From: Heather Morrison <[log in to unmask]>
Date: Mon, 19 Dec 2011 21:02:16 -0800


Usage-based pricing makes sense for resources that are limited in
nature, such as electricity or gas. As these kinds of resources become
more scarce, prices go up, providing a necessary disincentive to
usage.

For scholarly knowledge in electronic form, usage-based pricing such
as pay by the drink or pay per view, is at the very best a stopgap
measure to address the high cost of subscriptions. However, as a
default model this presents significant challenges for education and
for scholarship.

When we pay by the use, the research of the first and second year
students are likely to be seen as a cost item, and cut in times of
hardship. Similarly, pay-per-use is a reason to turn away the walk-in
user. Odlyzko found (with respect to internet usage) that cost-per-use
discourages usage, even at very low cost-per-use rates. In scholarly
terms, this is discouraging reading and research.

Examples of how libraries use usage-based pricing to discourage
excessive use are photocopier / printing costs and ILL fees.

If scholarly articles and journals are assessed by usage, this will
work against areas with fewer researchers. Without outlets for
publication, there could be impacts on whole fields. Consider, for
example, how many researchers are likely to be studying and reading
about any one endangered species (excluding the popular and cute).

This is a topic I write about in some depth in this book chapter
(includes the Odlyzko citation):
http://summit.sfu.ca/item/439

My perspective is that there is point in moving to pay-per-use when
open access is growing so rapidly that even commercial publishers are
now moving to compete in this arena.

best,

Heather Morrison
Doctoral Candidate, Simon Fraser University School of Communication
http://pages.cmns.sfu.ca/heather-morrison/
The Imaginary Journal of Poetic Economics
http://poeticeconomics.blogspot.com