Digital Scholarly Publishing

     As we discuss the strengths and weaknesses of digital texts, archives, and retreival systems, it's important to note that every year English 241 has run, the academic publishing world has moved further toward total dependency upon digital publication.  The economics of digital vs. print publication are overwhelmingly, at first, in favor of digital.  "Hit" tracking enables, or at least promises to enable, proof of articles' usage and, therefore, importance.  Print publication quality control methods, like peer review and careful editorial practices, can be easily imported to an e-publication model.  Nevertheless, the way forward is perilous.  Between 1986 and 2004, for instance, North American college and university libraries reported spending 273% more for scholarly journals, whereas consumer prices rose by 73%--journal prices went up four times faster.  These articles are recent (in 2011) and lay out the current landscape of digital scholarly publication fairly carefully. 

Maron, Nancy L. and K. Kirby Smith.  "Current Models of Digital Scholarly Communication: Results of an Investigation Conducted by Ithaka Strategic Services for the Association of Research Libraries."  The Journal of Electronic Publishing 12:1 (February 2009).  Available at: http://hdl.handle.net/2027/spo.3336451.0012.105.   Originally published by the Association of Research Libraries at http://www.arl.org/bm~doc/current-models-report.pdf[1].  Appendix B contains a list of digital publications organized by type (e-journals, pre-print journals, blogs, databases, etc.).

White, Sonya, and Claire Creaser.  "Trends in Scholarly Journal Prices 2000-2006."  LISU Occasional Paper no. 37.  March 2007.  The authors concentrate their attention on Biomedical and Social Science journals, which experienced the greatest price inflation during this period.  Biomedical journal median prices increased in those six years from 42% (Oxford Journals) to 104% (Sage).   Social science journal prices increased between 47% (Elsevier) to 120% (U. Chicago).  (For a quick overview see tables 2.1 and 2.2 on page 17, the median journal subscription price increases by publisher.)

Electronic Scientific, Technical, and Medical Journal Publishing and Its Implications: Report of a Symposium (2004).  Committee on Science, Engineering, and Public Policy.  The National Academies Press.  Available through the hyperlink above.  See especially Chapter 2 ("Costs of Publishing").  It's not as cheap as it looks!  Note that this book is available in print (as a $31.95 paperback) or for free online.  What kind of readership and publishing model is that?  (Stranger things have happened in the history of print book manufacturing and sales.   We'll get there.