I asked Elsevier if I can pay for an individual Sciencedirect subscription. I got the following response:
Quote:
Unfortunately ScienceDirect is not able to offer personal subscriptions.
Subscriptions can only be offered to institutions. Therefore, I can't provide
you with any price related to your query.
Why don't these publishers deal with individuals?peach - 28-3-2012 at 06:01
Ask them.
It's learning material, they are a library and a lot of that research is paid for in part by the tax payer. Why a middle man is able to then stand in
the way and deny you the right to even pay to view the results is beyond me.
The whole point of a journal is to collect information in one place for review. Blocking everyone bar institutes seems to go somewhat against that.
A journal entry somewhere has actually referenced this forum. I can't remember if it's a ScienceDirect.
[Edited on 28-3-2012 by peach]Polverone - 28-3-2012 at 14:03
A couple of plausible reasons:
-They very rarely receive inquiries about individual subscriptions. It would be more trouble to offer a new subscription type than they think it's
worth.
-They fear that cheaper individual subscriptions would cannibalize their higher-priced institutional subscriptions. Instead of being able to sell a
campus-wide license to a title, they might sell only one or two professors on personal subscriptions. As long as institutional subscriptions are the
only option, and at least some people in the institution use it, librarians have an incentive to renew that subscription.S.C. Wack - 28-3-2012 at 18:51
They've got enough money. Elsevier (only, not the parent company) made 768 million pounds profit on 2011 revenue of 2,058 million, a profit of $1,221,120,000 and a margin of over 37%.Goorlap - 29-3-2012 at 03:05
