More re. Chronicle's Online Discussion of New EJournal Model

[Ann Okerson <aokerson@pantheon.yale.edu>]

Further to Scott Jaschik's posting of yesterday (Scott is Editor,
Chronicle of Higher Education), see the Chronicle's piece about the
LaManna publishing model -- and join in the online discussion. 

Ann Okerson

_____

The Chronicle of Higher Education
>From the online issue dated March 9, 2001
   
  A Revolutionary Idea in Publishing
  
   Economists plan online venture to challenge dominance of
   academic-journal companies
   
   By DOUG PAYNE
   
   More than a thousand scholars have lined up behind an economist from
   St. Andrews University, in Scotland, who plans on using the Internet
   and a new online-publishing model to challenge the dominance of some of
   the world's largest academic publishers.

   The economist, Manfredi La Manna, says that the plan will produce
   peer-reviewed journals at half the price of their commercial
   counterparts. An organization that he proposed in November, the
   Electronic Society for Social Scientists (http://www.elsss.org.uk), is
   already making headlines, and he says it will produce "a definite
   change in the academic-journal market within three months."

   ELSSS, according to Mr. La Manna, is not a single publication; it is a
   concept, or template, for academics worldwide to use to free
   themselves from the clutches of what Theodore C. Bergstrom, an
   economics professor at the University of California at Santa Barbara,
   calls "the gougers."

   ELSSS has put forward a list of intended publications -- initially in
   economics -- that will operate according to strict criteria and be
   produced by existing publishers willing to subscribe to ELSSS
   principles.

   Mr. La Manna's model envisions publishers drastically reducing the
   amount of profit they seek to make from journals -- with those savings
   passed on to institutions in the form of lower subscription prices.
   But the man at the helm of Elsevier Science says ELSSS has already
   missed the boat with its "somewhat amateur" approach. Derk Haank, the
   company's chief executive officer, also says Mr. La Manna and his
   supporters are wasting their time: "They are talking old economy.
   They're attacking a perceived enemy that left the camp three years
   ago."

   Mr. La Manna, though, is convinced that it's Elsevier and other major
   journal publishers, such as Springer-Verlag, that have misread the
   appetite among academics for a system in which the intellectual and
   economic benefits of their work "will accrue to authors, referees,
   editors, and the academic community at large." Elsevier Science is
   part of Reed Elsevier, a multinational publishing company;
   Springer-Verlag is part of Bertelsmann A. G., the German media
   conglomerate.

   St. Andrews has already set up a nonprofit company to develop ELSSS,
   and Mr. La Manna has attracted endorsements and support from an
   international pool of researchers and scholarly groups willing to help
   him bring about what he says will be "a definite change in the
   academic-journal market within three months."

   In ELSSS, authors and referees will be paid -- which they generally
   are not in the traditional scholarly publishing model. Authors would
   be paid $500, and referees $200 to $250, depending on the journal.
   Editors will be appointed by ELSSS on the basis of nominations by
   scholars. The process of submitting, refereeing, and editing papers,
   and delivering electronic and print versions, Mr. La Manna says, will
   be similar to what academics are used to, "only much better."
   Each publication will be peer reviewed, will set high standards for
   quality, and will grant copyright to its authors. Electronic versions
   of print titles will offer "interactivity, full searchability, and
   criteria tracking."

   ELSSS publications must also allow full, free access to libraries and
   research centers in developing countries. All ELSSS publications must
   make available information on circulation, pricing, remuneration,
   expenses, and staffing. "In the longer term," Mr. La Manna says, "I
   envisage making the ELSSS template available to any discipline that
   subscribes to the ELSSS principles of fair publishing and respect for
   authorship."

   The ELSSS economics journals would be substantially less expensive
   than Elsevier's. For example, a college in North America could
   subscribe to ELSSS's Review of Banking & Finance for one year for
   $500, while the ELSSS Web site says that a subscription to Elsevier's
   Journal of Banking & Finance costs $1,066. A European institution
   could subscribe to ELSSS's Review of Monetary Economics for $500,
   while Elsevier's Journal of Monetary Economics would cost such an
   institution $1,154, according to the ELSSS Web site.

