Non-profit publishers of scholarly journals, such as the American Chemical Society and the American Mathematical Society, are less defensive about their pricing policies. Librarians rarely criticize their prices, which can be as little as a fifth of those charged by similar commercial publications, according to studies reviewed in this month's Notices of the American Mathematical Society. Beyond questions of affordability lie other areas in which libraries and publishers of all stripes may not soon agree. The topic on which the two sides are most likely to agree is the coalition's request for stable archiving. Publishers say they are eager to talk about such options as delivering archived material in CD-ROM or on computer tapes.
Some publishers are also open to enlisting third parties to preserve electronic materials.
This story provides analysis of and reactions to a statement released in March by dozens of library consortia about the state of academic publishing. The Chronicle covered the release of that statement in an earlier on-line story.