From: JJE Esposito <[log in to unmask]>
Date: Sun, 11 Nov 2018 19:57:46 -0500

Adam,

If I understand your question correctly, it should be pointed out that many publishers sell large packages (aka "Big Deals") to corporate accounts. Corporations do not purchase materials as widely as universities, though in many cases they purchase materials with what one could call greater intensity by working with business research firms that do not sell their content to academic institutions. I have never seen a thoroughly convincing analysis of what are known as "sales by channel," but only humanities publishers find all of their customers at universities. For some STM publishers the percentage of academic sales is as low as 30%. Most STM publishers have about 40-60% of their revenue coming from academic accounts. 

I am baffled why academic librarians seem to think that they are the only customers for peer-reviewed research material. I am also perplexed by librarians' interest in OA, since OA materials go to corporations for free. Plan S, to take one of many examples, is a gift to the likes of Exxon Mobil, Dupont, Google, and Aetna. 

Joe Esposito

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@josephjesposito
+Joseph Esposito


On Sun, Nov 11, 2018 at 5:13 PM LIBLICENSE <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
From: Adam Siegel <[log in to unmask]>
Date: Fri, 9 Nov 2018 19:41:53 +0000

Hi Rick,

There's nothing intrinsically illegal about a cartel.

Can you point to purchasers of "big deal" packages other than academic/research libraries?

Adam

________________________________________

From: Rick Anderson <[log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>>
Date: Thu, 8 Nov 2018 02:17:26 +0000

Adam, what cartel are you referring to? Are publishers colluding with each other to exert illegal control over a market?

Also, what monopsony are you referring to? A monopsony is a situation in which there’s only one buyer for a product. I can’t think of any publisher that is in such a position.

---
Rick Anderson
Assoc. Dean for Collections & Scholarly Communication
Marriott Library, University of Utah
Desk: (801) 587-9989
Cell: (801) 721-1687
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From: Adam Siegel <[log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>>
Date: Thu, 8 Nov 2018 00:44:34 +0000

And rather than monopoly, we should be looking at a cartel's ability to exploit a monopsony.

Adam Siegel
Business, Economics, and Agricultural and Resource Economics Librarian
University Library
University of California, Davis
Davis  CA  95616
http://people.lib.ucdavis.edu/~apsiegel/


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