Wednesday, November 30, 2011

Cambridge UP Article Rental

It's the wrong time of year for an April fool's prank, so perhaps someone can weigh in on how the Cambridge University Press new article rental program will affect the Law and History Review. It's described on the Chronicle of Higher Ed's Wired Campus Blog:
Will researchers pay for short-term access to journal articles? Cambridge University Press is about to find out. The publisher has just announced a rental program for articles from the more than 280 peer-reviewed journals it publishes.

“For just £3.99, $5.99 or €4.49, users are now able to read single articles online for up to 24 hours, a saving of up to 86% compared with the cost of purchasing the article,” the press said in an announcement. “After registration and payment, the reader is e-mailed a link, through which they can access and read the article in PDF format as often as they wish during the subsequent 24 hours.”

Readers may not download, print, or copy and paste the articles. That’s similar to the conditions set by DeepDyve, which also offers 24-hour, no-download access to research articles, but on a monthly subscription basis.
Would you "rent" an article under these terms?