JISC

Start date: 1 November 2000

End date: 31 October 2001

Funding programme: Learning and Teaching (5/99) programme

Project website: http://www.lboro.ac.uk/departments/dils/disresearch/pelican/indexpage.html

The PELICAN project intends to develop an understanding of charging mechanisms for distributing commercially published electronic texts to students. This in turn will help the relevant stakeholders to develop appropriate business plans so as to ensure long term viability of any systems developed for this purpose.

Aims and Objectives

The objectives of PELICAN are to:

• Review what has happened since the JISC/PA (Publishers Association) recommendations on charging mechanisms were published
• Undertake research to inform any areas of difficulty or uncertainty which have been revealed
• Promote better understanding of the issues among senior HE policy makers, authors, rights holders and librarians
• Provide a scoping study for further investigations assisting publishers to develop good charging models

Project design

The project team will undertake desk based research, questionnaires and interviews with key stakeholders. The results will be used to develop models of possible pricing and charging mechanisms for consultation by stakeholder groups. The results of the consultation process will be considered at a conference in September 2001.

Outcomes

Key deliverables from the project include:

• A report on current policy and practice
• A report on the monetary schemes rights holders need both as a fair reward and to ensure book publishing remains viable
• Recommendations on further research and testing that is needed
• Publications and other forms of dissemination that benefit the whole FE and HE community and other stakeholders via the Web and in other formats

The outcomes of PELICAN will be of relevance to a number of key stakeholder groups including: academics (as teachers and authors); authors; the Copyright Licensing Agency (CLA); HERON; publishers; and students.

Assuming a suitable pricing mechanism that satisfies all stakeholders is found, the findings of this project may well be of interest to the distribution of electronic texts beyond the UK education sector and be considered for an international charging system.