RE: Usage-based pricing, a view

["David Goodman" <David.Goodman@liu.edu>]

Volatility is use certainly exists for lower used journals. The solution
is for this material not to be published at the current commercial (or
non-commercial) rates, but available on an open archive. Then all could
afford it.
 
The material in high use,. where one would expect the volatility to be
much less, will remain appropriate for commercial (and non-commercial)
journals, as well as for the open archive. People will still want it in
journal format, and thus this will both permit the continued existence of
the publishers, and affordable access by all.
 
Together, these also deals with the problems of new universities, less
developed countries, independent researchers, fields with small numbers of
potential users, and all the other dilemmas of the past.
 
David Goodman
Associate Professor, Palmer School of Library & Information Science, LIU
and, formerly, Princeton University Library
dgoodman@liu.edu