Trends in Electronic journal distributions

We see that everything today is shifting from paper-based system to electronic distribution. While paper editions of a journal are still in existence, an electronic journal seems to have a wide distribution and exposure and as a result, many scholars and publishers have decided to sell out their journals to universities and sites online. Unfortunately, the macroeconomics involved have shown that publishers are worse off when they sell their licenses to universities and such like institutions rather than have the journals distributed by individual subscriptions only.

On the other hand, most universities and professional societies often price journals that they have had licenses to, to maximum subscriptions. In this way, they not only recover their average costs, but also go a long way in offering innumerable benefits to the scientific and academic communities when they continue to offer sustenance to these journals online. These benefits are far more than having the journals sold only per individual subscriptions.

There are remarkable price differences between print copies of academic journals owned by commercial publishers and those owned by non-profit publishers, universities and professional societies. Commercial publishers subscriptions are usually several times higher than what universities and professional societies charge. However, this price difference does not reflect differences in quality. When citation is used as a measure of a journal quality, the prices charged per citation differ by an even greater margin. These price differences have grown rapidly over the last 15 years.

The market for an electronic journal today can be compared to that of computer software and is very different to that of house or household goods. If you sell a house, you cannot sell it again to another buyer. In contrast, an information good like an electronic journal can be sold to many different buyers either to groups, firms or universities or to individuals. Any prices charged for these goods are simply an extension of access to an additional user as opposed to selling a house where one needs to bear the full cost of an additional house.

Today, publishers have introduced what is called bundled collections. University libraries are offered a publishers portfolio of journals to purchase at significant discounts from buying one electronic journal at a time. Several publishers have also introduced what are called tiered pricing structures where price estimates depend on how useful the product is and this price is adjustable over time. Clearly, a problem exists in the electronic journal distribution and unless a collective response is facilitated, this problem will continue.