Nature Publishing Group

A long letter from Annette Thomas, the Managing Director of Nature Publishing Group (NPG) makes interesting reading. She outlines the changes in technology that are impacting on scholarly publishing, and the way that NPG "remains committed to innovation, internationalism, experimentation and value". That last word may surprise some of her librarian readers. NPG have in recent years shown themselves every bit the equal of Elsevier when it comes to commercial profiteering, and have thought nothing of inflicting 20% price increases for their online site licences.

After protracted negotiations for 2007 we have got away with a 30% increase, somewhat better than the threatened 180% increase we were looking at before negotiations started. NPG argue that the heavy use that MRC scientists make of their journals means these higher prices still represent good value for money. Annette Thomas does acknowledge that "pricing has remained a contentious issue" and promises "we envision a period of more stable site license pricing". Librarians may be forgiven for some scepticism about that - list prices may go up only slightly but then the discount given reduces so you still end up paying a lot more.

When she says "we have only just begun to glimpse the potential" I can't help wondering whether she is talking about new technical wizardry or fat new profits for the company.