Developments in digital journals

Abstract

This article explores recent developments in the production and delivery of scholarly journal articles in digital form. It identifies the key stakeholders as authors, publishers, librarians and end users. It explores their concerns with regard to the digital journal production and delivery chain. It also explores the interrelationships of different stakeholder groups and considers how their concerns accord or conflict. The paper goes on to review cost and pricing developments. There appears to be no relationship between production costs and subscription prices of scholarly journals. Journals are priced according to what the market will bear, but, at the same time, the market is inelastic. As a result, prices have consistently increased annually at a rate well above the general inflation rate for the last two decades. Digital publishing by publishers has done nothing to relieve this problem. The 'serials crisis' has been the impetus for a number of developments that aim to use digital technology to reduce costs for the HE sector. These include alternative models of journal production such as that proposed by Harnad, and initiatives that aim to influence the structure of the market for scholarly journals with a view to driving prices down such as SPARC and HighWire Press. These developments are reviewed.

Exploring the Willingness of Scholars to Accept Open Access: A Grounded Theory Approach

“…In contrast, trade authors seek to profit from their work and thus protect it from unauthorized use. 7 The 'open' in 'open access' means that access to full-text academic works is available free of charge. C.L.…”

HighWire Press and Its Journey to Become the World's Largest Full-Text STM Online Journal Collection

“…In a 2001 article discussing developments in digital journals, HighWire Press was hailed as one of the most promising initiatives emerging from the Higher Education sector, in part for its goal to reform the academic structure of academic publishing. 19 High-Wire Press has made great strides in achieving this goal.…”

Applications of outsourcing theory to collaborative purchasing and licensing

“…The remaining types of interaction concern changing relationships between libraries and publishers and publishers and the partnership is strained when librarians face what are seemingly exorbitant rises in journal prices (Halliday & Oppenheim, 2001) • sharing, and adaptation of vision • social and personal bonds.…”