Administrators - Economics of Publishing
Journal Pricing
Some History
- The Great Depression challenged financially strapped libraries to reduce the cost per use of their journal collections. Librarians responded by collecting mainly high use journals and canceling many with lower use. This led to the concept of "core publications" for each discipline, allowing librarians to build collections to support local need. Up until the early 1960's, there were many separate cores in existence.
- These cores were essentially rolled up into one large set of core journals when the Institute for Scientific Information (ISI) developed cited reference searching for their emerging product, Science Citation Index (SCI). ISI also created the impact factor which identifies the "hottest journals" within subject categories.
- An unintended outcome of these useful tools was the emphasis on journal titles, rather than individual articles, and the idea that a set of core journals could identify core science. This means that scholars must try to publish in the top publications and libraries must acquire or provide access to these journals.
- The end result is an inelastic market. This, coupled with mergers and acquisitions leading to fewer STM publishers, has created an environment of spiraling journal prices.
Current Trends
Rising Costs and Decreasing Purchase Power
- Worldwide journal prices continue to rise significantly faster than inflation and library budgets. In North America, for example, research libraries spent 227% more on journals in 2002 than in 1986. The Consumer Price Index rose 57% during this same period. In the United Kingdom, journal prices rose 158% between 1991 and 2001 compared to a 28% increase in inflation. The trends are very similar across higher education institution types.
- Journal inflation continues to increase at a rate of 6-12% annually. Purchasing a journal subscription can be described as a variable mortgage on a library's budget.
- These increases have led to continued journal cancellations with fewer journals being purchased by libraries.
- While a growing number of journals are now available online, this access often comes at an extra cost.
- Despite cuts in subscriptions, a few publishers continue to post large profits - up to 40% in some cases.
Increasing Volume of Information
World production of scholarly communication is estimated to have doubled since the mid 1980's, yet the average research library subscribed to 6% fewer journals and purchased 26% fewer monographs.
Impact on Monographs
- Young faculty in the humanities may not be able to find a publisher for their books.
- Academic libraries in the United Kingdom purchase 19% fewer books per student today than they did eight years ago due to high journal prices. In North America, research libraries purchased 5% fewer books in 2002 than in 1986, despite spending 62% more. Non-research libraries are experiencing similar problems.
- As library budgets are squeezed by expensive journals, the market for books is reduced. Today many scholarly books sell only 200-400 copies compared with 1500 copies a decade ago.
- University presses reject some quality manuscripts with limited market potential because publishing costs cannot be recovered.
Learn More
Historical Price Data by Library Type
The chart, compiled by EBSCO Information Services, shows price fluctuations for 2000-2004 for typical library lists invoiced in U.S. dollars. It includes ARL libraries, college and university libraries, and academic libraries.
Sticker Shock
This site, both humorous and sobering, illustrates the extent of runaway journal prices. It was developed by librarians at Cornell's Engineering Library.
A New World of Scholarly Communication
Richard C. Atkinson, recently retired president of the University of California, originally wrote this article for the November 7, 2003 issue of the Chronicle of Higher Education.
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