Re: Price discrimination for academic subscriptions (discussion)

["Anthony Watkinson" <anthony.watkinson@btopenworld.com>]

My impression is that most academic libraries have access to many more STM
journals than they had a decade ago. This never seems to be stated in
SPARC propaganda but I understand this to be the case. Am I incorrect?
This is the result of the Big Deal. Whether or not these are the journals
they want is a different matter - of course.

I am always amazed by statements about the pricing policies of publishers,
which state as fact some prejudice. Publishers try to maintain their
margins whether they are for-profit or not-for-profit. Whether or not the
margins are reasonable or realistic is a different matter. I do not think
many publishers currently take the view that they set their prices at
whatever level they think the market will stand.

Anthony

----- Original Message -----
From: <martin@skmassociates.net>
To: <liblicense-l@lists.yale.edu>
Sent: Monday, September 08, 2003 11:04 PM
Subject: RE: Price discrimination for academic subscriptions (discussion)

> It seems to me that if the largest (and presumably wealthiest) research
> libraries cannot afford to buy "core" journals any longer [see excerpt
> from posting, below], that those journals have priced themselves out of
> the market and can no longer be considered "core."
>
> These extremely expensive publishers are pushing for every last cent they
> can squeeze, assuming that librarians will continue to the last to hang
> onto the "core."  At some point, that paradigm has to give way.  As so
> many have been saying, the economics will be the ultimate driving factor.
>
> Sue Martin