Re: ALPSP statement on e-publishing.

["Sally Morris" <sec-gen@alpsp.org>]

Sorry for the long delay in responding to your interesting query about the
additional costs of electronic publishing - I was awaiting some hard data
which is, at last, emerging from a benchmarking study which we have
carried out.  Although the number of participants is not large (10
publishers of various sizes, including both commercial and not-for-profit
houses), we do now have some hard figures about the extra costs of
electronic publication. Unfortunately only three participants were able to
give precise figures for these additional costs, but you might find these
interesting:

    Copy-editing (2 respondents)    5% additional cost
    Typesetting (3 respondents)    5%, 15%, 20%
    Subscription management (3 respondents)    5%, 15%, 15%

So, for what it's worth, there you have it!

Sally Morris, Secretary-General
Association of Learned and Professional Society Publishers
South House, The Street, Clapham, Worthing, West Sussex BN13 3UU, UK

Phone:  01903 871686 Fax:  01903 871457 E-mail:  sec-gen@alpsp.org
ALPSP Website  http://www.alpsp.org

Learned Publishing is now online, free of charge, at
www.learned-publishing.org

----- Original Message -----
From: "Hamaker, Chuck" <cahamake@email.uncc.edu>
To: "'Sally Morris'" <sec-gen@alpsp.org>; "Liblicense-L (E-mail)"
<liblicense-l@lists.yale.edu>
Cc: "Anthony Watkinson (E-mail)" <anthony.watkinson@btinternet.com>
Sent: Thursday, April 25, 2002 5:37 PM
Subject: ALPSP statement on e-publishing.


>
> Sally:
>
> I read with interest the executive summary of the new ALPSP report on
> authors and electronic publishers.
>
> I have a question about an assertion in the article "Electronic Publishing
> and Learned Societies" - http://www.alpsp.org/epub_learnsoc.pdf
> an ALPSP paper for the Research Support Libraries Group ..a pdf file on
> the ALPSP site
>
> Here's the statement I'm interested in:
>
> "However, electronic publishing has been found to bring substantial (and
> continuing) new costs; the creation and maintenance of an appropriate
> system to hold and provide access to content is an expensive business.
> We know, too, that the costs of long-term preservation will be substantial
> and are likely to impact everyone in the information chain. For most
> learned journals, with circulations of under 1000, the savings on
> manufacturing, materials and distribution costs form a negligible
> percentage of total costs. Additional costs are incurred for as long as
> customers require both print and electronic versions; we are lobbying to
> remove the VAT problem which contributes to libraries' reluctance to
> abandon print, but insecurity about long-term access and preservation,
> and users' own preferences, are also factors."
>
> Does ALPSP have documentation for the "substantial(and continuing) new
> costs"statement?

[SNIP]

> Chuck Hamaker
> Associate University Librarian for Collections and Technical Services
> Atkins Library
> University of North Carolina Charlotte
> 704 687-2825