR, USA (not included in Full-text Electronic Journals list) Nature now available online (Feb 2002)
Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNL), WA, USA (cf. library catalogue and Joint DOE letter to Nature) Nature licensed
Penn State University (PSU), PA, USA (not included in e-journals list, Newsletter June 2001) Nature licensed through CIC, cf. Newsletter Jan 2002, all Nature titles licensed, cf. Newsletter April 2002)
University of Pennsylvania, PA, USA (only OVID vs. listed as full-text in E-Journals Catalogue) Nature licensed, Aug 1, 2001, Nature monthlies added, Sep 2001, Nature Reviews added (Feb 2002)
Philadelphia College of Ostheopathic Medicine (PCOM), PA, USA (only OVID vs. in e-journals list) licensed all Nature titles, cf. July 2001 News
University of Pittsburgh (PITT), PA, USA (only OVID vs. of Nature listed in E-Journals Catalogue) licensed all Nature Journals now cf. News and HSLS Update June 2001
Princeton University, NJ, USA (original message, update) Nature signed in May, Monthlies and Reviews Aug 2001
(for Princeton's licensing policy and earlier discussion of this case, cf. also Re: Nature Journals, Message on liblicense-l, 2000/09/17, David Goodman, and answers)
Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN, USA (not included in Full-text Electronic Journals list) Nature licensed through CIC deal, Nature Biotech added
Reed College, OR, USA (no longer available, due to unacceptable license terms, cf. also library catalogue) Nature Reviews Neuroscience licensed
Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI), NY, USA (not included in Full-text Electronic Journals list) all Nature titles except ndd licensed (Jan 2002)
University of Rochester, NY, USA (e-journals list; access expired, negotiations ongoing, cf. Note, cf. also Message on liblicense-l, 2001/01/31, Helen Anderson) Nature licensed, Aug 2001, 5 monthlies and 2 reviews added
Rush University, IL, USA (e-journals list; Changes coming for Nature online (Sep 2000), Nature canned - March 2001) Nature licensed, What's New?* June 5, 2001, Nature Medicine and NeuroScience added
Rutgers University, NJ, USA (Message on chminf-l, 2001/02/12, Howard Dess; now cf. e-journals list and New@Libraries July 2, 2001) licensed Nature and all Monthlies. Reviews titles were added later.
Saint Louis University (SLU), MO, USA (only OVID vs., cf. e-journals list, Info of April 4) all Nature titles licensed (2002)
Sandia National Laboratories (SNL), NM, USA (no longer included in SNL's electronic journals list) licensed Nature and Nature Biotechnology
Santa Clara University (SCU), CA, USA (cf. e-journals list) licensed Nature and 4 Monthlies (2002)
University of South Carolina, School of Medicine (SOM), SC, USA (only via Journals@OVID, cf. e-journals list and e-journal news, Mar 2001)
(Besides all of the Nature journals being prohibitively expensive, our initial impulse to at least
provide access to Nature has been squelched by the publisher imposing a 3 month lag in access to the Nature news
section.) Nature licensed
Stanford Linear Accelerator Center (SLAC), CA, USA (Ejournals list; Letter to the SLAC Community, Protests Produce Results) Nature licensed
Swarthmore College, PA, USA (cf. Faculty Newsletter Spring 2001*, e-journals list, catalogue) has now access to Nature + Nature Monthlies (through Tri-College Consortium)
Syracuse University, NY, USA (not included as E-Journal in catalogue or full text collection)
Temple University, PA, USA (only OVID vs. included in Full-text Electronic Journals list)
University of Tennessee, Knoxville (UTK), TN, USA (Info*, e-journals list)
University of Tennessee Health Science Center (UTMem), TN, USA (INFOnews 6(3), Winter 2001*, p.12; cf. also catalogue entries)
University of Texas A&M University (TAMU), TX, USA (only OVID vs., cf. E-Journals list) all Nature titles licensed now, cf. press release Nov 5, 2001
University of North Texas (UNT), TX, USA (no institutional license, cf. Electronic Journals list of UNTHSC)
Triangle Research Libraries Network, NC, USA (licensed Science but not Nature, cf. TRLN Electronic Resources, Short note and Letter to Nature) Full text access to Nature and its monthly speciality journals being negotiated as a consortial package by TRLN for Duke, NCSU, and UNC-CH, cf. note, all Nature titles licensed for Duke and UNC-CH only, for NCCU Nature only
(Triangle members are: Duke University, North Carolina State University, North Carolina Central University, and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.)
University of Utah, UT, USA (e-journals list; cf. message on liblicense-l, 2001/02/10, Margaret Landesman) all Nature titles licensed
(Nature: Returning Soon! 2001/06/19. Nature monthlies: unavailable until further notice)
Utah State University (USU), UT, USA (not included in Electronic Journals list)
University of Vermont (UVM), VT, USA (cf. e-journals list) Online access to Nature +5 Monthlies available to UVM and FAHC affiliates through a two year pilot project ending August 6, 2003.
