Economics:
The Not-So-Hidden Costs
Joy Kirchner
Virginia Tech Libraries
Jan. 17-18, 2012.
peer-reviewed journals
peer-reviewed articles per year
scholarly publishers (est.)
Journal publisher size guide
Petite (5 or fewer)
Small (6-10)
Medium (11-25)
Large (26-50)
X-Large (51-100)
XX-Large (100+)
54%
11%
16%
8%
4%
7%
Scholarly publishing practice: academic journal publishers’ policies and
practices in online publishing, 3rd survey, ALPSP, 2008
university presses
societies &
other nonprofits
commercial
publishers
Data from Simba Information 2010 publishing industry reports
STM sector
revenue in 2009
Typical economy
Steel
Cars
Auto manufacturers
Steelmakers
$
Consumers
$
Gift economy
Article
Author
Publisher
$
P&T
Grants
Reputation
Prestige
Journal
Library
$
wholesale transfer of rights
©
creates scarcity/monopoly
Publisher
drives prices up
(inelastic market)
The result:
Average serial
price up 227%
Average book
price up 65%
CPI up 57%
Libraries challenge
pricing power
Subsidizing journal start-ups
Canceling journals
Educating faculty authors
Forming consortia
Fighting mergers
Publishers try to
sustain revenue flow
Tying print to online
Bundling journals
Requiring multi-yr contracts
Buying other publishers
Raising prices
Cost to produce one journal article
Average journal
article
Average journal
article
My Facuty, PhD
My Facuty, PhD
XYZ Commercial
Publisher
ABC Not-forProfit Publisher
Amsterdam, London, New York
Roger Clarke, The cost profiles of alternative approaches to journal publishing, First Monday, 3 December 2007
Economics of quality?
9% $
91%
62%
citations
dollars
38%
citations
External Economic Pressures on Journals Market
U.S. Library Spending, R&D Spending, and Journals 1995-2007
From Outsell’s Open Access Primer (Public Version), December 2009
Elsevier stock just downgraded to “underperform”
From Bernstein Research (March10, 2011) “Reed Elsevier: The Inevitable Crunch
Point—Downgrading to Underperform Because of Growing Concerns on Elsevier”
Scholarly communications
reform includes efforts to
establish balanced,
sustainable economic
models
Long-term solution may
include shifting of library
funds from collecting to
producing or subsidizing
scholarly content
Questions?
Comments?
This work was created by Lee Van Orsdel for the ACRL
National Conference, Scholarly Communications 101
Workshop and last updated by Joy Kirchner on
January 5, 2012.
It is licensed under the Creative Commons AttributionNoncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United States License.
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/