Re: copyright under stress

On 6/26/2000, Craig A. Summerhill <listmgr[_at_]cni.org> wrote:
>
> The chief thing that makes an academic journal different than _Time_
> magazine is the rigorous editorial process the articles undergo.
> With a few rare exceptions that have specialized printing needs (_The
> Journal of Mass Spectrometry_) the actual costs associated with
> publication of an academic journal are not to be found in the printing
> process. Nor is there all that much cost in copy editing. Most
> academic journals have required authors to submit their works to the
> editor electronically for 10-15 years and all the suspect tools (spell
> checkers, grammer checkers, page layout tools, etc.) are used. The
> significant costs are related to staffing, the editorial process, and
> peer review. The more specialized the discipline, the greater the
> need for reviewers with specialized knowledge. These kinds of costs
> don't change all that much just because the articles are being
> disseminated electronically.

     While Craig's summarization of the academic journal production process is very close to my understanding of how things work, I have to object once again to the sentiments in the last three sentences above. It is certainly true that these costs don't change much (although e-mail has certainly reduced the postage costs in this process) but one has to realize that they are not born by the publisher. They are services provided by academic volunteers. I have been reviewing papers for academic journals in library and information science for 30 years, and have never received one red cent from a publisher for these efforts. I do it as a service to the profession, because I need to keep up with the literature anyway, and because membership on editorial boards is looked on favorably by my employer. I do receive compensation for a monthly column I write for the Journal of the American Society for Information Science, but at far below my regular hourly rate. Most academic journal editors are not publisher employees either, and work on the same basis. The true costs for these services would indeed be very high, and unaffected by electronic distribution, if they were a real cost of production. They are not.

BRB Bert R. Boyce, Professor & Dean
School of Library & Information Science
Louisiana State University
267 Coates Hall
Baton Rouge, LA 70803

     (225)388-3158
FAX: (225)388-4581
LSBOYC[_at_]lsu.edu Received on Tue Jun 27 2000 - 13:39:29 GMT