Tom Graham's useful summary of current library thinking on pricing, if that
is what it accurately reflects, prompts me to raise some issues which have
recently come to attention. I fear that in some ways we haven't moved very
far on pricing since Serial Review's 1992 special issue on 'Economic models
for networked information' (Vol 18 Nos 1-2).
The key question on pricing is to establish what it is you are buying or
selling. Most current electronic journals mimic paper journals, but this
won't continue indefinitely and there will be major changes. If what a
library purchases isn't based on the current journal model, what will it be?
Some clues are beginning to emerge, but by consciously avoiding the more
radical proposals as the paper does, one example of which is the e-print
archives, it denies the possiblity of answering this question.
There are other new developments that will affect pricing which the paper
doesn't mention. There is superdistribution for example. The basic idea is
not new but it looks as though the technology to implement it is about to be
developed.
One stimulus for superdistribution is the perceived need, especially by
rights holders, for new copyright legislation to cover electronic materials
and the subsequent demand for electronic copyright management systems. The
proposed legislation in this area, particularly in the USA, is highly
contentious. To find out what the possible legislation and ECMSs are, see
'Legal issues associated with ECMSs' by Charles Oppenheim in the latest
issue of Ariadne http://ukoln.bath.ac.uk/ariadne/issue2/contents.html
Some of the implications of these proposals seem to me to be horrendous, and
horribly premature, witness
The Copyright Grab by Pamela Samuelson
see http://www.hotwired.com/wired/4.01/features/whitepaper.html
These issues are far from being resolved, but discussions of future pricing
issues probably ought to factor them in somewhere.
Steve Hitchcock [log in to unmask]
Open Journal project Tel: +44 (01)703 594479
Department of Electronics and Computer Science Fax: +44 (01)703 592865
University of Southampton SO17 1BJ, UK
http://journals.ecs.soton.ac.uk/
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