Elsevier costs

The request was successful.

Dear De Montfort University,

Please can you send me the amount of money spent by the University Library on Elsevier products (hard copy journals and electronic journals) in each of the last 5 years.

Yours faithfully,

Julian Todd

Fraser Marshall, De Montfort University

Dear Mr Todd,

FREEDOM OF INFORMATION ACT 2000

Thank you for your email dated 14/05/10. I understand your request to be
for the amount of money spent by De Montfort Unversity’s Library on
Elsevier products (hard copy journals and electronic journals) in each of
the last 5 years.

Unfortunately I cannot identify the information you have requested from
the details you have provided. 

I am informed that DMU purchases three Elsevier products, as follows:

· Science Direct – Full Text copies in Hard Copy and Electric
format.

· Scopus – Abstracts and statistics only

· Inspec – Abstracts and statistics only

Could you please clarify whether you wish for me to include Scopus and
Inspec within the scope of your enquiry?

Additionally, I have been told by the librarian responsible for these
products that the pricing for Science Direct is complicated. Here is what
I have been told:

“Science Direct is a highly complex NESLI 2 agreement. We pay out a lump
sum each year direct to Elsevier, and this amount would probably take 3/4
hours to track back over the last 5 years.

The problematic section of the package is the set of originally subscribed
journals (primarily received in both print and digital form) which were
the historical base of the portfolio. These titles are subscribed to
individually via our subscription agent, and are not accounted for within
the lump sum mentioned above.”

While it is reasonably straight forward to give you the lump sum referred
to above, we believe that it is possible that collating the information
regarding the subscribed journals might take us over the 18 hours of work
to which you are entitled free under the Act. If we were to go over the 18
hours, we would be entitled to charge you at the rate of £25 per hour
including the initial 18 hours. This would therefore result in a cost of
at least £450.

It would be possible to mitigate the cost by reducing the number of years
for which you are seeking information. If we do find that we are going to
exceed the likely 18 hours, I would like to ask you how you would like us
to proceed. The options are:

· Complete the entire request, charged at £25 per hour.

· Reduce the scope of the request to bring it below the limit of
18 hours.

If you would be kind enough to let me clarify the scope of the question,
and confirm how you would like us to proceed in the event of us being
likely to exceede the 18 hours (I will communicate this fact to you), your
request will then be considered and you should receive the information
requested within the statutory timescale of twenty working days as defined
by the Freedom of Information Act 2000, subject to the University holding
the information and it not being exempt or containing reference to a third
party.

For your information, the Act defines a number of exemptions which may
prevent the release of the information you have requested.  There will be
an assessment of the information and if any of the exemptions apply then
it may not be released.  This will be explained to you if this is the
case.

If the information you have requested refers to a third party then they
may be consulted prior to a decision being taken on whether or not to
release the information to you.  Again, you will be informed if this is
the case.

There may be a fee payable for this information according to the Act.  We
will write to you if a fee is payable, all information costing up to £450
to collect is provided free of charge.  If a fee is payable this must be
paid before the information is released.  The 20 day time limit for
providing the information is put on hold until the fee is received by the
University.

If you have any queries about this letter please contact me on the details
below.

You can find more information about the University and the Freedom of
Information Act on the University’s website [1]www.dmu.ac.uk.

Yours sincerely,

Fraser Marshall

Records Manager

Kimberlin Library

De Montfort University

The Gateway

Leicester LE1 9BH

Tel: 0116 257 7655

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Dear Fraser Marshall,

Thank you for your reply on 14 May to my request for the cost to the library for Elsevier products. I apologize for the delay in responding.

A report of the aforementioned annual lump sums for the three products Science Direct, Scopus, and Inspec which you say will take 3/4 hour to collate will be most satisfactory.

If the university does not centrally account for its full financial exposure to this supplier, then I see no reason to force it to.

Many regards,

Julian Todd

Fraser Marshall, De Montfort University

Dear Mr Todd,

FREEDOM OF INFORMATION ACT 2000-INFORMATION REQUEST

Your request for information dated 14 May 2010 has been considered under
the requirements of the Freedom of Information Act and the information is
below:

ELSEVIER PRODUCT COSTS FOR THE LAST FIVE SUBSCRIBED YEARS
Product
2005/06 2006/07 2007/08 2008/09 2009/10 Totals

Inspec £10,868 £11,929 £14,134 £16,660 £17,725 £71,316
Science
Direct £94,004 £102,776 £107,057 £123,474 £123,459 £550,770
Not Not
Scopus Charged Charged £20,315 £22,397 £23,295 £66,007

Annual
Totals £104,872 £114,705 £141,506 £162,531 £164,479

Grand
Total £688,093
Elsevier products are charged in Euros when purchased directly. All prices
shown above are in GBP
The Science Direct package was upgraded to include enhanced content for
2008/09, hence the larger price increase
Scopus was purchased in 2005 with a special introductory offer giving
three years access for one charged year
Italicised amounts indicate information taken from Elsevier license
schedules, no invoices available

If you have any queries please get in touch with me to discuss them.  You
might like to know that the University’s website [1]www.dmu.ac.uk
contains a section on the Freedom of Information Act that lists other
publications readily available from the University under its Publication
Scheme.

Yours sincerely,

Fraser Marshall

Records Manager

Kimberlin Library

De Montfort University

The Gateway

Leicester LE1 9BH

Tel: 0116 257 7655

Most of the information we provide in response to Freedom of Information
Act 2000 request will be subject to copyright protection. In most cases
the copyright will be owned by De Montfort University. The copyright in
other information may be owned by another person or organization as
indicated in the information itself.

You are free to use any information supplied for your own use, including
for non-commercial research purposes. The information may also be used for
the purposes of news reporting. However, any other type of re-use, for
example, publishing the information or issuing copies to the public will
require the permission of the copyright holder.

For information where the copyright is owned by the De Montfort
University, details of the conditions of re-use can be found on our
website at [2]www.dmu.ac.uk.

For information where the copyright is owned by another person or
organization, you must apply to the copyright holder to obtain their
permission.

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Dear Fraser Marshall,

Thank you very much for the information.

Yours sincerely,

Julian Todd