Re: journal and publication costs, corrected figures

[David Goodman <dgoodman@phoenix.Princeton.EDU>]

Joe--and others-- these are, at best, sample data for a few large
libraries.  They are not an analysis. There are many more libraries to
consider, and many more system components. I hope more data can be
obtained, and a proper analysis can be performed, but I am not under the
delusion I have done so. One cannot properly extrapolate my data to show
the overall cost of a system such as that of Velterop would be lower.  I
think it wold be, but I certainly cannot prove it at this point.

(BTW, the "#NAME" error message should just be read as a space--sorry
about that.)  David Goodman

On Fri, 17 Jan 2003 espositoj@att.net wrote:

> If it were true that journals were indeed priced by the article, there
> might be something to this analysis, but journals are not priced that way,
> any more than music CDs are priced by the song.  Nor are they priced as a
> strict function of cost.  They are (mostly) priced as a function of
> several factors, including costs, risk, invested capital, and market
> opportunity.  The biggest expense is in finding customers--call this
> marketing--which is very difficult in a world that is awash in published
> research.
>
> Joe Esposito