Economists Criticize "Free Ride" for Journals

-- Library Journal, 11/11/2005

Two California economists have penned "An Open Letter to All University Presidents and Provosts," suggesting a new way to deal with rising journal costs: charging back "expensive journals" for things like editing and peer review, essential services that most faculty have historically provided journals either for free or for a nominal fee. "It is time to recognize a simple fact," wrote the U. of California Santa Barbara's Ted Bergstrom and California Institute of Technology's Preston McAfee. "The symbiotic relationship between academics and for-profit publishers has broken down. The large for-profit publishers are gouging the academic community for as much as the market will bear."

Bergstrom and McAfee suggested the formation of a "list of expensive journals," for which a university would ultimately set its own policy on recovering overhead expenses. Based on rough estimates of manpower, space, and other materials, the authors suggested that a charge of "at least $12,000 per year" would be appropriate for an "expensive" journal. Those that remain below such a threshold, however, would not be charged. Making that list of "expensive journals," could be a challenge, however, as bundled deals for electronic access, consortial buying, and access terms unique to each school would complicate such a task. Most faculty members have been understandably reluctant to challenge powerful journals that are crucial to their academic careers. A university-wide policy, the authors argue, would shield individuals from that decision. More importantly, they wrote, dealing with journal expenses should be a matter of university policy because the "entire university community is harmed by the draining of library budgets."