Ethics within the serials family

This paper raises and answers some basic questions related to ethical issues in business and personal transactions among serials publishers, vendors, and librarians. It describes a real case study of Kamkin, a serials vendor experiencing financial difficulties, as a springboard to review how to make ethical decisions. The author hopes it will provoke the reader to reflect upon the ethical components of individual actions and how to approach business relationships ethically. The principles noted here are equally applicable to those dealing with monographic or electronic-resources business transactions. (C) 2002 Elsevier Science Inc. All rights reserved.