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Claims are a constant headache for librarians, agents and publishers. In an imperfect world this problem will never be solved completely but we do hope to alleviate it. It is a major source of complaint from librarians. The agent can help by offering a speedy claims service, backed up by regular progress reports. Many agents issue their own pre-printed claims forms to their customers free of charge. Increasingly agents are enabling access to their systems to enable libraries to make claims directly over the internet and to monitor the progress of each claim. It is worth noting that in most countries publishers and agents have a legal duty to supply or refund all the issues paid for in a subscription as for any other product purchased in advance.
There can be no set formula for when, and when not to claim. The best guide is the receipt pattern of previous issues of the title being claimed. What is important is that the claims should be done on a regular basis, as many publishers have a time limit during which they will replace free of charge although all good publishers recognise that large libraries sometimes require additional time and will help where they can.
The following claiming schedule may be used as a very general guide, making due allowance for country of origin:
* Dailies - claim after ten days from receipt of last issue.
* Weeklies - claim after two weeks from receipt of last issue.
* Monthlies - claim after two months from receipt of last issue.
* Quarterlies - claim after five months from receipt of last issue.
There are a great many reasons for claims but these are the most common - in no particular order.
* The customer’s original instructions were misleading.
* The agent has made a mistake.
* Inefficiencies in the publisher’s office, e.g. failure to process payments correctly, incorrect address labels, and problems with multiple subscriptions (it seems very difficult for some publishers to correctly register a second, third, etc. subscription.)
* Multi-year subscriptions cut off after first year. This is quite a common problem.
* Underprinting, ie the publisher has too few copies of a single issue to meet the needs of subscribers.
* Inefficient checking-in at the library, failure to record change of title, etc. It is not a suitable task for inexperienced temporary staff.
* Poorly designed automated serials control systems in libraries which generate premature or invalid claims.
* Industrial disputes, revolution, wars, sanctions and natural disasters etc
Publishers maintain that a high proportion of missing issues eventually arrive or are subsequently found, and for this reason some of them automatically reject first claims if, from their records, it appears that the copy was correctly sent. Others require proof of payment before they will deal with a claim. This is one of the reasons why agents discourage claiming direct. Increasingly publishers are providing agents with up-to-date publication status reports and despatch dates, now frequently in electronic format. These enable the agent to trap premature claims and immediately report back to the librarian which saves both the library and the publisher time and reduces the administrative burden of claims.
Some customers and a few agents have been known to claim excessively and even fraudulently. Publishers should be wary of companies making excessive claims. Only members of the ASA have signed up to the ASA Guidelines on good practice and will be pleased to assist publishers stamp out such dubious business practices wherever they can.
The extension of a subscription to compensate for missing issues is a poor substitute for the issues themselves, as is a refund of that part of the subscription, and is not liked by librarians. If it is a particularly important journal most agents will try and obtain a second-hand copy, although this is often a lengthy business.
page last modified 11/10/06, © ASA