[General] 

UCSF no longer has access to Science Express, effective immediately.

Science Express (SE) is Science's pre-publication venue. Previously, SE was not available to institutions; it was offered only to individual subscribers. Beginning last year, it became available to institutions for an additional $775. In 2006, to mitigate an unacceptable 10.6% price increase to the Science license, the CDL negotiated free access to Science Express.

This year, Science again has proposed an unacceptable increase (7% overall, based on an increase for UCSF of 24%). However, AAAS has declined to provide free access to Science Express in order to help mitigate the increase in costs. If all UC campuses chose to subscribe to SE, it would increase our annual cost an additional 7% (for a total of 14% -- or nearly 25% in just two years).

UCSF, as well as many other UC campuses, has decided not to pay the additional $775 to opt-in to SE. Although it is a very small cost, we believe it would set a bad precedent for scholarly publishing. CDL did an informal survey of other journal publishers, and overwhelmingly, both society and commercial publishers provide pre-pub articles at no additional charge. If individuals need access to the SE content, they can get it by becoming AAAS members.

Questions? Please contact the Collections department.

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