Some of us do actually know that IFs are crap. :) Nor are they what we uniquely rely on when considering cancellations. Cost-per-use is a big one, and I don't wonder that the heinously expensive journals fall down. Ask your library about document delivery for the articles you need. - D0r0th34

Document delivery is actually far inferior to the references wanted room here. I've kept a list of papers I need, because I thought it was a temporary glitch (I still sort of hope it is). I guess I need to post that list to the Refs Wanted room soon... - Björn Brembs

impact factor is way down on the list, but i'm surprised there would be a lapse in their cell subscription. maybe there's just a technical glitch - that happens all the time. - Christina Pikas

yup, also possible... I have heard mild-mannered librarians swear sulfurously about service outages - D0r0th34

FWIW, I talked to 5 librarians at Caltech recently and just got nods of agreement when I maligned the IF, and they even knew about the alternatives, h-index, eigenfactor, etc. - Mr. Gunn

Just got a response from our library: Cell access only after 12 months embargo and Neuron access was canceled in 2007. Apparently, we only had access through other, departmental channels and something happened there. Obviously, our university has never had regular access to these journals, how pathetic! - Björn Brembs

Do you know what Cell costs? There is patheticness here, but it's not at your library or your institution. - D0r0th34

What I recall from conversations involving our Med Library colleagues is that Cell Press titles are always under "separate arrangement" as opposed to grouped with the rest of Elsevier's titles when license negotiations are made. Typical of the large publishers to know which titles are their gems. - carolh

@D0r0th34: Subscription prices: see original post :-) The patheticness lies in the title "Excellence University" which our university likes to use a lot and then not having enough sense to fund the library to be able to afford the 'excellent' journals. - Björn Brembs

@D: no one knows what Cell costs! That's half the problem right there -- a different, secret deal for every different subscriber. - Bill Hooker

Bjorn, the problem has gotten so out of hand that "funding the library" is no longer the right answer. I'm all for library funding, but I'm *not* all for pouring yet more money into big-pig publishers. We have thirty years of evidence that do what you will, their prices will expand to mop up the budget available. - D0r0th34

@D: I so agree with you - I tried to hit two birds with the same stone: one was to mock the 'excellence' of our university, because the 'excellent' journals would be the last to go if the university actually were that excellent (hence the title). The other was that this just had to happen at some point, because of the hyperinflation (see graph). I'll update the post with something to make that clearer. - Björn Brembs

This month's SOAN is remarkably apropos: http://www.earlham.edu/~peters... - D0r0th34