Online Access to the Nature family of journals
WHY NO FULL TEXT? -- Read below

The superID access to the Nature family of journals expired on February 28, 2001.  The  publishers of Nature have now established their charging structure and restrictions for online access. This license is currently unacceptable to UAB.

The situation with Nature has been particularly difficult for us, as for many libraries.  While we are optimistic that we will be able to acquire online access to Nature in the future, at the present time their licensing policy is unacceptable.

Unfortunately, the Nature Publishing Group has decided to put a 12 issue embargo on all content except for peer reviewed research articles.  This means that many of the features that make Nature such an important journal -- News, Correspondance, Special Essays, Opinion, Analysis, etc., will not be available until three months after the publication date.  The license fee for this access for UAB would be nearly $9,000.  Compare this to Science, which makes all of its content available immediately at an institutional rate of $5,500.

Nature's web site outlining their current licensing options is available at:  http://www.nature.com/help/sitelicences/

UAB is not alone in its opposition to this license.  Princeton, Cornell, the University of Chicago, all 9 campuses of the University of California system, the University of Rochester, Iowa State, Harvard, and University of North Carolina--Chapel Hill are among the many institutions that have refused to license Nature under the current terms.

• Harvard's explanation and a copy of their letter to Nature can be seen at http://lib.harvard.edu/e-resources/details/n/naturexx.html)
• Princeton University's notice to their campus is available at:  http://www.princeton.edu/~biolib/serials/natureinf.html
• University of North Carolina--Chapel Hill's notice:  http://www.uncle.unc.edu/uncle/News/NatureNotice200103.htm

We agree that access to Nature is extremely important and we hope that concerted action among the major research institutions will lead Nature to develop a more acceptable license that includes such items as access to full content at the time of publication without delay, perpetual access, and reasonable prices.

You can help by writing to Nature yourself and expressing your concerns about their licensing policies.   Write to:
            Mr. Phillip LoFaso, Vice President, Marketing
            Nature Publishing Group
            345 Park Avenue South
            New York, NY 10010

Additionally, these are the appropriate people to correspond with at Nature's main offices in London:
 

Ms. Della Sar Director of Global Marketing d.sar@nature.com

Ms. Annette Thomas Managing Director a.thomas@nature.com

Mr. Philip Campbell Editor p.campbell@nature.com

Address: Nature
             Porters South
             4 Crinan Street
             London N1 9XW, UK
            Telephone: +44(0)20 7833 4000
             Fax +44(0)20 7833 4596 or 4597