Organization: University of Illinois at Chicago
Date: Monday, 27 Jul 1992 16:40:13 CDT
From: <U53644@uicvm.uic.edu>
Newsgroups: sci.math
Subject: Re: Why are Some Journals so Expensive?
 <hdev.711479188@galaxy> <1992Jul20.140042.8279@athena.cas.vanderbilt.edu>
 <1992Jul23.004719.29335@src.umd.edu>

I'm not sure if this entirely  explains the high cost of some journals (did I
really see one going for over $1000/yr. on the AMS subscription list ?), but
one does have to accept that prices are going to be rather high. Remember,
these aren't being put out using desk top publishing - people seem to want
higher production quality than is available that way. It takes a lot of high
priced labor to set up for the printing of an issue (editing, typesetting, etc.
), there aren't going to be that many issues sold (Math has a small community,
even compared to the other sciences, and most of us would photocopy the
articles we needed even if the journals weren't overpriced.), and costs have to
be recovered. Also, while there has been some semi-sneering about the need for
the company to make a profit - that profit is where management's income comes
from. You really can't ask them to work without pay, can you ? Also, it would
seem a little unfair to expect the stockholders to make do without dividends -
they did undertake some financial risk when they bought their stock in the
first place (and without stock purchases, companies will have more trouble
locating the capital needed to expand - killing new publishers, and preventing
old ones from increasing the number of publications (books included) that they
put out. End result - less to read. Longer publication times.)

So, frustrating as it is, we are going to have to live with higher publication
prices. If a cheaper way to disseminate research results is desired, either
electronic media (databases accesible by e-mail, etc) or desktop publishing
will be necessary. The former seems to be of limited acceptability
(understandably - CRT screens aren't very relaxing to read. Perhaps if the
pixel size was reduced, making for crisper images on the screen, and we used
black letters on a white background (liquid crystal display ?), this problem
would be partially alleviated. Blue on white ? Isn't that supposed to be even
easier on the eyes ?). The latter could be done by any one of you at home -
you just need a PC, a printer, the right software (available commercially),
and paper.

The proposed boycott, though, would be an exercise in futility. The community
would find itself with less reading material at the end of it, and nothing else
would change. To have economic leverage, a community has to have a lot of
spending power, taken collectively, and the Math community simply hasn't that
sort of leverage.

                                              Joseph B. Dunphy

                            "You (expletitive deleted) trotskyite yuppie !"
                             (recent flame). Is that someone who wants to
                             distribute BMW's to the masses ?


e-mail responses not welcome : anything that you aren't willing to say in
                               public here is best left unsaid.

I refuse to participate in any Socialism vs. Capitalism debates, and will
ignore all commentary along those lines.

Newsgroups: sci.math