Fwd: Do governments subsidize journals (was: Who gets hurt by Open

[Heather Morrison <heatherm@eln.bc.ca>]

**   apologies for cross-posting  **

Sally, could you provide a citation to these studies, please?  It seems to
me that quotes of this percentage have been inflated since the last time
they were reported...

No doubt, it goes without saying that advertising revenues can thrive in
an open access environment.  Look at google, for example, or traditional
television broadcasting.  Or free newspapers (just try getting on a bus in
Vancouver nowadays without at least a few of these - takes some creative
dodging and friendly assertiveness, but it can be done...)

In fact, open access could expand opportunities for advertising revenue,
by reaching more readers.

Ongoing revenue through subscriptions is likely to continue, assuming that
journals continue to add additional value beyond the research per se.  
This is likely to be at least as true of commercial subscribers as
university subscribers.  In fact, some of the value- adds (who is doing
what in an industry, and so forth), is probably even more important to
industry than to academia.

For societies, corporations as well as individuals are members.  The trend
in industry is expansion of social responsibility as a focus.  Perhaps
this would be a good time for a corporate-based membership drive?

hope this helps,

Heather Morrison

Begin forwarded message:

> From: "Sally Morris \(ALPSP\)" <sally.morris@alpsp.org>
> Date: September 14, 2005 6:21:59 PM PDT (CA)
> Subject: Re: Do governments subsidize journals (was: Who gets hurt  
> by Open
>
> On this topic, it probably hardly needs saying that, in those countries
> where Government contributes to the costs of universities, univ library
> subscriptions are in effect taxpayer (not Government - Govt doesn't have
> any money of its own!) funded.  However, as various studies have shown,
> only part of journals' income comes from university subscriptions - as
> much has half may come from industry in some disciplines, not only
> through subs but also offprint sales and advertising.  Under an
> 'author-side payment' OA model, however, virtually all of the costs will
> be borne by the taxpayer via research (or other institutional) funding
>
> Sally Morris, Chief Executive
> Association of Learned and Professional Society Publishers
> Email:  sally.morris@alpsp.org