Re: Pricing of Journals

On 27 Jan 1999, Bert Boyce <lsboyc[_at_]lsuvm.sncc.lsu.edu> wrote:
>
> On 1/26/99, Albert Henderson <noblestation[_at_]compuserve.com> wrote:
> >
> > You should get surplus revenue dollars by increasing expenditures
> > to equal revenues. Dept. of Education figures for the state of
> > Louisiana, for instance, indicate surplus revenues of $9 million
> > in FY94 and $59 million in FY95. You would probably need only a
> > small fraction.
> >
> > Going back 20 years in the Digest of Education Statistics, one
> > cannot find a single year in which public or private higher
> > education ran in the red. Instead, we see surplus revenue
> > (in constant dollars) tripled while library spending increased
> > by one third!
>
> I think we should continue this discussion off list, if at all,
> since it is not really copyright in subject matter.

Ok. I think I've made my point that the AAU members proposing to dilute publishers' copyrights aim to increase their profits -- not to relieve their penury.

My sources at the National Center for Education Statistics tell me that the numbers are supplied by the schools themselves. They are "current funds" revenues and expenditures, suggesting real money rather than "paper" growth of marketable securities, etc. Here are the definitions in use since 1987 according to NCES 97-441 CURRENT FUNDS REVENUES...

     Current Funds Expenditures. The costs incurred for goods
     and services used in the conduct of the institution's
     operations. They include the acquisition cost of capital
     assets, such as equipment and library books, to the
     extent current funds are budgeted for and used by
     operating departments for such purposes.

     Current Funds Revenues. Includes all unrestricted revenues 
     earned during the reporting period as well as restricted 
     revenues to the extent that such funds were expended for
     current operating purposes. They do not include restricted
     current funds received but not expended because these
     revenues have not been earned.

Definitions in DIGEST OF EDUCATION STATISTICS 1997 help explain:

     Current-fund expenditures (higher education) Money
     spent to meet current operating costs, including
     salaries, wages, utilities, student services, public
     services, research libraries, scholarships and fellow-
     ships, auxialry enterprises, hospitals, and independent
     operations. EXCLUDES LOANS, CAPITAL EXPENDITURES, AND
     INVESTMENTS. (caps are mine).

     Current-fund revenues (higher education) Money
     received during the current fiscal year from revenue
     which can be used to pay obligations currently due,
     AND SURPLUSES REAPPROPRIATED FOR THE CURRENT FISCAL
     YEAR. (caps are mine)

I may have Weberian paranoia, but I am convinced that administrators are motivated to keep score by how much the endowment increases and is worth -- not by anything remotely connected to effective education and research.

All best wishes,

Albert Henderson
Editor, PUBLISHING RESEARCH QUARTERLY
<70244.1532[_at_]compuserve.com> Received on Sat Jan 30 1999 - 12:28:53 GMT