RE: Graphing the Bergstrom and McAfee Journal Pricing Data

["David Goodman" <David.Goodman@liu.edu>]

What surprised me in the data, as analyzed by Phil's graphs, was the 
extent of overlap between the nonprofit publishers and the for-profit 
ones.

It would be interested to see whether this were due to particularly high 
costs or particular low value between the major non-profit publishers, 
just as the for-profit publishers differ from each other. Obviously, this 
can be calculated from the posted data from Bergstrom and McAfee, but 
before I begin such a tabulation, I ask if anyone else is doing it or 
planning it?

Among the factors not included in Bergstrom & McAfee is analysis by number 
of uses as well as by citations. In view of the analysis which Phil 
previously reported of the wide variation in correctly comparing use 
figures between publishers, this cannot be done yet. When it becomes 
possible, we can continue the old debate about whether the downloads or 
the citations are more important.

Having read the postings cited by Phil, I find them clear evidence that 
the writers are unable to think of any significant objections to the data 
and interpretation.

Dr. David Goodman
Associate Professor
Palmer School of Library and Information Science
Long Island University
dgoodman@liu.edu