From: Sally Morris <[log in to unmask]> Date: Mon, 30 Jul 2012 18:36:58 +0100 There are no accurate estimates for the global value of the total scholarly journals market (believe me, I've looked!). In 2010 Simba estimated the market for English-language journals in STM (the largest sector) at $8.147bn. This is pretty small in the overall scheme of things - in the same year the market for chocolate and confectionery in the UK alone was approx $7.72bn, according to KeyNote! Sally Morris South House, The Street, Clapham, Worthing, West Sussex, UK BN13 3UU Email: [log in to unmask] -----Original Message----- From: Joseph Esposito <[log in to unmask]> Date: Thu, 26 Jul 2012 15:23:00 -0700 This is all very helpful. And it supports the view that no number about publishing can be taken at face value. Now for another number: Where in the world does that $19 billion figure for worldwide STM journal sales come from? That's a huge number. What could possibly be in there? Add up the journals businesses at Wiley, Elsevier, Springer, T&F--and throw in Kluwer, Sage, ACS, and some others, and you don't get near that figure, or near 50% of that figure. Joe Esposito On Thu, Jul 26, 2012 at 2:54 PM, LIBLICENSE <[log in to unmask]> wrote: > From: Sean Andrews <[log in to unmask]> > Date: Wed, 25 Jul 2012 23:23:17 -0500 > > On Wed, Jul 25, 2012 at 12:41 PM, Joe Esposito wrote: > > > From: Joseph Esposito <[log in to unmask]> > > Date: Tue, 24 Jul 2012 20:33:00 -0700 > > > > Nothing new in this article for members of this list, but rather > > surprising for its length. > > > > Can anyone untangle the numbers? Harvard's journals budget looks incredibly low. > > The $3.75 million is just a subset of the subscriptions (coming from > "certain publishers") which they claim have risen especially high in > recent years. I can't figure the difference between "current serials" > and "electronic serials" in the NCES database - and Harvard only has > one year of numbers for e-serials (2010: $8.5 million) - but > according to the most recent numbers, "Current Serials (which are for > 2010, the year cited as the baseline, so not as much help) rose > sharply and suddenly. On the other hand, it appears they were getting > a good bit more for their money overall. Middle number here is > "Current serials" expenditures; bottom number is "current serials > held" > > 2000 - $8,533,502 - 190,528 > > 2002 - $9,735,872 - 106,869 > > 2004 - $10,497,758 - 100,009 > > 2006 - $9,911.521 - 98,988 > > 2008 - $9,248,115 - 110,628 > > 2010 - $15, 233,300 - 157854 > > So certainly these were cheaper in 2000, but since then both the price > and the number of serials has held steady, till 2010 when they bought > about 40% more and paid about 60% more. Again, this is for the period > immediately preceding the baseline. Not sure of the overall budget > today. > > > Also, 50% of all journals are published by a small number of commercial publishers? 50% of the dollars, perhaps, but 50% of the titles? > > No you are right: it is likely dollars. It is a misreading of the > source (handily linked and open access), which states that: > > > Worldwide, the scientific, technical, and medical (STM) segment of > > the academic journal publishing industry generates a little more > > than $19 billion in revenue, with the top ten publishers accounting > > for approximately 43% of that revenue, according to a recent market > > research report referenced by Library Journal > > It appears that both this and the LJ stat are specific to the STM > field. Though in that field, the article goes on to claim that, > "Three giants dominate: Reed Elsevier, Springer and Wiley. Estimates > indicate that these three account for approximately 42% of all journal > articles published." But the citation for this is a report issued in > 2002 by Morgan Stanley (i.e. now 10 years ago) on Reed's profitability > and, so far as I can tell, it makes little mention of Springer. So > not sure where they got that number. > > Sean Johnson Andrews > [log in to unmask] > Assistant Professor of Cultural Studies Columbia College, Chicago > 2011-2013 ACLS Public Fellow > Program Officer > The National Institute for Technology in Liberal Education