Re: Study Identifies Factors That Could Lead to Cancelled Subscriptions

[Sandy Thatcher <sgt3@psu.edu>]

> There's another study, in less depth but covering some 
> additional questions (such as how much of the content would need 
> to be free) from ALPSP - see 
> http://www.alpsp.org/publications/pub12.htm
>
> Between the two, we do seem to have strong pointers to the 
> likely dangers to subscription journals once self-archiving 
> reaches critical mass (which may vary between disciplines, and 
> even between journals)
What is most interesting to me, comparing these two studies, is 
that they disagree sharply about the apparent value accorded to 
the "value added" by publishers through copyediting, etc. How 
does one explain this disparity?

> It seems to me that we need to make research funders, 
> governments etc very clearly aware of this danger
And that is precisely the purpose of the AAUP white paper in 
progress, which extends the warning beyond journals to monographs 
as well, even though they are not the subject of the current 
controversy.

Sandy Thatcher, Penn State University

> Sally Morris, Chief Executive
> Association of Learned and Professional Society Publishers
> Email: sally.morris@alpsp.org
> Website:  www.alpsp.org