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Re: Post Brussels : Elsevier and Australian STM debate 'sprouts'

Is it not self-evident that such a survey will increase the cost of scholarly communications? I am not opposed to such a survey, or to any survey, but one should ponder what it means to make information more efficient. The editor of the Journal of Oz gets nothing, but then sees that the editor of the Journal of Atlantis gets ten grand. Demands will rise (and who can argue that as a matter of fairness that Oz is not worth as much as Atlantis?), pushing expenses up, putting pressure on pricing, taxing library budgets further. Other journal publishers will study the data and say, "Hmmm. We could pay more than that and still make money." So editors and journals will become the object of a bidding war. (This war has been running for years, but the more efficient the information, the bigger the guns.) As the bids rise, so will the prices to libraries.

Of course, I would love to see such a survey. But then I am not a librarian.

Joe Esposito

----- Original Message -----
From: "Sandy Thatcher" <sgt3@psu.edu>
To: <liblicense-l@lists.yale.edu>
Sent: Sunday, March 04, 2007 6:28 PM
Subject: Re: Post Brussels : Elsevier and Australian STM debate 'sprouts'

Nope, Penn State Press pays no support for editorial offices or stipends for editors. All that we provide is, for a few journals, copyediting and for all letterhead stationary if they desire it.

I'm not sure what you mean by "course releases." If you mean release time for faculty from teaching courses so that they can dedicate the time to journal editing, that is not within the Press's power to effect. Journal editors need to negotiate release time with their own department heads. The Press plays no role in these negotiations, direct or indirect.

Since clearly university presses differ in these respects, I suggest that you put together a short survey for journal managers to fill out on the AAUP listserv for journal managers. Then we'll have data that can serve as the basis for making statements.