Issues in Scholarly Communication is a newsletter produced by Paula Kaufman, University Librarian and Dean of Libraries, for the Illinois community. Entries from 2001-2005 newsletter are available.
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Many web sites are supported by ad revenue -- e.g., google, yahoo -- delivering eyeballs to relevant ads. The sci-tech publisher Elsevier, perhaps looking to the future when more articles are Open Access, is taking the novel approach of delivering registered eyeballs to ads from pharmaceutical companies in exchange for "open access" to some of it's higher costing journals.
As reported on the OA Librarian Blog...
Monetized Open Access? Elsevier's Move Into Ad Profits
With its revenues flat and business models changing, Reed Elsevier has made a bold move into offering free journal content via a web portal in oncology called www.OncologySTAT.com - the site provides free access to current journals from Elsevier's expensive journal titles, paying for it using ads. While Web adverts are nothing new, this combination of open access and ads is new.
www.OncologySTAT.com asks health workers (including librarians) to register and, in exchange, provides immediate access to current cancer-related content from Reed Elsevier's gold standards such as The Lancet and Surgical Oncology. Elsevier wants to sign up 150,000 professional users in the first year to attract advertising from pharmaceutical companies. Is this a new publishing model?
Even though Elsevier posted profits of billions in 2006, it obviously is aware of the impact of open access on the industry and the search enterprise. This move into providing free oncology content using ads might be a viable business model, and may mean a move away from its traditional expensive subscriptions-based model. Time will tell.
--- Note added later: ---
After registering for access, users get a note informing them that they'll have access to:
- Search and download current articles from 100+ Elsevier cancer related journals.
- Literature scans from the top 20 cancer related journals (JCO, JNCI, CA, Blood, NEJM, JAMA, etc.)
- Daily medical and regulatory news from Elsevier Global Medical News Group and FDC Reports' "The Pink Sheet Daily."
- 25+ Cancer Type Spotlights (Breast, Lung, Prostate, etc)
- Professional Drug Monograph and Interactions Database; patient handouts
- Chemotherapy Regimens (The Elsevier Guide to Oncology Drugs & Regimens, 2006 edition)
- Coverage of all major cancer conferences and meetings
- Plus MEDLINE, expert interviews, blogs, videos, and more
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Posted by Katie Newman at September 10, 2007 1:39 PM
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