International Journal of Economics, Finance and Management Sciences

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Determinants of Library Subscription Prices of Economic Journals

Received: 09 October 2017    Accepted: 31 October 2017    Published: 20 December 2017
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Abstract

Although an increase in the prices of academic journals across several decades has been a crucial issue for research institutions, few studies using individual journal prices have been carried out on the introduction of a bundling service called Big Deal. The present study empirically examines the determinants of the prices of 409 economic journals using the latest data. The results found that publishers set higher prices for more frequently cited journals, implying that the demand factor influences the price level in addition to cost factors. Furthermore, prices of journals published by large commercial publishers are higher than those published by professional associations and university presses. However, the prices differ among large commercial publishers, and further investigation is needed to conclude whether they set higher prices by exercising market power. On the other hand, an increase in the number of pages in individual journals caused by an increase in the number of submitted articles certainly leads to a corresponding rise in journal subscription prices. The healthy development of open access journals to ensure that everyone can read articles for free is needed to restrict an increase in the prices of traditional subscription journals.

DOI 10.11648/j.ijefm.20180601.11
Published in International Journal of Economics, Finance and Management Sciences (Volume 6, Issue 1, February 2018)
Page(s) 1-5
Creative Commons

This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, provided the original work is properly cited.

Copyright

Copyright © The Author(s), 2024. Published by Science Publishing Group

Keywords

Economic Journal, Price, Citation

References
[1] Greco, A. N. (2015). Academic libraries and the economics of scholarly publishing in the twenty-first century: Portfolio theory, product differentiation, economic rent, perfect price discrimination, and the cost of prestige. Journal of Scholarly Publishing, 47 (1), 1–43.
[2] Bergstrom, T. C., Courant, P. N., McAfee, R. P. and Williams, M. A. (2014). Evaluating big deal journal bundles. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 111 (26), 9425–9430.
[3] Edlin, A. S. and Rubinfeld, D. L. (2005). The bundling of academic journals. American Economic Review, 95 (2), 441–446.
[4] Dewatripont, M., Legros, P., Ginsburgh, V., and Walckiers, A. (2007). Pricing of scientific journals and market power. Journal of European Economic Association, 5 (2–3), 400–410.
[5] Joyce, P. and Merz, T. E. (1985). Price discrimination in academic journals. Library Quarterly, 55 (3), 273–283.
[6] Liebowitz, S. J. (1985). Copying and indirect appropriability: Photocopying of journals. Journal of Political Economy, 93 (5), 945–957.
[7] McCabe, M. J. (2002). Journal pricing and mergers: A portfolio approach. American Economic Review, 92 (1), 259–269.
[8] Petersen, H. C. (1990). University libraries and pricing practices by publishers of scholarly journals. Research in Higher Education, 31 (4), 307–314.
[9] Petersen, H. C. (1992). The economics of economics journals: A statistical analysis of pricing practices by publishers. College & Research Libraries, 53 (2), 176–181.
[10] Chressanthis, G. A. and Chressanthis, J. D. (1994). The determinants of library subscription prices of the top-ranked economics journals: An econometric analysis. Journal of Economic Education, 25 (4), 367–382.
[11] Bergstrom, T. C. (2001). Free labor for costly journals? Journal of Economic Perspectives, 15 (3), 183–198.
Author Information
  • School of Political Science and Economics, Meiji University, Tokyo, Japan

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  • APA Style

    Sumiko Asai. (2017). Determinants of Library Subscription Prices of Economic Journals. International Journal of Economics, Finance and Management Sciences, 6(1), 1-5. https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ijefm.20180601.11

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    ACS Style

    Sumiko Asai. Determinants of Library Subscription Prices of Economic Journals. Int. J. Econ. Finance Manag. Sci. 2017, 6(1), 1-5. doi: 10.11648/j.ijefm.20180601.11

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    AMA Style

    Sumiko Asai. Determinants of Library Subscription Prices of Economic Journals. Int J Econ Finance Manag Sci. 2017;6(1):1-5. doi: 10.11648/j.ijefm.20180601.11

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  • @article{10.11648/j.ijefm.20180601.11,
      author = {Sumiko Asai},
      title = {Determinants of Library Subscription Prices of Economic Journals},
      journal = {International Journal of Economics, Finance and Management Sciences},
      volume = {6},
      number = {1},
      pages = {1-5},
      doi = {10.11648/j.ijefm.20180601.11},
      url = {https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ijefm.20180601.11},
      eprint = {https://download.sciencepg.com/pdf/10.11648.j.ijefm.20180601.11},
      abstract = {Although an increase in the prices of academic journals across several decades has been a crucial issue for research institutions, few studies using individual journal prices have been carried out on the introduction of a bundling service called Big Deal. The present study empirically examines the determinants of the prices of 409 economic journals using the latest data. The results found that publishers set higher prices for more frequently cited journals, implying that the demand factor influences the price level in addition to cost factors. Furthermore, prices of journals published by large commercial publishers are higher than those published by professional associations and university presses. However, the prices differ among large commercial publishers, and further investigation is needed to conclude whether they set higher prices by exercising market power. On the other hand, an increase in the number of pages in individual journals caused by an increase in the number of submitted articles certainly leads to a corresponding rise in journal subscription prices. The healthy development of open access journals to ensure that everyone can read articles for free is needed to restrict an increase in the prices of traditional subscription journals.},
     year = {2017}
    }
    

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    AU  - Sumiko Asai
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    N1  - https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ijefm.20180601.11
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    AB  - Although an increase in the prices of academic journals across several decades has been a crucial issue for research institutions, few studies using individual journal prices have been carried out on the introduction of a bundling service called Big Deal. The present study empirically examines the determinants of the prices of 409 economic journals using the latest data. The results found that publishers set higher prices for more frequently cited journals, implying that the demand factor influences the price level in addition to cost factors. Furthermore, prices of journals published by large commercial publishers are higher than those published by professional associations and university presses. However, the prices differ among large commercial publishers, and further investigation is needed to conclude whether they set higher prices by exercising market power. On the other hand, an increase in the number of pages in individual journals caused by an increase in the number of submitted articles certainly leads to a corresponding rise in journal subscription prices. The healthy development of open access journals to ensure that everyone can read articles for free is needed to restrict an increase in the prices of traditional subscription journals.
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