[DMCA-Activists] Crooked Timber: Academic publishing and monopoly pricing

[Seth Johnson]

(Forwarded from NY Fair Use Discussion list)

-------- Original Message --------
Subject: [fairuse-talk] Crooked Timber: Academic publishing and monopoly
pricing  (fwd)
Date: Sat, 17 Jan 2004 04:01:36 -0500 (EST)
From: Jay Sulzberger <address@hidden>
Reply-To: address@hidden
To: address@hidden

Cosima Shalizi page:

http://cscs.umich.edu/~crshalizi/weblog/archives/000161.html

oo--JS.


 ---------- Forwarded message ----------
 Subject: Crooked Timber: Academic publishing and monopoly pricing
 X-URL: http://www.crookedtimber.org/archives/001157.html


 January 16, 2004

 Academic publishing and monopoly pricing

    Posted by Henry

    Via Cosma Shalizi, a very nice article on the economics of academic
publishing in
    the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. The authors provide
    compelling empirical evidence of a large differential between the price
of
    commercial journals and the price of journals put out by professional
societies
    and academic presses, which isn't explained by journal quality. The
graphs almost
    jump from the page - there are dramatically different relationships
between price
    and number of citations, depending on whether you are looking at
commercial or
    non-commercial journals. Furthermore, according to the authors, the
differential
    between the two has increased over time. Commercial journals are lousy
value for
    money - but they're apparently hard to displace in the marketplace.

    The authors' wider argument is also interesting - and worrying.
Increasingly,
    academic publishing is moving towards a model based on the licensing of
    electronic access to a bundle of journals to universities and other
research
    institutions. The authors' model suggests that site licensing of
journals by
    commercial publishers will leave scholars worse off on average than if
each
    scholar purchased individual licenses to the journals that she wanted to
read.
    While site licences to larger groups are more efficient, these
efficiency gains
    are more than absorbed by the sellers, if the sellers are profit
maximizing
    firms.

    Economists who are interested in new economy issues, like Brad DeLong,
usually
    focus on the massive productivity gains that we can expect from
information
    technology. While these are important, so too are the distributional
consequences
    - the ways in which new technologies affect who gets what. Even if new
    technologies, such as electronic publishing, are more efficient in some
broad
    sense of the term, the efficiency gains may be distributed in ways that
are
    difficult to justify.
    Posted on January 16, 2004 10:21 PM UTC
    Comments

    An alternative model is provided by the Journal of Biology. As the
article notes,
    the journal grew from the open letter on open publishing published by
the Public
    Library of Science.

    In some cases, commercial journals charge at both ends - for publication
and for
    subscription. And, of course, they retain exclusive publication
rights[1]. Given
    all this, there is a question mark over whether they provide value for
money, and
    whether academics might be able to do a more efficient job themselves -
in every
    sense - by cutting out the middleman.

    And if there is no profit motive involved, there is no need to keep
copyright
    restrictions on papers after sufficient time has elapsed to recoup the
costs of
    publishing. Indeed, you can even make some papers free straight away.

    Free really might be cheaper in this context, after all.

    [1] In theory - there is evidently a variable amount of leeway in terms
of
    posting a paper on your homepage in the Internet age.
    Posted by robin green · January 17, 2004 12:10 AM
    Followups
    Post a comment
    Name:
    ____________________
    Email Address:
    ____________________
    URL:
    ____________________
    Remember personal info?
    (_) Yes (_) No
    Comments:

    ___________________________________
    ___________________________________
    ___________________________________
    ___________________________________
    ___________________________________
    ___________________________________
    ___________________________________
    ___________________________________
    ___________________________________
    ___________________________________
    Preview Post

