Scientific Publishers Should Maintain a Dialog With Customers

There should never be an adversarial relationship between publishers and their customers.  Librarians must understand that there are costs involved in producing a scholarly journal whether it is in print or electronic format.  Publishers must also realize that library budgets are strained and difficult decisions must be made when subscribing or cancelling titles.  There are certain issues that face both parties.  The literature is growing since there is still pressure on new faculty to attain tenure.  There are new sub-disciplines especially in the scientific disciplines and publishers are creating more specialized journals.  Is this necessary or should articles in new “micro-disciplines” be absorbed into established serials?  Is open access a panacea?  In this case the burden of payment is placed on the researchers not the librarians.

Pricing was much easier years ago when there were only print journals.  A large organization would often need multiple copies of popular titles that would be circulated.  It would pay a fixed amount for each extra copy needed.  Publishers are now determining pricing on the history of usage of a journal by the institution.  Bundling journals is another controversial issue in pricing.  A library may complain that it is forced to buy access to journals that are rarely if ever used.  Is paying per download a viable option?

In an open letter to the Library community Brandon Nordin of ACS publication admits “No pricing model is ever perfect.” 

It is very important that publishers maintain a dialog with their customers and evaluate their suggestions for pricing.  This can be done on a one to one basis or at national, regional, or local meetings of processional societies.