Re: On profit and speculative tipping points

[Sandy Thatcher <sgt3@psu.edu>]

That's exactly what I'm saying, Heather, and I'm not saying 
that's a bad thing in the long run. In the short term, however, 
it could create considerable chaos and strain as existing 
journals, abandoned by such publishers, scrambled to find new 
homes. All the Hindawis in the world and all the university 
presses and societies with journals operations couldn't absorb 
that many journals quickly, if ever.

Sandy Thatcher
Penn State University Press


> Sandy Thatcher wrote, in respect to a speculative "tipping point" in
> which the STM industry would simply abandon scholarly publishing:
>
> "it is not a matter of whether the STM business could be run
> profitably with NIH-type restrictions in place, but instead the
> expectations the companies most invested in this business have about
> profit margins and their willingness to continue in the business at
> a lower level of profit when their funds might be redirected to more
> profitable uses elsewhere"
>
> To clarify, Sandy, are you saying that the concern is not with
> maintaining costs, or even profitability, with a mandatory NIH
> Public Access policy, but rather that these highly profitable
> businesses might suddenly lose interest at the prospect of LOWER
> PROFITS, and abandon the business, suddenly, collectively and
> entirely?
>
> Are you saying that this would be a bad thing?  It seems to me that
> if, as you say, "Since the commercial companies do not have a
> "mission" to serve scholarship" and might just abandon scholarship
> at the mere thought of making less money - wouldn't scholarly
> publishing be more stable without them?
>
> Sandy's original post:
>
> http://www.library.yale.edu/~llicense/ListArchives/0709/msg00085.html
>
> Any opinion expressed in this e-mail is that of the author alone, and
> does not reflect the opinion or policy of BC Electronic Library
> Network or Simon Fraser University Library.
>
> Heather Morrison, MLIS
> The Imaginary Journal of Poetic Economics
> http://poeticeconomics.blogspot.com