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Re: Restraint of Trade? 

    I also suppose that publishers are perfect competitors and have
    never discussed pricing policies and strategies with their industry
    counterparts?   

    Back in the middle 80's when journal prices were starting to skyrocket,
    we conducted an analysis of journal price margins year-to-year 
    by publisher type and found what some, even then, suspected -- that
    there was a far greater margin of increase amongst the group of
    for-profit publishers versus non-profit, usually society publishers.
    Our results indicated increases of nearly three times that of the
    societies. Although we have not calculated such a factor recently, I
    would not be surprised if it remains a goodly multiple to that of the
    non-profits. 

    This raises several questions, including whether there is
    good production cost data supporting such increases or whether this
    drive up the skyway is motivated by industry perception of a captive 
    client base ... in which case, it is easy to follow a price leader.

    So ...an implicit Restraint of Trade ... or an unconscious (?) exercise
    of "Monopoly Power" on the other end of the trade transaction ??
      
   C. J. Glodek, Ph.D., M.S.L.S.
   Director, Research Library
   Karmanos Cancer Institute
   Detroit, Michigan


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