The Serials Crisis that Promoted Ejournals

The explosion of ejournals has resulted from two converging forces: economics and advances in networked information technology. Much evidence (Butler, 1999) shows that maintaining a high quantity of high priced, low-circulation journals as the primary means of scholarly communication is not the best way to meet user needs; the overheads are unsustainable. The Internet has injected a new element of competition in the publishing world since the cost of print journals has skyrocketed over the past few years. The Association of Research Libraries calculates that its 114 member libraries spent 142% more on journals in 1997 than ten years before, but ordered 6% fewer journals. In the same year, Reed-Elsevier, one of the largest publishers, had exorbitant profits of $378 million on sales of titles. In fact, library costs for serial subscriptions have increased at an average pace of 9.5% a year for the past decade. Institutions have been unable to infuse library budgets with additional funds at this rate, resulting in the cancellation of journals and reduction in monographic purchasing. This "serials crisis" has led many in the academic community to seek less expensive channels for publication, dissemination, and archiving of the scholarly record.

A critic of the high-price, small-circulation journals is Mark McCabe who is an economist at the Georgia Institute of Technology in Atlanta. He spent several years at the U.S. Department of Justice. s Antitrust Division investigating anti-competitive practices. His belief is that many publishers have excessive profit margins that would not exist in a properly competitive market.

Such a situation is even more dramatic when we consider the frequency of use of many journals. In a typical library, half of the journals are consulted no more than 50 times annually and only 15% more than 250 times annually (See graph in Butler, 1999.) The estimated cost is $2,000 (where typesetting accounts for $500) in producing a 20 page article.

Commercial publishers have not been quiet about their own stance on the situation (Beschler, 1998.) They agree that the price tags on scientific literature have been rising and will probably continue to do so. However, they see this as necessary and contend that profits made by commercial publishers are not the fuel for rising prices. Rather, even if the scientific publications were returned to the "academic arena," the costs would not significantly change.

Beschler states the commercial publisher's point is that, historically, the capabilities of the academic community were inadequate to handle the growing mass of publications and they were unable to provide the speed and acceleration of publishing schedules that were demanded to provide an outlet for the scholarly communication. The commercial publishers provided channels of publication that would not have existed otherwise. They provided a freedom of choice about what and how to publish, thus giving voice to many who, in a more controlled setting, would not have been able to disseminate the scholarship.

... commercial publishers claim that if the academic community again controls the publishing channel, it would mean a return to a universe of fewer editorial programs ...

The commercial publishers claim that if the academic community again controls the publishing channel, it would mean a return to a universe of fewer editorial programs with fewer individuals making publishing decisions based upon their own tastes and interests. that is, fewer choices for both authors and the end user of journals. In sum, commercial publishers deserve a return on their investments in scientific publishing. Publishing companies must generate sufficient revenues to pay costs and overheads and return a reasonable profit to the owners to reward their investment.

However, libraries and scientists vehemently disagree and are now striking back. The Scholarly Publishing and Academic Resources Coalition (SPARC) which initiated in 1997 by the US Association of Research Libraries (ARL) is aggressively fighting the high cost of print publications. It is underwriting the launch of journals that directly compete with expensive titles. The 114 member libraries of this association are promising to buy each of them.

Another example of the debate over online versus paper journals is the teaming up of SPARC with the UK Royal Society of Chemistry to start an electronic journal, PhysChemComm which will be a competitor to Elsevier's Chemical Physics Letters. The Elsevier journal sells for $8,000 while the new journal subscription will sell for $350.

In a recent Library Journal Academic Newswire (1999), Elsevier Science Executive Vice President K. Hunter, agreed that since scholars typically do not read all of a journal, just the articles that interest them, the paper journal environment cost effect method of subscription no longer applies in the electronic environment. She states she sees a change in purchasing in libraries where infrequently used journals are more efficiently purchased on a per-article basis. Due to the availability of large databases, there is heavy use of journals not subscribed to by libraries in paper form and a much higher incidence of online usage than print usage.

Libraries are also fighting back on a different and interesting front. The library consortia were established in the 1930s to coordinate interlibrary loans; however, in the past few years the library consortia have taken on a new role, i.e., getting better deals out of publishers for electronic licenses. A prime example is OhioLINK, which is a consortium of 74 Ohio libraries that negotiates statewide access and provides a common interface to users. This approach has given the students and faculty of these institutions access to a far greater number of titles and at a price that their institutions could not have contracted for individually.

An interesting source to find further information on pricing and publishing is in a "free" publication called The Newsletter on Serials Pricing. This publication can be subscribed to by sending an email message to listpro@unc.edu saying "SUBSCRIBE PRICES [YOUR NAME]." Back issues from its inception in 1989 to the present are archived at www.lib.und.edu/prices/.

The second force changing the publication scene is recent advancements in electronic technology and the sophisticated expansion of the Internet. Users are demanding that journals not only publish articles as traditional journals have in the past, they are looking for more convenient and efficient means to access knowledge, educational opportunities and social interaction. Nursing web users want the ability to:

1. access a variety of reliable sources related to patient conditions and situations;
2. receive continuing educational credits;
3. advance educational learning opportunities;
4. access theoretical leaders and other nurses with similar interests or concerns;
5. obtain legal and ethical considerations;
6. access practice leaders and a variety of other individuals who provide help and support in the practice arena.

The use of online conferencing, video conferencing, web pages, distance learning opportunities, chat rooms, ejournals, digital photos, audio and video streaming, and listservs are only a few of the available avenues making nurses feel connected with others in the profession with similar interests and needs.