The DOI matches its Crossref record.
Publishing Perils in Academe: The Serials Crisis and the Economics of the Academic Journal Publishing Industry
Abstract
The continual escalation in academic journal prices threatens the quality and future of academic library collections. This situation arises from market forces that react to, and take advantage of, the unique characteristics of academic libraries and scholarly publishing. These characteristics include the unique role of academic libraries, in their mission of serving as accessible repositories of knowledge, and the unique activity of scholarly publishing, in which every journal title is unique without a close substitute. The combination of these of factors leads to the lowest price elasticity of demand for the libraries and the highest degree of product differentiation for each journal title. While some solutions being offered to alter the dilemma hold promise, the unique characteristics of the market appear to discourage more equitable pricing without a radical restructuring of the industry or of the relationships between the consumers and the producers of academic journals.
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“From the mid-1990s, however, an imbalance developed in the market for journals, which ultimately built up into the so-called ' serials crisis ' (Hanekop and Wittke 2005; McGuigan 2004; Tenopir and King 2000).”
From The structural transformation of the scientific public sphere: Constitution and consequences of the path towards open access (2024) · cites this paper as McGuigan 2004
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Cites
Still being checked.
Research works printed but not linked: 14
- Albee B., 1999, American Libraries, 30, 85
- Ammer, C. and Ammer, D. S. 1984.Dictionary of Business and Economics, 145New York: The Free Press.
- 2001, Monthly Labor Review, 124, 77
- Carrigan D. P., 1996, Journal of Scholarly Publishing, 27, 215
- 10.1300/J124v11n02_02 · DOI
- Frazier K., 1998, Library Journal, 123, 41
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- Okerson A., 1996, Scholarly Publishing: The Electronic Frontier, 190
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- Standard & Poor's Industry Survey. 2001. Vol. 168, 11New York: Standard & Poor's Inc. Publishing. 43, Section 2
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Cited by
Sorted by citations
Dobusch, L., & Heimstädt, M. (2024) · Philosophy & Social Criticism · doi:10.1177/01914537231203558 · Cited by 8
Metadata
- Authors
- McGuigan, G. S.
- Affiliations
- Pennsylvania State University (US)
- Corresponding author
- McGuigan, Glenn S.
- ORCID
- McGuigan, Glenn S.
- Venue
- Journal of Business & Finance Librarianship
- Publisher
- Informa UK Limited
- Published
- 2004-09-23
- Volume
- 10
- Issue
- 1
- Pages
- 13-26
- ISSN
- 0896-3568 (ISSN-L)
- 1547-0644
- OpenAlex
- W1518012722
- Cited by
- 25
- References
- 0
- Citations by year
- 2026: 2 · 2025: 2 · 2024: 2 · 2023: 2 · 2022: 2 · 2021: 3 · 2020: 1 · 2018: 1 · 2017: 1 · 2016: 2 · 2015: 2 · 2012: 1
- FWCI
- 2.16
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- Journal of Business & Finance Librarianship (publishedVersion)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Library and Information Sciences › Publishing and Scholarly Communication
- Social Sciences › Library and Information Sciences › Library Science and Information
- Social Sciences › Library and Information Sciences › Library Collection Development and Digital Resources
- Keywords
- scholarly publishing, academic libraries, library resources, price elasticity, product differentiation, market structure, journal subscription costs
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- CoChat. (2026). Citation check: Publishing Perils in Academe: The Serials Crisis and the Economics of the Academic Journal Publishing Industry. https://app.cochat.ai/papers/10.1300/j109v10n01_03
- The paper
- McGuigan, G. S. (2004). Publishing Perils in Academe: The Serials Crisis and the Economics of the Academic Journal Publishing Industry. Journal of Business & Finance Librarianship. https://doi.org/10.1300/j109v10n01_03
