Re: The religion of peer review

["Peter Banks" <pbanks@diabetes.org>]

What you describe is not, strictly speaking, a monopoly, though I 
realize it may feel like one. There is no publisher who owns all 
or nearly all of the market. There are no barriers to entry into 
the market. Libraries and authors have choices, including 
reasonably priced and highly cited nonprofit society journals, 
open access journals, and even a fair number of for-profit 
journals that do not engage in predatory pricing.

This is not the Wild West. This is a market in healthy 
transition, where consumers are justifiably turning their backs 
on publishers who offer high prices, poor service, and 
restrictions on information that promotes social welfare. Big 
bundles deals may seem too good to turn down, but they don't 
exactly rise to the level of Don Corleone saying, "Make them an 
offer they can't refuse."

Rather than fantasizing about class action lawsuits, or promoting 
a government takeover of publishing through a granter-funded 
system, why not steer authors and readers to journals whose 
prices bear some reasonable relation to costs and who provide a 
reasonable level of access. Nonprofit publishers fit that 
description.

Peter Banks
Publisher
American Diabetes Association
1701 North Beauregard Street
Alexandria, VA 22311
703/299-2033
FAX 703/683-2890
Email: pbanks@diabetes.org