Nature Reverses Site License Terms

In the face of mounting pressure from academic libraries opposed to a controversial online embargo period for institutional subscribers (see News, LJ 3/15/01, p. 12), the Nature Publishing Group announced at the end of April that it will offer new site license terms as of May 1. Nature officials say the new online institutional site license policy will remove the embargo and offer all available content to institutional subscribers immediately on publication.

As of May 1, licensed institutions shall have "immediate access" to Nature's News & Views, News, Reviews, Features, Book Reviews, Articles, and Letters sections as well as the journal's archives. Nature, considered one of the premier journals in the biological sciences, had been the target of a major institutional subscriber revolt from academic libraries across the United States and Canada over the company's initial site license terms, which included a 12-issue delay for select sections of Nature online, and a three-issue delay for select sections of Nature's monthly titles. Personal subscribers, however, were not subject to the embargo. In a letter to Nature officials, including Philip LoFaso, vice president of the Nature Publishing Group, Harvard University librarian Sidney Verba called Nature's previous license terms a "major diminution" of Nature's value and stated that faculty needs at Harvard would simply not be met "by subscribing to such an inferior version of what might be supplied." Nature officials said in a press release that the new global site licensing terms reflect the company's "commitment to bringing only the best in scientific information, analysis, and commentary to all scientific institutions and their patrons."