Gary, Not wanting to defend high price increases I do think that you should take into account the number of papers published in the average journal in the various fields and how this number develops over time. The typical humanities journal may have 4-6 issues with 4-8 papers, so 16-48 papers per annum whereas the typical chemistry journal may have 8-12 issues with 24-48 papers resulting in 192-572 papers per annum. This partly explaines the big interfield journal cost variety.
I suspect that the pressure to publish and sheer growth of the number of researchers has caused these numbers to rise over the past few years, also in humanities. That also partly explaines the rising journal costs. So take a per article view. Or academics should decide to write less and read and think more ;-) Jeroen Bosman Utrecht University Library -----Original Message----- From: goal-boun...@eprints.org [mailto:goal-boun...@eprints.org] On Behalf Of Omega Alpha | Open Access Sent: woensdag 25 juni 2014 17:58 To: goal@eprints.org; sparc-oafo...@arl.org Subject: [GOAL] Is there a serials crisis yet? When it comes to Theological and Religious Studies journals, I’d have to say yes Is there a serials crisis yet? When it comes to Theological and Religious Studies journals, I’d have to say yes http://wp.me/p20y83-X4 The other day, over on Library Journal’s website, Dorothea Salo published a short piece entitled “Is There a Serials Crisis Yet? Between Chicken Little and the Grasshopper,” which, as it happens, I read the evening after participating on a panel presentation at the American Theological Library Association’s annual conference in New Orleans. The panel was entitled “Open Access: Responding to a Looming ‘Serials Crisis’ in Theological and Religious Studies.” My role on the panel was to place the case for open access within a context that suggested unsustainable journal pricing was no longer limited to disciplines in the Sciences. Although Humanities journals, including those in Theological and Religious Studies, are still typically priced at a fraction of Science journals, I provided evidence that rapid increases in prices over a relatively short period of time pointed to a looming serials crisis in our disciplines. … As I mentioned, when we think of the “serials crisis” we have tended to associate it with journals in the Sciences. Humanities journals, including titles in Theology and Religion are priced at a fraction of Science journals. I threw this table up on the screen from figures I pulled from the 2014 Library Journal Periodical Price Survey. Since Philosophy & Religion journals are so “cheap” we might be tempted to ask, “So what’s the problem?” To illustrate the problem as I see it, I shared some in-progress research I am doing on title and price changes for Theological and Religious Studies journals published by the Big 5 commercial academic publishers… Your comments are welcome. Gary F. Daught Omega Alpha | Open Access Advocate for open access academic publishing in religion and theology http://oaopenaccess.wordpress.com oa.openaccess at gmail dot com | @OAopenaccess _______________________________________________ GOAL mailing list GOAL@eprints.org http://mailman.ecs.soton.ac.uk/mailman/listinfo/goal _______________________________________________ GOAL mailing list GOAL@eprints.org http://mailman.ecs.soton.ac.uk/mailman/listinfo/goal
