Last Updated: 2004 August 9
The Crisis in Scholarly Publishing
What is the Crisis?
In the last couple of decades, the subscription costs of many
scholarly journals (especially those published by certain powerful
commercial publishers) have escalated at a rate far exceeding the
cost-of-living rate of inflation. In addition, many new journals have
been started.
These two factors have conspired to change the nature of journal
collections in academic libraries. Although it once was possible for a
large academic library to aim to have a comprehensive collection of
journals for the subject departments that it served, this is no longer the
case. Even large academic libraries must now be fairly selective in the
subscriptions that they renew. Furthermore, most academic libraries have
had to carry out extensive journal-cancellation projects in the last few
years.
These and related matters are discussed in the electronic
Newsletter on Serials Pricing Issues, an archive of
which is located at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. The
archive is available in a
WWW version
for the period from
No. 1 (February 27, 1989) to the present.
Much useful material is also found at the website of the
Office of Scholarly Communication of the
Association of Research Libraries.
See also the excellent article by Richard K. Johnson entitled
A Question of Access:
SPARC, BioOne, and Society-Driven Electronic Publishing
in the May 2000 issue of
D-LibMagazine.
Scholarly Societies as Publishers vis-a-vis Commercial
Publishers
As a rule, journals published by commercial publishers are more
expensive than those published by scholarly societies, unless, of course,
the scholarly society has delegated the publication of a journal to a
commercial publisher. The following articles include information
verifying this claim:
-
Bibliography on Serials Pricing Issues by Lloyd
Davidson. [link to issue 1, 1989 February 27 of Newsletter on
Serials Pricing Issues; see article 1.2 in which Davidson
describes several articles including ones by Meyers (optics journals), "a
faculty member" (physiology journals), and Abrahams/Matula
(crystallography); in all three surveys commercially published journals
are more expensive than society journals.]
-
Big Price Increase!
[link to issue 5, 1989 May 28 of Newsletter on
Serials Pricing Issues; see article 5.4 which
describes a very large price increase in a journal that changed from a
society publication to a commercial publication and had its frequency
increased.]
-
Hamaker's Haymakers [link to issue 26, 1990 September 9
of Newsletter on Serials Pricing Issues; see article 26.11,
paragraph 2, which refers to a survey of biology journals that indicates
that for biology, commercial journals are on average triple the price of
society or university-based journals.]
-
Chemistry Serials Costs [link to issue NS 9, 1991
October 3
of Newsletter on Serials Pricing Issues; see article NS9.4,
which refers to a survey of chemistry journals that indicates
that for chemistry, commercial journals are on average twice the price of
society or university-based journals, and less cost-effective by a factor
of 4.]
In some disciplines, the bulk of the heavily used and cited journals are
published by one or more scholarly society. In such cases, the journal
subscription costs are more moderate than they are in less fortunate
disciplines, and the inflation rates in subscription costs are also more
moderate. In fact, some writers have advocated that societies expand
their journal publications programs to provide more reasonably-priced
alternatives to commercially published journals. The following
references support this point of view:
-
A Role for the National Academies [link to issue 29, 1990
November 12
of Newsletter on Serials Pricing Issues; see article 29.6,
which includes a suggestion that the National Academies expand their
publishing programs to provide additional reasonably-priced journals.]
-
Issues which should Concern Both Science Librarians and the
Publishers of Scientific Works. [link to issue NS 37, 1992
July 13 of Newsletter on Serials Pricing Issues; the entire
issue is comprised of an analysis of the relationship between libraries
and society publishers, with particular reference to the American
Institute of Physics (AIP); it concludes with a suggestion that the AIP
attempt to publish even more of the good quality research that might
otherwise go to commercial publishers.]
What Can Scholarly Societies Do? [An Editorial]
This section is more in the nature of
an editorial, since it is informed by a quite definite point of view.