    Who are we?
    Ted Barlow infty
    Chris Bertram infty
    Harry Brighouse infty
    Daniel Davies infty
    Henry Farrell infty
    Maria Farrell infty
    Eszter Hargittai infty
    Kieran Healy infty
    Jon Mandle infty
    Tom Runnacles infty
    Micah Schwartzman infty
    Brian Weatherson infty
    Guest Bloggers infty
    Click on the infty symbol next to a name for a list of all of that
author's
    posts.
    Contact Us
    Email any author at firstname @ crookedtimber.org
    Syndication: RSS Feeds
    Recent Posts.
    Recent Comments
    Frenzy of Renown
    Technorati Link Cosmos
    BlogStreet Profile
    Recent Entries
    Movement
    Framing effects
    Protestants and Papists
    Screenwriters Series
    Charlotte's Web and Wesley Clark
    Barbie
    Maher Arar (Again)
    An important distinction
    Perle and Frum
    Making an example out of them
    Name that product
    Travel
    March of the Frogs
    Germans in Afghanistan
    Excusing or justifying genocide
    Search
    Search this site:
    ____________________
    Search
    Archives
    [Select a Month......]
    [Select a Category.........................]
    Credits
    Powered by
    Movable Type 2.63.
    Banner and photo courtesy David Krewinghaus.

    Lumber Room
    Roger Ailes
    Ampersand
    Antidotal
    ArchPundit
    Atrios
    Jack Balkin
    Body and Soul
    Peter Briffa
    Timothy Burke
    Calpundit
    Avedon Carol
    Josh Cherniss
    Iain Coleman
    Davos Newbies
    Daily Kos
    Brad DeLong
    Charles Dodgson
    Daniel Drezner
    Electrolite
    En Banc
    Amitai Etzioni
    A Fistful of Euros
    Ed Felten
    Gary Farber
    Russell Arben Fox
    Harry's Place
    The Head Heeb
    Jim Henley
    John Holbo/Belle Waring
    Invisible Adjunct
    Steven Johnson
    Mark Kleiman
    Larry Lessig
    Libertarian Samizdata
    Making Light
    Joshua Marshall
    MaxSpeak
    Iain Murray
    Charles Murtaugh
    Nathan Newman
    Natalie Solent
    OxBlog
    PolitiX
    Pandagon
    Pedantry
    Philosophy from the 617
    Political Aims
    The Poor Man
    John Quiggin
    Rittenhouse Review
    Road to Surfdom
    Alan Schussman
    Slugger O'Toole
    Lawrence Solum
    Tom Stoneham
    Tacitus
    The Talking Dog
    Tapped
    Two Blowhards
    The Virtual Stoa
    Volokh Conspiracy
    Matthew Yglesias
    The Splinter Group (Academic Blogs)
    academic link policy
    Cross-disciplinary
    Butterflies and Wheels
    Crescat Sententia
    Obsidian Wings
    SCSU Scholars
    Terra Nova
    The Volokh Conspiracy
    WordHerders
    Yale Insider
    Political science/Political Theory
    "Abu Aardvark"
    Antidotal
    ArchPundit
    Casus Belli (on hiatus)
    Josh Cherniss
    Andrew R. Cline
    Dan Drezner
    Rory Ewins
    Norman Geras
    Michael Gordon
    Rick Hasen
    The Insurgent
    James Joyner
    Jusiper
    Loren King
    Chris Lawrence
    "John Lemon"
    Brett Marston
    Laura McK****
    "Nasi Lemak"
    Rodger Payne
    Chris Sciabarra
    Steven L. Taylor
    Garry Young
    Sociology/Public Policy
    Amitai Etzioni
    Tina Fetner
    Mark Kleiman
    Molly Moloney
    Political Aims
    Alan Schussman
    Martin Stabe Rowan Wolf
    Economics
    Angry Bear
    Kevin Brancato
    Brad de Long
    Indiawest
    John Irons
    Stephen Karlson
    Stephen Kirchner
    Lynne Kiesling
    Marginal Revolution
    Kevin McCabe
    Ben Muse
    John Quiggin
    Eric Rasmusen
    William Sjostrom (AtlanticBlog)
    Philosophy/Linguistics
    Amaravati
    Matt Brown
    Brandon Butler
    Keith Burgess-Jackson
    Denis Dutton
    Kai von Fintel
    Russell Arben Fox
    Michael Green
