eLT

[Frans Plank]

Many thanks everybody for the useful feedback on electronic journal 
publishing.  Let me respond to the questions asked and points raised.

(i)  Right now, you (or anybody else) can only read LT online if your 
library has a print plus online subscription (which is 197 Euros, as 
compared to 171 Euros for print only, and 64 Euros of an 
individual-print or 41 Euros of a student-print subscription, 
including the ALT membership fee).  In the near future (the 
technicalities are just being sorted out:  we'll keep the membership 
informed), ALT members will also get online access, via 
ReferenceGlobal, with their individual subscriptions, or at least 
online access as an option.

(ii)  Walter de Gruyter, of which Mouton de Gruyter is part, are 
committed -- and indeed contractually bound to the Deutsche 
Bibliothek (a respectable institution not to be confused with the 
Deutsche Bank or the Deutsche Bahn) and the US-based company PORTICO 
-- to long-term archiving of their online products.

As one of the correspondents wrote on this point, by having its 
journal published through Mouton de Gruyter, ALT would seem to be 
getting a good deal at very modest expense, namely the full 
infrastructure for producing and disseminating a recognised quality 
journal.  It's not obvious that a better deal could be gotten in the 
do-it-yourself mode, concerning effort, cost, and sustainability. 
(Even if a smallish and poorish association such as ALT could go into 
a DIY mode in this respect.)

To me, Walter de Gruyter don't look like they're selling out -- not 
only because shareholder-owned "Equity Funds" Publishing Houses 
probably won't be in a buying mood for some time to come.

(iii)  Walter de Gruyter are members of a consortium, INASP, which 
provides either print or free access to online publications to 
"Economically Deprived Countries".


Thanks again
Frans

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