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    360 KB: Books@Ovid Purchased eBooks vs. Books@Ovid Subscription eBooks

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    What is the difference between the Books@Ovid Purchased eBooks and Books@Ovid Subscription eBooks databases?

    Ovid offers two options for purchasing single-title eBook content: purchased edition and subscription edition. The difference between purchase and subscription edition is defined by the provider below:

    Purchased Edition: the edition available when Ovid purchased the title. Content is not updated.

    Subscription Edition: always the title’s current edition. Content is updated with every new edition of the title.

    For example, imagine your institution wanted to acquire the title "Decision Theory: Principles and Approaches" and Ovid had originally purchased the 2nd edition of this eBook which was published in 2009. You could either choose the purchased edition of the title (and select it in database 5EZ), which would only give you access to the 2nd edition or, you could opt for the subscription edition (and select it in database FFV), which would give you access to the 3rd edition that was published in 2011 and the upcoming 4th edition, scheduled to be published in 2013.

    While many titles are offered for both purchase and subscription, a number of titles are offered only as purchase or subscription, not both. Additionally, access is specific to each model, as the title-level URLs are unique. This is why there are two “complete” Books@Ovid databases in 360 KB:

    • Books@Ovid Purchased eBooks, database code 5EZ
    • Books@Ovid Subscription eBooks, database code FFV

    If you are unsure whether you have purchased or subscribed to an eBook from Ovid, the URL syntax can often be used as an indicator. Purchased titles have an XPATH appended to the end of the URL. For example, below are the purchased and subscription URLs for the same title:  

    If you are unable to determine from the URL syntax whether you have purchased or subscribed to an eBook, you may wish to contact Ovid. It is necessary to know which format you have access to, so as to track your Ovid eBook in the correct Books@Ovid database.  Tracking your Ovid eBooks in the correct Books@Ovid database will help avoid loss of access.

    NOTE: The new Books@Ovid titles are normalized, but no longer have dates of publication attached to them. According to Ovid, the year of publication data used in the title reports sent to our 360 KB team is not reliably correct and Ovid has decided to remove the data from all of the books reports to avoid causing confusion for users. We are assured that Ovid is working to correct this issue. Once the year of publication data is corrected, they will add it back in the reports sent to our 360 KB team for updates. At that time, you will once again see dates associated with titles from these two databases.

    If you would like to be updated on the contents of this answer, including when Ovid is able to add year of publication data back to their title lists for these databases, please click Follow Me (currently not available) above.

     

    • Date Created: 9-Feb-2014
    • Last Edited Date: 21-Feb-2014
    • Old Article Number: 8274