On Sat, 29 Aug 1998 09:01:34, Stevan Harnad <harnad_at_COGSCI.SOTON.AC.UK> wrote:
>You left out the driver of the S/SL/PPV crash: Library cancellations,
>driven by the user preference for the free literature. That will hit
>all S/SL/PPV publishers, for-profit and non- alike. In the face of
>cancellations, raising S/SL/PPV just accelerates the process.
Library cancellations are happening now due to economic forces. University
and research institution budgets tend to grow with the economy. For two
decades journals subscription costs have been growing faster than that and
new journals keep leaping into existence. Especially in the sciences,
journal publishers have long since priced themselves out of the market for
subscriptions to individuals and are reliant on a declining library market.
Each cancellation spreads the overheads over the remaining subscriptions
and fuels further price rises.
The print journal is in an economic death spiral and needs to find new
efficiencies to survive.
Tony Barry
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Received on Tue Aug 25 1998 - 19:17:43 BST