Transfer Code of Practice gets update

The UKSG Transfer Working Group has released the Transfer Code of Practice Version 3.0. The new version promises a number of key updates dealing with new content types, clarification of subscriber types, journal URLs and redirects, nomenclature, and the timing and content of communications.

The Transfer Code of Practice is a set of voluntary guidelines for publishers involved in any journal transfer. It covers issues such as ongoing provision of access to online content, exchange of subscriber lists, DOI and URL transfer, as well as perpetual access rights to journal content.

The previous version of the Code was released in September 2008. Over the last 18 months the Transfer Working Group has revised and improved upon the previous version and sought feedback from the community through a public review process. Publishers will now be encouraged to follow the new version.

Transfer and the Enhanced Transfer Alerting Service were developed in response to the expressed needs of the scholarly journal community for consistent guidelines to help publishers ensure that journal content remains easily accessible by librarians and readers when there is a transfer between parties, and to ensure that the transfer process occurs with minimum disruption.