Journal publishing is ripe for change
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/02640470310470534 |
| Pages | 165-168 |
| Published date | 01 April 2003 |
| Date | 01 April 2003 |
| Author | Howard Falk |
| Subject Matter | Information & knowledge management,Library & information science |
Journal publishing is
ripe for change
Howard Falk
There is a crisis in publication of scholarly
journals. Prices continue to spiral up to levels
beyond the reach of limited academic library
budgets. Academic users tell their libraries to
stock journals and the libraries try to meet
these needs. In this need-driven market,
profit-oriented journal publishers have been
finding little or no resistance to price
increases. In the past ten years, prices of
printed scientific-technical-medical journals
have increased by about 200 percent. In order
to acquire the needed journals, academic
libraries have been forced to cut back on other
important services.
Unlike most commodities, academic
journals are not subject to price limitations
that normally accompany competition
between producers. In typical product
markets, a buyer will choose one of several
choices available. However, academic users
cannot function with just one or two journals.
They need access to everything in their fields.
Publication in prestigious journals is a matter
of academic survival for many of the authors,
and the articles these journals carry are on the
required reading lists of professors, scientists,
researchers, and students.
Mergers between publishers have further
anticompetitive effects. Thus, one company,
Reed Elsevier, owns over 1,500 journals,
including many of the most prestigious and
lucrative scholarly journals. In 2000 alone,
this company acquired over 400 journals.
After the Thomson publishing empire bought
West Publishing of America for $3.4 billion in
1996, there was a 30 percent increase in the
prices of their legal reporters and treatises.
It would seem that use of electronic
publication, which drastically reduces major
publishing expenses, such as those for paper
and printing, would curb the upward spiral of
journal prices. However, uncontrolled pricing
is becoming an inherent part of commercial
distribution of electronic journals, just as it
has been for printed journals. Libraries are
increasingly being offered large bundles of
electronic titles like Elsevier's ScienceDirect.
This bundling imposes new limits on the
ability of libraries to select individual titles,
and threatens to further accelerate increases
in prices for commercially published journals.
Beyond the effect on library budgets in the
USA and other affluent countries, current
high journal prices make scholarly journals
unavailable to many scholars in the
developing world. This is a serious problem.
The author
Howard Falk is a Columnist living in Bloomfield,
New Jersey, USA.
Keywords
Journal publishing, Academic libraries, Change
Abstract
Focuses on the changes taking place in the world of
scholarly publishing. Outlines the activities and future
plans of a selection of new open distribution publishing
sources.
Electronic access
The Emerald Research Register for this journal is
available at
http://www.emeraldinsight.com/researchregister
The current issue and full text archive of this journal is
available at
http://www.emeraldinsight.com/0264-0473.htm
Technology corner
165
The Electronic Library
Volume 21 .Number 2 .2003 .pp. 165-168
#MCB UP Limited .ISSN 0264-0473
DOI 10.1108/02640470310470534
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