    David Hildebrand
    John Holbo
    Jonathan Ichikawa
    Language Log
    Brian Leiter
    Roderick T. Long
    Geoffrey Nunberg
    Philosophy from the 617
    Jeremy Pierce
    Punishment Theory
    Timothy Quigley
    Conor Roddy
    Tom Stoneham
    Michael Sevel
    Peter Suber
    Eddie Thomas
    Jessica Wilson
    Psychology
    Milt Rosenberg
    Law
    Stephen Bainbridge
    Jack Balkin
    David Bernstein
    Jack Bogdanski
    Jeff Cooper (on hiatus)
    Wayne Eastman
    Victor Fleischer
    Peter Friedman
    Michael Froomkin
    Bernard Hibbitts
    Walter Hutchens
    InstaPundit
    Andis Kaulins
    Lawmeme
    Edward Lee
    Karl-Friedrich Lenz
    Larry Lessig
    Eric Muller
    John Palfrey
    Ken Parish
    Punishment Theory
    The Right Coast
    D. Gordon Smith
    Lawrence Solum
    Peter Tillers
    David Wagner
    Kim Weatherall
    Tun Yin
    History
    Timothy Burke
    Naomi Chana
    Cliopatria
    Edward Cohn
    Juan Cole
    Cranky Professor
    Greg Daly
    James Davila
    Sherman Dorn
    Michael Drout
    Frogs and Ravens
    Evan Garcia
    George Mason History bloggers
    Rebecca Goetz
    Invisible Adjunct
    Liberty and Power
    Pam Mack
    H.D. Miller
    Marc Mulholland
    Jacob Remes
    Christopher Shiel
    Brian Ulrich
    Shana Worthen
    IT/media/communication
    Lauren Andreacchi
    David Brake
    Maximilian Dornseif
    Ed Felten
    Louise Ferguson
    Anne Galloway
    Josh Greenberg
    Alex Halavais
    Tim Lambert
    Liz Lawley
    Michael O'Foghlu
    Jose Luis Orihuela
    Ken Rufo
    Douglas Rushkoff
    Vika Safrin
    Rob Schaap (Blogorrhoea)
    Frank Schaap
    Ranting Professors
    Ray Trygstad
    Jill Walker
    Siva Vaidahyanathan
    Anthropology
    Stentor Danielson
    Alex Golub
    Nicholas Packwood
    Education
    Edward Bilodeau
    Richard Kahn
    Kelvin Thompson
    Literature, language, culture
    Mike Arnzen
    Brandon Barr (lit)
    Michael Berube
    Colin Brayton (comp lit)
    Jean Chu (lit)
    "Chun the Unavoidable"
    Hans Coppens (Japanese Studies)
    Tyler Curtain (cult stud)
    Joseph Duemer (lit)
    Kathleen Fitzpatrick
    Alison Hale (Am lit)
    Household Opera
    Dennis Jerz (lit)
    Jason Jones
    Matthew Kirschenbaum (English/information studies)
    Steven Krause
    Gerald Lucas (English)
    Making Contact
    Erin O'Connor (English)
    Michael Sayeau
    Steve Shaviro (English/Comp Lit)
    Chuck Tryon (cult stud)
    University Diaries
    George H. Williams (English)
    Religion
    AKM Adam
    Ryan Overbey
    Telford Work (theology)
    Biology/Medical research
    Bloviator
    Anthony Cox
    Susan Ferrari
    Amy Greenwood
    Charles Murtaugh
    Paul Z. Myers
    Respectful of Otters
    Amity Wilczek (biology)
    Theodore Wong

    Physics/Applied Physics
    Trish Amuntrud
    Jacques Distler
    Irascible Professor
    Michael Nielsen
    Chad Orzel

    Math/Statistics/Complex Systems
    Vlorbik
    Dead Parrots
    Christopher Genovese
    Cosma Shalizi

    Chemistry
    "Keneth Miles"

    Engineering
    Chris Hall

    University Administration
    Frank Admissions

    Architecture/Urban development
    City Comforts (urban planning)
    Unfolio
    Panchromatica
    Earth Sciences
    Our Take

    Other sources of information

    Arts and Letters Daily
    Imprints
    Political Theory Daily Review
    Science and Technology Daily Review

----------------------------------------------------------- 
If you wish to unsubscribe from this mailing, send mail to
address@hidden with a subject of: unsubscribe fairuse-talk
List info at http://www.nyfairuse.org/lists.xhtml