   Mr. La Manna says ELSSS has "reached and passed critical mass, and I
   am actively involved in the next stage" -- raising about $140,000,
   which he says will get the project under way.

   As a nonprofit organization, ELSSS must rely on philanthropy, "but the
   early signs are very positive," he says.

   [SNIP]

   The opportunity to put theory into practice came serendipitously last
   year, when the University of St. Andrews -- jointly with Scottish
   Enterprise Fife, a government agency focused on economic development
   -- introduced a program offering grants for projects that support
   innovative ideas in business and academe. Mr. La Manna won a special
   six-month sabbatical, and a small budget, to develop his idea. The
   university was "extremely supportive, indeed indispensable," he says.
   Colleagues elsewhere, he says, are proving to be equally helpful.
   Through a survey on the ELSSS Web site, he has been able to stockpile
   offers from academics to serve as authors, referees, and
   editorial-board members for various new journals.

   [SNIP]

   But academic support is not without reservation. Andrew Oswald, a
   professor of economics at Warwick University, says in an e-mail
   interview that "competition in life is good."
   "In this area, publishers have been profiting at the expense of
   researchers," Mr. Oswald says. But, he cautions, "we already have
   hundreds of scholarly journals in economics: My subject, like so many
   others, is simply being swept away in a tsunami of them.

   "The flow of clear information is now swamped by the muddy water from
   new journals that no one reads. Journals are too plentiful; new ideas
   are as rare as ever," says Mr. Oswald.

   His recommendation? "Every person who wants to start an academic
   journal has first to find two that are willing to shut down. That goes
   for electronic journals, too. The best would then survive."

   Mr. La Manna, though, insists that sound theory underlies ELSSS and
   its attack on the inefficiencies built into the current system of
   scholarly publishing. "Economists especially," the scholar says, "have 
   pointed to the cause of the inefficiency as a coordination problem.
   Provided everybody else does the same, it is optimal for each
   researcher to boycott high-priced journals and switch to more efficient
   alternatives.

   [SNIP]

   But at his b�te noire -- Elsevier Science -- Mr. Haank disagrees. He
   says Mr. La Manna and others have their history wrong.
   "The higher prices they're talking about are the result of a paper
   system that's already well on the way to being replaced by electronic
   publishing," Mr. Haank says. "We are actually widening the customer
   base. In the new economy customers are paying [the equivalent of] only
   a dollar an article, in many cases. We want an open system,
   worldwide."

   He adds: "We enter into license agreements with libraries at a fixed
   annual rate. For the end-user, this can mean free unlimited usage."
   Reed Elsevier publishes more than a thousand journals in all major
   disciplines. A subsidiary called Elsevier Electronic Subscriptions
   sells access to an online database, Elsevier ScienceDirect, that
   offers the texts of both Elsevier Science's journals and those of some
   other publishers.

   Arguing that the approach of many of Elsevier's critics smacks of
   "religious warfare," Mr. Haank says that economists "would be better
   served buying more of our journals, which would help to bring the
   price down."

   "It's ironic that the latest initiative is coming from economists," he
   says. In figuring up the costs of ELSSS, he adds, economists aren't
   adding in the time they contribute to the project, "much of it paid
   for by the taxpayers."

   "How long can they keep it up? Many of the results are half the price,
   true -- but they are also half the size. The cost of the articles to
   the subscriber ends up the same. By publishing themselves, the
   academic community is only saving our profits, not our costs."

   Mr. Haank adds: "One should remember that the total cost of literature
   for most universities is about 1 percent of budget. Even allowing for
   a profit margin of anything up to 25 percent for us, the real savings
   might therefore end up being as little as 0.2 percent of budget. I'm
   not trying to plead poverty here, just trying to put this argument
   into perspective."

   Mr. La Manna, for his part, says he remains sanguine about ELSSS's
   chances for success. He's surprised at the speed of events, he says,
   adding that "signs are looking good."  "I'm absolutely certain it is 
   going to happen. Too many people are now seriously involved. All you
   need is the will to put all the pieces together."

   (copyright 2001, Chronicle of Higher Education)