Villanova University, PA, USA (no longer included in Electronic Journals list)
University of Virginia (UVa), VA, USA (VIRGO; old Info*, update, Back to Nature!) Nature licensed, Aug 30, Nature Monthlies added, Oct 30, 2001
(see also the cover story about Contracts, Copyright, and Cost - Negotiating E-Journals in Inside Information Oct 2000, update Spring 2001)
Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU), VA, USA (personal communication, 2001/04/02, Ibironke Lawal; online journal database)
Virginia State University (VSU), VA, USA (no longer included in online journals list)
Virginia Tech (VT), VA, USA (not included in Full-text Electronic Journals list) Nature and Nature Monthlies licensed
Virtual Library of Virginia (VIVA), VA, USA (cf. "Not-to-Purchase" Recommendations; online journal locator)
Wake Forest University, Baptist Medical Center (WFUBMC), NC, USA (e-journals list; What's new, April 4, 2001)
(cf. also earlier message on medlib-l, 2001/03/08, Bonnie Poston)
Access to Nature Resumes, June 14, 2001,
Now licensed Monthlies also, Sep 17, 2001
University of Washington (UW), WA, USA (e-journals list; access suspended, negotiations continuing, cf. Info) access to Nature and Nature monthlies restored as of 10 May 2001
(Access to the Nature Reviews titles is still under discussion. 2001/06/10. Now also Nature Reviews available, Aug/Sep 2001.)
Washington State University (WSU), WA, USA (not included in WSU's E-Journals list) Nature licensed, July 2001, Nature Monthlies added (Dec 2001)
Western Washington University (WWU), WA, USA (cf. library catalog and message on lis-e-journals, Donna Packer, 2001/02/06)
Wayne State University, MI, USA (Info*) now licensed all Nature titles, cf. e-journals list. Sep 2001 (?)
University of Wisconsin - Madison, WI, USA (e-journals list; Info*) Nature licensed, access since Aug 15; 7 Monthlies added, Oct 23
(We have deferred licensing the Nature Reviews Journals (Oct 30, 2001). Press release Nature made available statewide (Nov 16, 2001). License brings online journal to UW System. ... The agreement also includes electronic ILL for the Nature monthlies and back files)
Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI), MA, USA (message on liblicense-l, 2001/03/21, Helen Schuster; cf. also Ejournals list) Nature is back!. Sep 2001. Now access to all Nature titles!, note on homepage. Oct 2001.
Wright State University (WSU), OH, USA (no longer included in Electronic Journals list) Nature licensed
University of Wyoming (UWYO), WY, USA (not included in Full-text Electronic Journals list)
Yale University Library, CT, USA (OVID vs. only, cf. E-Journals list or biomed list; Announcement 2001/04/25: All Nature titles licensed for Yale+YNHH (Aug 2001)
(cf. also an early statement of principle by David Stern on slapam-l, 2000/09/15)
Canada
UK and Ireland
Australia and New Zealand
Continental Europe
Elsewhere
Known libraries that have - despite reservations - decided to go ahead and take out a site license for Nature
By January 30, an unidentified representative from Nature reported 40 libraries had signed (message on liblicense-l, 2001/01/30, Phil Davis)
Note: for the historical record, known libraries that had declined before but have signed under the new license conditions (effective since May 1, 2001), will be kept in the first list (see above), and updated there (in red)
United States
Canada
UK and Ireland
Australia and New Zealand
Continental Europe
Elsewhere
Consortia news
This list is maintained by Bernd-Christoph Kämper, Electronic Resources Coordinator, Stuttgart University Library, Germany.
The following information sources are gratefully acknowledged: liblicense-l, lis-e-journals, slapam-l, PAMnet News, chminf-l, medlib-l, medibib-l;
membership lists of ARL, CARL, CAUL, CURL, IATUL, and RLG, and the list of Science Online subscribers,
the search engines Google, All the Web (FAST), Vivísimo, Northern Light, Nomade.fr.
Note:
*) means that pricing is discussed here also (and actual figures are given)
2. A designation as not necessarily means that this was a recent decision, only that it's new in this list.
(for list entries) by now means updated since Nature's announcement of a revised licensing policy.
3. Libraries which offer only the OVID version have it as part of (usually) the OVID Biomedical Core Collection III (the usual three-months delay applies here, too), i.e. they have not taken out a site license for Nature.
4. For entries with (?, followed by an explanation) the present status classification is based on my interpretation of the evidence not on announcements by the library which I could not locate in these cases.
5. This list tries to be impartial and documents both positive and negative decisions with respect to site licenses for Nature.
For additions, corrections, or requests to be removed from this list, please mail me.
(Created: March 15, 2001. Announced on liblicense-l: March 18, 2001, on slapam-l: March 22, 2001, on lis-e-journals: April 26, 2001.
Latest update: July 23, 2002, Pricing Table: June 16, 2002)