Pricing and Paying for Pricing and Paying for Scientific Information Scientific Information

during a Period of during a Period of TransitionTransition

Madeleine McPhersonMadeleine McPherson

mcpherso@usq.edu.aumcpherso@usq.edu.au

Scientific journals exist to Scientific journals exist to serve serve

AuthorsAuthors The public goodThe public good

The Purpose of The Purpose of JournalsJournals RegistrationRegistration ValidationValidation DistributionDistribution PreservationPreservation

PricingPricing

A much studied topicA much studied topic Status of publisher significantStatus of publisher significant Little relation to value measuresLittle relation to value measures Highly imperfect marketHighly imperfect market

Average Journal Price Average Journal Price etcetc

Commercial Commercial publisherspublishers

$487$487 $4.10 per $4.10 per articlearticle

$0.27 per $0.27 per pagepage

Society publishersSociety publishers $229$229 $1.10 per $1.10 per articlearticle

$0.10 per $0.10 per pagepage

Educational Educational publisherspublishers

$ 81$ 81 $1.20 per $1.20 per articlearticle

$0.05 per $0.05 per pagepage

Other publishersOther publishers $119$119 $1.40 per $1.40 per articlearticle

$0.13 per $0.13 per pagepage

Tenopir, Carol and King, Donald W 2000 Towards Electronic Journals: realities for scientists, librarians and publishers SLA Publishing p 242

Cost per page ($US)Cost per page ($US) Cost per citation Cost per citation ($US)($US)

For-profitFor-profit Non-profitNon-profit For-profitFor-profit Non-profitNon-profit

EcologyEcology 1.011.01 0.190.19 0.730.73 0.050.05

EconomicsEconomics 0.830.83 0.170.17 2.332.33 0.150.15

Atmosph. Atmosph. Sci.Sci.

0.950.95 0.150.15 0.880.88 0.070.07

MathematicMathematicss

0.700.70 0.270.27 1.321.32 0.280.28

NeuroscienNeurosciencece

0.890.89 0.100.10 0.230.23 0.040.04

PhysicsPhysics 0.630.63 0.190.19 0.380.38 0.050.05Bergstrom, Carl T and Bergstrom, Theodore C 2001 Do electronic site licences for Academic Journals benefit the Scientific Community?

http://www.econ.ucsb.edu/~tedb/Journals/nature2.pdf

Publisher TypePublisher Type Total Total CostCost

Total Total PagesPages

Total Total CitesCites

NonprofitNonprofit 9%9% 33%33% 62%62%

BlackwellBlackwell 10%10% 12%12% 5%5%

CommercialCommercial 81%81% 56%56% 33%33%

Shares of Costs, Pages and Cites – EconomicsShares of Costs, Pages and Cites – Economics

Bergstrom, Theodore C 2001 Free Labor for Costly Journals? Journal of Economic Perspectives 15 (3) 183-198

PayingPaying

Single title subscriptionsSingle title subscriptions Bundled subscriptionsBundled subscriptions Single article optionsSingle article options Author feesAuthor fees Free or - free??Free or - free??

Transition to what?Transition to what?

History History is is usefuluseful History doesn’t just happenHistory doesn’t just happen

Signs of transitionSigns of transition

Free e-journals – DOAJFree e-journals – DOAJ SPARC journalsSPARC journals OAI OAI Repositories and eprintsRepositories and eprints Rhetoric, commitment, Rhetoric, commitment,

momentummomentum

Other developmentsOther developments

Policy frameworksPolicy frameworks Copyright incentivesCopyright incentives Grid computingGrid computing DRMDRM

OAI etc - Paying for OAI etc - Paying for the potentialthe potential The costs of archivingThe costs of archiving The power of harvesting and The power of harvesting and

linkinglinking Not just articlesNot just articles Possible playersPossible players Probable costs, possible payersProbable costs, possible payers

BarriersBarriers

Quality perceptionsQuality perceptions Promotion and tenure practicesPromotion and tenure practices VisibilityVisibility Financing modelsFinancing models Maintenance of parallel systemsMaintenance of parallel systems Discipline differencesDiscipline differences Student use and librariesStudent use and libraries

Barriers Barriers

Building communities to champion Building communities to champion the newthe new

National infrastructures – National infrastructures – bandwidth, standards, access, bandwidth, standards, access, fundingfunding

Rights assignment & managementRights assignment & management PreservationPreservation

““Who speaks of Who speaks of victory? – survival is victory? – survival is the essence”the essence”

- Rilke- Rilke