Date: Tue, 11 Mar 1997 16:59:51 +0100
From: Simone JEROME <sjerome@ULG.AC.BE>
Subject: Re: Periodicals Prices (Albert Henderson)

At 08:41 7/03/97 -0600, Albert Henderson wrotes:

>Subscription cancellations have forced
>prices more sharply upward than would be the case if cost variables were
>confined to increased numbers of pages, foreign currency values, and
 inflation.
>I think that libraries' budgets have had a greater impact on pricing than
 the
>reverse.
>

>As long as universities fail to support their libraries as they do their
>research programs, supply and demand will be out of balance and prices will
>continue to surge upward just as a constriction creates a fountain.

Dear fellow librarians,

I do not know if many US librarians agree with Mr Henderson's view
but from a European point of view, I cannot.

I am a librarian since 1970. The problem is not a new one but it
has now reached a break point. As a librarian and a scientist
I cannot discuss the matter from an economic point of view and I should
be glad if an economist not an editor can give me insight into the
problem.

But from the point of view of the librarian, there are facts
which cannot be easily dismissed and I prefer facts to
discourse.

I have done some comparisons between the different subscriptions
I have in my library (chemistry-biochemistry) and the results
although fragmentary give nevertheless some interesting information.

I agree with Mr Henderson when he said in a previous message that
lengworthy and detailed studies on periodicals prices are a loss
of energy and that their usefulness is dubious. That's why I do
not spend my time in them. I prefer trend studies.

I took 11 journals from my subscription list at random but not
blindly. One third from what I consider as cheap journals, one third
middle-priced journals and the other third expensive ones. Of
course my choice may be biased and I have to check my assumptions
comparing not only the prices and their evolution from 1977 to date
but also the evolution of their price-per-page.

The three hits in terms of price-per-page in my list are in the year 1996 :
        Journal of biological chemistry
        Journal of physical chemistry
        Nature
As my calculations are not in $ currency, I fixed their average
price-per-page at 1.0. and I compare the average price-per-page
of the three journals with the highest score. It is 14.6 times
higher than in the first group.
I shall not write the names of the three journals as a previous
message on the subject almost dragged me into court but I am
sure that any chemistry librarian is able to find the set or
a replacement one. That is rather easy.

When I compare 'absolute' prices, only 'Nature' stays at the top.
The other two titles are replaced by titles publishing less
pages at a 3.2 higher rate.
At the bottom, two of the most expensive price-per-page titles
are also absolute price leaders. The third although in the same
price range as the 'Journal of physical chemistry' publishes
13 times less pages and is a sort of budget leak title which is
on the fringe for the next budget reduction except if the patrons
which are claiming the title find a solution for an alternative
external support .

If I look at the ratio between 1996 and 1977 price-per-page, I see
that they range on a scale from 1.45 for the lower to 8.66 for the
highest. The fact that the former is a US journal and the latter
a UK one explains nothing as for a continental  European customer
it seems to have no relationship with the evolution of the two
currencies.

When I look at the ISI impact factors , I see that two of the hits
have the highest IF. As biomedical journals generally
scores higher than journals in other disciplines, it might be an
explanation. However the 'Journal of physical chemistry' IF although
lower than the other two is significantly higher than any other
chemistry journal in the list except one which is of the review type.

Only 3 of the 11 journals have a lower IF in 1995 than in 1976 and
two of them are among the most expensive journals whether in terms
of price or of price-per-page. Is there an inverse relationship
between quality of a journal and its price ? It would deserve an
in-depth study which this is not.
To be sure that no statistical discrepancy occurs, I also checked
the 1986 IF against the 1995 one. During the last decade, four
periodicals only increased their IF. The IFs were likely fostered
in the 1976-1985 decade by the outcoming of online searching technology
which made bibliographic work easier and favored the citation process
but here again it is an assumption.

I cannot agree with Mr Henderson when he is advocating more budgets
for the library. In a finite system, more budgeting for one part is
depriving another and it is education and research which may be
affected if more budget is devoted to libraries. And what is a
library without its patrons ?
Doing so would be possible only in a socialist-type planned economy
as it consists in supporting overpriced and underused periodicals
which I fear, are doomed to disparition if every library applies
the free market laws of offer and demand.

But a librarian is always reluctant to cancel a subscription because
periodicals are no mass market goods and cannot replace each other
at will. A journal is unique and would it be useful for only one
patron, it seems to many of us untouchable.

I think nevertheless that the discrepancies in terms of economic
value are now so great that we can no longer escape painful but
necessary choices.

I should be glad to listen at economists and librarians on the topic.

Simone Jerome

I know that no claim from me frees my Institution of its responsibility
in what I say and write but as I am trying to defend its budget,
I hope it will be indulgent.

I thank The American Chemical Society, the American Society for
Biochemistry and Molecular Biology as well as the MacMillan
Company for publishing top-quality journals at a price which
remains the most affordable to any library.

Simone JEROME, Librarian
University of Liege
Institute of chemistry B6
4000 Sart Tilman (Liege 1)
BELGIUM

sjerome@ulg.ac.be
former address : udspring@vm1.ulg.ac.be