Joy Kirchner ACRL Scholarly Communication 101: Starting with the Basics Economics: The Not-So-Hidden Costs

Learning Objectives Understand some of the basic economic realities of the traditional scholarly publishing system Recognize the connection between authors’ copyright management practices and monopolistic pricing in the scholarly journal market Consider and reflect on alternative models & funding sources for scholarly publishing

cost Academic Library budget Publisher Editor Peer ReviewersCreation © Dissemination Publication (Registration and Certification) Pressure points

peer-reviewed articles per year peer-reviewed journals scholarly publishers (est.) Who is publishing scholarship?

Journal publisher size guide Petite (5 or fewer) 54% Small (6-10)11% Medium (11-25)16% Large (26-50) 8% X-Large (51-100) 4% XX-Large (100+) 7% Scholarly publishing practice: academic journal publishers’ policies and practices in online publishing, 3 rd survey, ALPSP, 2008

societies & other non- profits university presses commercial publishers

revenue in 2009 STM sector Data from Simba Information 2010 publishing industry reports

Profits are high, too  Elsevier consistently reports profit margins for its STM journals of ~ 36% From an investment analysis by Deutsche Bank: “We believe the publisher adds relatively little value to the publishing process. We are not attempting to dismiss what 7,000 people at REL do for a living. We are simply observing that if the process really were as complex, costly and value-added as the publishers protest that it is, 40% margins wouldn’t be available.”

To maintain these margins, prices must rise 2010 – academic journal prices rose 4.3% (year budgets were, supposedly, worst) 2011 – Average increase was 5.5% 2012 – 6% 2013 – Projected average increase is 6-7%

Steelmakers Auto manufacturersConsumers Steel $$ Cars $$ Typical economy

AuthorLibrary JournalArticle Publisher $ $ $ $ Gift economy P&T Grants Reputation Prestige

Publisher © wholesale transfer of rights creates scarcity/monopoly drives prices up (inelastic market)

Libraries challenge pricing power Publishers try to sustain revenue flow Tying print to online Bundling journals Requiring multi-yr contracts Buying other publishers Raising prices Subsidizing journal start-ups Canceling journals Educating faculty authors Forming consortia Fighting mer gers

Roger Clarke, The cost profiles of alternative approaches to journal publishing, First Monday, 3 December 2007 Cost to produce one journal article Average journal article XYZ Commercial Publisher Amsterdam, London, New York My Facuty, PhD Average journal article ABC Not-for- Profit Publisher My Facuty, PhD

9% $ 91% dollars 62% citations 38% citations Economics of quality? C. Bergstroms & T. Bergstrom

The cost of knowledge -- what do others pay PRICE Per Title: Elsevier - - $784 Wiley -- $665 Springer - - $1519 Sage -- $401

So how good a deal is the “Big Deal”? Bergstrom compared 2009 prices paid by large research universities based on cost per ISI citation and per article: –Elsevier’s Freedom package –Packages offered by major professional societies

AltMetrics for library collection development? BUNDLEPer CitePer Article Elsevier (U. Mich)$3.60$15.16 Am. Biochem. Soc.$0.20$0.95 Am. Physical Soc.$0.45$1.10 Am. Soc. Microbiology$0.45$1.20 Oxford U Press (Colorado) $0.55$2.15 Am Chemical Soc. (U Mich) $0.65$2.85 Am Geophysical Union$0.90$2.65 IEEE$1.05$2.25 Am Medical Assoc.$1.05$5.90

UC Value experiment UC Value-­ ‐ Based Pricing Strategy: 2007-­ “How can we establish, validate and communicate an explicit method for aligning the purchase or license costs of scholarly journals with the value they contribute to the academy and the costs to create and deliver them?” uebasedprices.pdf

New value metrics? A growing directory of noteworthy altmetrics tools: Total-Impact Total-Impact is a Web-based application that makes it easy to track the impact of a wide range of research artifacts (such as papers, datasets, slides, research code). The system aggregates impact data from many sources, from Mendeley to GitHub to Twitter and more, and displays it in a single, permalinked report. ReaderMeter Goes-Digital/130482/

The Cost of Knowledge – the Elsevier boycott Over 11,000 signers on May 4; growing daily Reaction to prices and lobbying to prevent public access to scholarship Expression of frustration FROM THE SUPPLIERS! Many asking what to do next. Harvard Library Advisory Board memo to faculty may offer a path Promotion & Tenure system MLA Guidelines for evaluating Digital Humanities & Digital Media.

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 Most recently updated by Kevin Smith & Joy Kirchner June 11, It is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution- Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United States License.