Date: Tue, 15 Apr 1997 15:35:46 +0000
Tue, 15 Apr 1997 15:36:31 +1000 (EST)
Comments: Authenticated sender is <s7201074@pop3.unsw.edu.au>
From: "Lionel Robson" <Lionel.Robson@sam.comms.unsw.EDU.AU>

=== It is fine and dandy trying to justify serial costs.  But the
simple fact is that the readership level or utilisation rate of
serial articles is extraordinarily low.

If academics want to pay to have material published that says
something about their understanding of economics.  Who would want to
pay to publish material that the punters never read?  It would be
like buying tickets to the movies but never going to see the action.

There is no reason why libraries should continue to pay the enormous book
keeping cost for  science and technology.  Especially when they all
tend to by the same titles.  These milch cow's udders are drying up.
To continue the image, chew that one over.

Lionel Robson
Manager, Collection Services
University of New South Wales
Sydney  NSW  Australia  2052
Tel. 61+2.9385.2656
Fax. 61+2.9385.8002
E-mail  l.robson@unsw.edu.au

> Date:          Thu, 10 Apr 1997 11:58:30 EST
> From:          Albert Henderson <70244.1532@COMPUSERVE.COM>
> Subject:       Periodical Price Inflation
> To:            SERIALST@UVMVM.UVM.EDU

> In the article captioned below, Peter Jansen asks about periodical price
> inflation.
>
> A serious analysis is provided by Ronald E Akie in "Predicting Journal
> Subscription Prices" (PUBLISHING RESEARCH QUARTERLY 12,2 Summer 1996 p.
> 9-17), showing the contributions to pricing made by inflation, increased
> numbers of pages, cancellations, and currency exchange rates.
>
> If you are interested in doing something about the problems of
> periodicals' prices, please read my editorial in the same issue, p. 6-8,
> on "Publishing and the Productivity of R&D."  The great difference in
> financial support for research, which generates ever increasing numbers of
> research articles, and for libraries, which are ever less able to collect
> and disseminate this information, is outrageous. It is even more baffling
> when it has been shown repeatedly that information supplied by libraries
> is the major cost-effective ingredient in research.
>
> Particularly repugnant, by the way, is the suggestion that publishers are
> on a gravy train. Learned publishing is the only segment of the industry
> where authors are routinely asked to subsidize the dissemination of
> research which already carries an investment of hundreds of thousands of
> dollars or more. More often than not publishers have used reserves, cut
> valuable coverage, and pushed vendor credit to the limit in order to
> minimize price increases. Publishers are also over a barrel because their
> prices must be fixed far in advance of incurring their costs. My analysis
> of the Periodicals Price Index ("Forecasting Changes in Periodicals
> Prices" in SERIALS LIBRARIAN 21,4 1992:33-43) between 1977 and 1990, for
> instance, indicated that it took two years for most publishers' prices to
> react to the inflationary spike of 1980!
>
> Albert Henderson, Editor, PUBLISHING RESEARCH QUARTERLY
> 70244.1532@compuserve.com
>
> ---------- Forwarded Message ----------
>
> From:   Peter Jansen, INTERNET:p.jansen@AUCKLAND.AC.NZ
> TO:     SERIALST, INTERNET:SERIALST@UVMVM.UVM.EDU
> DATE:   4/8/97 10:16 PM
>
> RE:     Periodical Price Inflation
> Dear Serialist
>
> Re: Virginia Roy's email entitled "1997 Price Index for
> Canadian Libraries" in which indicates that "Periodical price
> inflation reaches lowest level in eight years", it being only
> projected to rise by 10.28%.
>
> The publishers gravy train certainly seems to be going to full steam
> ahead. At a time of between 1 - 4% inflation in most industrialised
> economies these price increases seem extravagant, as do the 10%+
>  increases in each of the last eight years.
>
> I realise that the supply of many academic journals is relatively low, hence
> the high price. However, one would think this would be built into the
> original publication price of the journal, and would not impact on any
> subsequent price inflation.
>
> How do publishers justify (if at all) such increases ?
>
> And more importantly, is there anything that can be done about it ?
>
> Regards
>
> Peter Jansen
> Acquisitions Librarian
> Philson Library
> University of Auckland
> Private Bag 92019, Auckland, New Zealand
> Phone (+64 9) 373 7599 ext 6131
> Fax (+64 9) 373 7491
> <p.jansen@AUCKLAND.AC.NZ>