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Schwartz quotation



I found the following remark to be surprising:

"Price inflation at academic journals is the central dilemma of the scholarly communication crisis . . . ."

Without for a moment minimizing the problems with pricing of materials and budgetary constraints, I would have thought that the crisis (Is that the right characterization?) reaches both deeper and wider. There is redundancy in collections, difficulties in launching new publications, expensive and inefficient administrative systems, lack of integration of formally published content with other information resources, the "double duty" of publications as both communications and certification for academic professionals, etc., etc., etc. This list goes on and on and to put any single item at the center, however important it may, strikes me as odd--and even escapist!

Joe Esposito