From: Ann Okerson <[log in to unmask]> Date: Thu, 23 Feb 2012 19:36:59 -0500 Early in Chapter 4, referenced below: "Most scholarly journals are now sold in bundles, often through license agreements that contain nondisclosure agreements, making the kind of per-journal comparison done by Barschall very difficult." A few comments about that sentence: (1) the list prices of the journals are still available, without difficulty, so the comparison could be done; (2) it is possible -- it takes time but we've done it without much conceptual difficulty -- to use today's list price, factor in annual contractual price caps, and calculate a revised (generally lower) per title price that libraries are currently paying within the bundle and to work from that corrected figure. To be sure, with method (2), it would be more tme-consuming to do a title by title comparison with Barschall's data. But, why exactly would one need to do this, since today there is a variety of more granular methods useful for establishing value for individual or bundled journals, for a given library or consortium Ann Okerson ---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: Heather Morrison <[log in to unmask]> Date: Tue, 21 Feb 2012 20:50:32 -0800 Anthony Watkinson wrote: > What are scholar-led journals please? Response: journals led by active scholars (as opposed to professional not-for-profit or commercial publishers). These are often small independent journals; many find online hosting and support services through their libraries. Edgar and Willinsky talk about the OJS phenonenom as a renaissance of scholar led publishing in this article: Edgar, B. D., & Willinsky, J. (2010) (In press). A survey of the scholarly journals using open journal systems. Scholarly and Research Communication, Retrieved August 27, 2011 from http://pkp.sfu.ca/node/2773 In brief, the free, open source Open Journal Systems developed by Willinsky and colleagues in the Public Knowledge Project, is now used by over 10 thousand journals all over the world, many of which are smaller independent journals led by scholars. The group surveyed had an average expenditure of $188 per article. A full flip to this system would result in the greatest cost savings for libraries (over 90% of current spend). The $2 million in savings for Iowa assumes a mixed model, half of publishing in open access journals using OJS at $188 per article, and the other half using the article processing fee approach with an average of $1,350 (the PLoS ONE fee). If anyone is interested in more detail, please see chapter 4 of my draft dissertation, The Economics of Scholarly Communication in Transition: http://pages.cmns.sfu.ca/heather-morrison/chapter-4-economics-of-scholarly-communication-in-transition/ There are some charts and graphs, so I like to think that it's easier reading that one might guess from the title. best, Heather Morrison The Imaginary Journal of Poetic Economics http://poeticeconomics.blogspot.com