This information is intended for librarians considering CIOS services for subscription.

The CIOS is a not-for-profit academic organization whose goal is to support research and education in communications-related disciplines (human communication studies, speech communication, rhetoric, journalism, mass communication, etc.) and to provide support for research and development of new technologies relevant to this mission. Our goal is to provide leading services as inexpensively and broadly as possible. To this end we provide more categories of service than for-profit vendors who focus only on profit-generating activities and we provide several levels of subscription so that we have something to offer subscribers of different circumstances.

Because our primary interest is in the support of our discipline (not in generating revenue), CIOS has a long track record of adding value and innovation. CIOS began services in 1986, almost 10 years before the world wide web came into being. CIOS is the publisher of "The Electronic Journal of Communication" one the first five peer-reviewed online scholarly journals ever created (and perhaps the only one in continuous publication). And the CIOS is creator of ComIndex, the communications field's first electronic bibliographic index to academic services, of the Visual Communication Concept Explorer, an unmatched next-generation research tool for students and scholars researching in CIOS databases, and ComVista, a database that identifies the discipline's leading research centers. CIOS is winner of the "Prize for Excellence in Information Services" awarded by the International Communication Association's Council of Communication Libraries.

We offer three kinds of subscriptions: (1) subscriptions for individual scholars or students, who join as individuals and who have passwords for access, (2) a very inexpensive campus-wide subscription called an "institutional affiliation" that provides all our services except for access to the ComAbstracts and ComVista databases, and (3) a bundle that provides all of the services we offer including ComAbstracts access.

Librarians are frequently interested in the following questions:

Do you keep usage data?
Yes. Usage data for total accesses are tracked and can be reviewed at any time by qualified librarians.

What is your history of price increases?
Typically the CIOS has increased prices in the neighborhood of 2 percent per year. According to data from the Association of Research Libraries, in the period 1986 to 1996, the for-profit publishing sector hit US libraries with price increases totaling more than 260 percent.

Can we access from off campus?
Yes. You can provide off campus access via a secure library proxy server.

Are passwords required?
No. All campus-wide subscriptions are enabled using IP recognition. No passwords are required.

Can we indicate stacks locations for ComAbstracts records?
Yes. Our services are open-URL enabled so that our databases can interact with your catalog and full text resources directly if you have an open-URL server (SFX-type, or a different brand).

Do you offer trial access?
Yes. Typically trials are provided for four to six weeks.

How can we get a price quotation?
Request a quotation by email to . Include your approximate full time enrollment figure if you are interested in ComAbstracts access.

Does the CIOS provide discounts for consortial subscription?
Yes. We serve academic library consortia and provide discounted pricing.

Does the CIOS provide discounted subscription for universities in developing nations?
Yes. Depending on economic conditions the CIOS may provide discounted subscription or free subscription.

Write to for more information.