Electronic Dissertations LibraryExploring the development of the independent, electronic, scholarly journal, by Alison WellsEconomic models for electronic publishingThe cause of most of the antagonism between authors or libraries, and publishers is that they have very different needs and expectations. The prime concerns of the author are distribution and recognition, while that of the publisher is profit. This conflict leads to inefficiency and the current unsatisfactory publishing situation (Willis, 1995) As Monty (1996) points out: "the nature ... of scholarly publishing has always been to share work and never has it been to sell work" Currently, as can be seen from Willis' (1995) model, the University pays twice for any research done by its academics, once for the actual research and once to buy it back from the publishers and store it in its library. Ginsparg (1996) is certain that "the current model of funding publishing companies through research libraries (in turn funded by overhead on research grants) is unlikely to survive in the electronic realm." In recent years, academic libraries have been hit by what has been termed the "serials crisis", with journal prices increasing above the rate of inflation. Fishwick et al. (1998) calculated that "in 1996, the prices of learned and professional journals (the Blackwell Periodicals Price Index) were on average more than three times those in 1985, a rise nearly double that of the general Retail Prices Index over the same period". They blame this increase on the unusual demand-supply situation that is scholarly publishing where the demand comes from authors wanting to be published, rather than readers, and the supply of articles and editorial and referee work is given away free. Odlyzko (19.1.99) argues that "the scholarly journal crisis is really a library cost crisis", because "for every article that brings in $4000 in revenues to publishers, libraries in aggregate spend $8000 on ordering, cataloguing, shelving, and checking out material, as well as on reference help". This implies that electronic journals could bring savings, not only on the price of the journal subscription, but also particularly on library storage costs. Also, every time a library cancels a subscription, the publishers need to increase their prices to compensate. To determine the best new economic model, first the actual relative cost of publishing an electronic journal to a print one must be agreed, and as far as I can see, no one can. Fisher (from MIT Press) (1997), compares two roughly identical journals, one print and one electronic and concludes that the cost of the electronic one is 24% of the print one, due to a lack of printing and binding costs. The electronic journal however has greater overheads due to investment in computer equipment. Fishwick et al (1998) are more cautious, showing that for a small number of subscribers, the cost of a print only journal compared to an electronic only one is about the same, and it is only when the number of subscribers increases, that the difference in incremental costs (calculated at £16 per new subscriber for print and £1 for electronic) means that savings can be made. Their figure is that "first copy" costs of an electronic journal are about 80% of that of a print journal. A small point to note here in the UK is that VAT at 17.5% is charged on electronic services while paper journals are zero-rated. This discrepancy is likely to continue, as there would be an outcry if VAT were added to paper journals (and by extension, books). These estimates are all constrained by the assumption that the publishing model stays more or less as it is, with the publishers merely changing from posting their journals to distributing them over the Internet. With a more radical change of view, Odlyzko (July 1997) shows us that costs can be reduced considerably. Using the example of Paul Ginsparg's xxx e-print server, he calculates that the 20,000 or so papers processed each year would, at $2-4000 each, cost between $40-80 million to publish traditionally. Operating and maintaining the server takes only about $100,000 per year, making a final cost per paper of $5. This is an extreme example as the service provided is not comparable to a journal as it has no peer review and little journal preparation. However, to implement that and still make a saving, they only need to spend less than $40 million per year. Harnad also regularly quotes savings of 70-80%. After deciding how much it will cost to produce an electronic journal, how is that money to be recovered? The main economic models will be discussed in the following pages:
ReferencesFishwick, F., Edwards, L. & Blagden, J. (January 1998). Economic implications of different models of publishing scholarly electronic journals for professional societies and other small or specialist publishers. [http://www.ukoln.ac.uk/services/elib/papers/tavistock/scholarly-journals/cranelib.html]. Site visited at 14.6.99 Fisher, J.H. (April 1997). Comparing electronic journals to print journals : are there savings? [http://www.arl.org/scomm/scat/fisher.html]. Site visited at 16.4.99 Ginsparg, P. (February 1996). Winners and losers in the global research village [http://www.library.uiuc.edu/icsu/ginsparg.htm]. Site visited at 16.4.99 Harnad, S. (1998). For whom the gate tolls? Free the on-line-only refereed journal literature. [http://www.cogsci.soton.ac.uk/~harnad/amlet.html]. Site visited at 22.6.99 Monty, V. (January 1996). Electronic journals : new publishing paradigm. [http://www.library.yorku.ca/staff2/vmonty/ejournal.htm]. Site visited at 16.4.99 Odlyzko, A. (19.1.99). Competition and co-operation : libraries and publishers in the transition to electronic scholarly journals. [http://www.research.att.com/~amo/doc/competition.cooperation.txt]. Site visited at 16.4.99 Odlyzko, A. (July 1997). The economics of electronic journals. [http://www.arl.org/scomm/scat/odlyzko.html]. Site visited at 16.4.99 Willis, J. (1995). Bridging the gap between traditional and electronic scholarly publishing. [http://www.coe.uh.edu/~brobin/Educom95/EducomJW/index.html]. Site visited at 16.4.99
Exploring the development of the independent,
electronic, scholarly journal, by Alison Wells
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