German Mathematicians: A Harbinger of Big Trouble for Sci-Tech Publishing
May 11, 2012
If you pay attention to scientific and technical publishing, you may know that there are significant financial pressures on sci tech publishers like Elsevier, Springer, and their compatriots. But the customers face financial pressures as well. Universities have taken steps to reduce their costs. Libraries have had their budgets cut. Tenure windows have been shut. Even the composition of a university’s faculty has undergone major changes. Some adjunct professors have to moonlight to cover their basic necessities.
I noted a short news item from the technical institute in Munich known as TUM or Technische Universität München. Without a University of Kentucky grade basketball team, most of my neighbors in Harrod’s Creek ignore this outfit. If you are into math, you pay attention to what the institution does.
Navigate to this news item and you will read:
Because of unsustainable subscription prices and conditions, the board of directors of the mathematics department has voted to cancel all of its subscriptions to Elsevier journals by 2013.
Negotiations are underway to work out a deal. The Elsevier organization is meeting to figure out how to prevent an “occupy Wall Street” type of activity among other German universities. If Elsevier does not come up with a solution and quickly, the company would have to cope with push back from authors who are annoyed with the Elsevier publishing policies and fees and cancellation of subscriptions from its best and most prestigious customers.
In short, we may have the first blinking of a yellow caution light for the professional publishing sector. Most consumers don’t know how much it costs to get four or more issues of a technical publication for one year. Some of the articles have been in the editorial and peer review oven for months. Online content is getting better and may be “good enough” for most researchers and students. In the case of math, online delivers more timely results and broad access to a technical write up can yield quicker, higher value commentary.
Will the loss of a single math department’s subscriptions have a significant impact on Elsevier’s financials this month? No. If the cancellation fever spreads and hybridizes with push back from authors, Elsevier could be in trouble, probably within a quarter or two.
Don’t agree? That’s okay. Just post your views in the comments section of this blog.
Stephen E Arnold, May 10, 2012
Sponsored by IKANOW
Comments
-
- Subscribe to Beyond Search
Feature archive
News archive
-
