From: Anthony Watkinson <[log in to unmask]>
Date: Sun, 8 Jul 2012 12:29:22 +0100

I have rather belatedly checked out the AAUP site to see what form
the operating statistics take and in order to compare them with AAP and PA
stats but alas they are only open to members. Can Sandy tell us what they
measure? Do they go in to costs? Most representative organisations only
aggregate sales stats as far as I know.

Some years ago I conducted what turned out to be the final survey of stats
relating to serials publishing among PA members. The PA still cannot get
reliable information on actual revenues for journals sales for the industry
which they would like to have for submissions and direct requests to
government. Book sales are easy. Journals sales are very difficult indeed
for reasons which I could explain at length. I provided extrapolations
because I knew which companies had provided information, but this is hardly
something you can rely on or offer to government. But I realise that I do
not know what information Ari is actually asking for?

Anthony

-----Original Message-----
From: Sandy Thatcher <[log in to unmask]>
Date: Wed, 4 Jul 2012 10:46:22 -0500

The AAUP, as I mentioned in another message, surveys its members
annually and produces a very thorough set of operating statistics. So
the information exists for university presses. Alas, there appears to
be nothing comparable for commercial publishers, so the comparison you
ask for cannot be undertaken.

Sandy Thatcher


> From: Ari Belenkiy <[log in to unmask]>
> Date: Tue, 3 Jul 2012 11:52:55 -0700
>
> Sandy, I meant the "quality of paper" control. And I fully subscribe
> under concerns of leaving the process of publishing within University
> borders expressed by Rick and Anthony in another thread.
>
> But I think our discussion must be resolved by statistics.
>
> Do you have all that necessary for computation: number of University
> presses, their capacities vs. the same from publishers.
>
> (Of course distribution of facilities must be close to normal
> distribution or Pareto law but this must be proved not assumed).
>
> We can make a comparison with numbers - then the "rises and falls" of
> the Finch report will be more pronounced.
>
> Ari Belenkiy
>
>
> On Tue, Jul 3, 2012 at 4:33 AM, LIBLICENSE <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
>
>>  From: Sandy Thatcher <[log in to unmask]>
>>  Date: Sun, 1 Jul 2012 22:51:24 -0500
>>
>>  Ari, as you will see, Chicago distributes for a substantial number of
>>  other publishers: http://www.press.uchicago.edu/cdc/publishers.html.
>>  So do the other presses I mentioned.
>>
>>  I'm not sure what you mean by asking about "quality control." All
>>  university presses are mandated to have quality control procedures in
>
>  > place for their operations. That is what makes them university
>  > presses.
>  >
>  > Sandy Thatcher