The crisis in scholarly publishing has had a devastating effect on
academic libraries in recent years, and will ultimately make it more
difficult for scholars to carry out their research. In our opinion, here
are some ways in which scholarly societies can help alleviate this
situation:
- Scholarly societies can encourage their members to refrain from
publishing in, or sitting on editorial boards of, journals with exorbitant
pricing policies.
- An example of this is the statement by Fred Spilhaus,
the President of the American Geophysical Union, before a meeting
of the
American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) in February
1990, in which he urged AAAS members to shun over-priced journals.
A very brief report on this is:
Scientists are
being Urged to Shun Over-Priced Journals [link to the APS
What's New of
1990, March 2; article 1 mentions the shunning suggestion (from the
director of the American Geophysical Union), and also refers to the
lawsuit by Gordon & Breach
Publishers against a physicist and two physical societies for
publishing a journal price survey]
The complete text of his talk is:
The Financial Crisis in Science Libraries
[a link to issue 21, 1990, April 27 of Newsletter on Serials Pricing
Issues; see article 21.4]
- Another example is the statement by Sidney C. Abrahams, former editor
of Acta Crystallographica (published by the International
Union for Crystallography), in
From the Editor
[a link to issue 19, 1990, March 19 of Newsletter on Serials Pricing
Issues; see article 19.1]
-
Faculty Member Responds to New Scientific Journal
Launching [a link to issue NS 25, 1992, April 12 of
Newsletter on Serials Pricing Issues; see article NS25.2,
in which an academic at Yale spoke out at 3 conferences against
supporting a new journal, suggesting instead that attendees
support only society journals.]
- Scholarly societies can strive to publish their journals themselves,
rather than delegate them to commercial publishers. In the last couple of
decades, this sort of delegation has become rather commonplace. The
following articles comment upon this situation:
-
Responses to "Journal Pricing Crisis as a Systemic Problem"
[link to issue NS 15, 1991 December 12 of Newsletter on
Serials Pricing Issues; see article NS15.7 in which Adrian Alexander
quotes a representative of one of the big commercial publishers as saying
that a third of their journals list consisted of society publications.]
-
What Should Pat Berger Tell the AIP Publications Board?
[link to issue NS 21, 1992 March 10 of
Newsletter on
Serials Pricing Issues; see article NS21.1 in which Siegfried
Rusch quotes an article of his in which he indicates that many U.S.
scientific societies have transferred their publishing to commercial
publishers or become like commercial publishers themselves.]
-
"Drug Information Journal" Price Reduction [link to
issue NS 35, 1992 June 17 of Newsletter on Serials Pricing
Issues; see article NS35.2 which quotes a letter from a society
indicating that they would be publishing their journal themselves (formerly
published
by a commercial publisher), and that there would be a significant
reduction in subscription costs.]
-
Thoughts on the Copyright Statement [link to issue
55, 1992 October 27 of Newsletter on Serials Pricing Issues;
see article 55.1, especially point no.1, which refers to "the fact that
the last 20 years has seen a very significant shift in the placement of
scholarly articles from society and university press journals to the
commercial publishers."]
-
Blackwell Scientific Publications 1993 Prices [link to
issue 56, 1992 November 1 of Newsletter on Serials Pricing
Issues; see article 56.3, 2nd paragraph, which mentions that
they handle publishing for over 100 learned societies.]
- Scholarly societies can attempt to reduce their journal publication
costs by exploring the possibility of electronic submission of
manuscripts and electronic distribution of journal issues to their
subscribers.
Many of these same points are made in an article
by Peggy Johnson entitled
A Crisis in Scholarly Publication: What You Can Do
[link to issue 18, 1990 March 7 of Newsletter on Serials Pricing
Issues; see article 18.5]
No one knows what the future holds for scholarly publishing, but
scholarly societies are in a strong position to help influence the
direction of this future.
Jim Parrott
The Editor
Scholarly Societies Project
Sending Email to the Scholarly Societies Project
Overview of the Scholarly Societies Project
