letter from Kluwer Academic Publisher
From: Jacqueline Bergsma, Jacqueline.Bergsma@wkap.nl
Subject: The Future of Medicine, Health Care and Philosophy
Dear ESPMH member/MHEP reader,
As a member of the European Society for Philosophy of Medicine and Health Care (ESPMH) you receive the journal Medicine, Health Care and Philosophy (MHEP) as part of your annual membership fee. There is a historically strong link between the society and the journal which was clearly illustrated at the ESPMH meeting in Vilnius last August. You may remember Kluwer's proposal at the time to merge MHEP with its American counterpart Theoretical Medicine and Bioethics (META).
The intention was to unite both journals in order to create a stronger and more competitive title able to stand the 'survival of the fittest' contest that also takes place in the academic libraries, particularly in times of budget cuts.
A similar competition between journal titles can be seen from the publisher's point of view; smaller journals - small in terms of subscription numbers and/or number of issues per year - are more vulnerable than bigger journals.
In the light of these two factors, we regret that our proposal was not supported by the ESPMH. However, understanding the importance of an independent journal for the society and cherishing the special relationship between the society and Kluwer, we have decided to cancel our merger plans. The need to improve the journal's position still exists though and with this letter we are appealing for your help. It won't take much time or effort, you probably don't even have to leave your desk for it.
First of all we would like to draw your attention to the electronic version of MHEP. You may already be familiar with it, but if not, then we recommend you visit the journal's homepage: www.kluweronline.com/issn/1386-7423 where you can download a free online issue by clicking on "journal contents". This is only the journal's homepage. In order to be able to access the full journal content, a subscription is required. Your library may already be offering you the online version of MHEP.
We would be interested in learning about the availability and use of MHEP among society members, in particular of the online version, and would therefore appreciate it if you could provide information on the kind of subscription arrangement of your institution.
Libraries generally purchase their journals either directly from Kluwer or through a consortium of academic libraries that has a special subscription arrangement with Kluwer. Whether the arrangement is on an individual or collective basis, it usually concerns a package deal. A package deal is basically a `bulk subscription'; the library is allowed access to a great variety of journals at a special price and for a certain number of years. It is important for us to know whether MHEP is included in your library's package. Should that not be the case, we would appreciate it if you could inform your librarian about this and encourage him/her to subscribe to the journal.
We all realise that libraries cannot afford to subscribe to each and every journal. The librarian's decision to include or to keep a journal in the subscription arrangement with the publisher is based on important criteria like the number of visits and downloads made by the readers. The higher the frequencies of these indicators in the usage statistics, the stronger the journal's position.
We hope we can count on your help in strengthening MHEP's position. We look forward to welcoming new institutional electronic subscriptions and encourage individual readers to make full use of the journal's online resources.
Please let us know your feedback by writing to Jacqueline Bergsma and/or jasper de Vaal at MHEP@wkap.nl. For any other questions, suggestions or comments related to the journal in general, feel free to contact the publishing editor Jacqueline Bergsma, either by email Jacqueline.Bergsma@wkap.nl or by phone +31-657-6207.
We thank you in advance for your time and cooperation.
With best wishes,
Jacqueline Bergsma and Jasper de Vaal on behalf of Kluwer Academic Publishers