scitech library question

:: Gerard van der Geer provides wonderful background on the history of Compositio Mathematica (CM) in an Opinion piece in the May 2004 issue of Notices of the AMS.

van der Geer, Gerard. We can make a change. Notices of the AMS 51(5):493, May 2004. http://www.ams.org/notices/200405/commentary.pdf

The article is available free, which is a nice touch. CM moved from Kluwer to London Mathematical Society/Cambridge University Press. Backfiles remain with Kluwer -- Fulltext v105-139 (1997-2003). Current material is on Cambridge -- Fulltext v140+ (2004+). Subscriptions are required for the fulltext access, though. No word yet on whether new subscribers will receive access to the backfiles or whether Kluwer will transfer the material to CUP.

Much like the analysis by Donald Knuth which led to the editorial board revolt at Academic Press' Journal of Algorithms, van der Geer "... became worried about the regular price increases that Kluwer Academic Publishers... imposed. These price increases threatened the orderly systems that had governed publishing in mathematics (and other sciences as well) for many years."

van der Geer and the Foundation Compositio Mathematica are to be commended for their awareness of the dangers to scholarly communication caused by unchecked journal subscription price increases and for having the willingness and fortitude to examine their options and to take action. - George Porter.

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