Because of the high price of academic journals, making them available at the University’s Knight Library is becoming more complicated than the material found inside the actual publications.
Library officials say that because the field of scholarly publishing has become more profit-oriented, journal subscription costs have increased at an average of nine to 11 percent per year. The library staff has already had to cut 2,400 journal titles and is predicting another cut in 2003.
Gina Psaki, an associate professor in romance languages and chair of the library committee, said the national problem began when commercial publishing houses realized the kinds of profits they could make.
“They realized university libraries had to have certain titles, so they acquired them and started jacking up the prices,” she said. “They have an enormous profit margin that Microsoft can only envy.”
Because of the high journal prices, the library is also buying fewer books to make up for the costs.
The library does this, Psaki said, so its supply of journals is not completely wiped out.
“We cut across the board because we can’t afford to penalize one of our disciplines,” she said.
Psaki said this affects everyone, because while graduate students and professors often require the complex journals, undergraduates usually prefer books for their research needs because the language is less elaborate.
“We’re accidentally disregarding our undergraduates,” she said.
The University Senate recently passed a resolution of support for a University Library Committee report that outlined the issue and suggested several possible solutions. The committee encourages University authors to retain copyrights of their work and learn the pricing practices of the journals in which they are published.
Taking pressure off faculty who think they have to publish in expensive journals to advance their careers is also suggested in the report. Psaki said journals generated by non-profit, academic societies charge only 10 to 20 cents a page, while commercial publications charge as much as 60 to 80 cents per page.
“It’s so not a local problem,” she said. “It’s national.”
David Strom, an associate physics professor, said the physics department has felt the effects of journal cuts.
“Every couple years we have to cancel a fraction of our journals the University subscribes to,” he said.
Strom said all too often professors feel pressured to publish in expensive journals because they think they need published clips in order to advance in their jobs and gain tenure.
“This is often what young professors feel they have to do,” he said.
Strom said the University Senate plans to work with the library committee to help encourage professors to publish through non-profit professional publications instead.
Deborah Carver, interim University librarian, said the library chooses which titles to cut by involving professors and getting their feedback about which journals are used more than others.
“Some libraries cut only on the basis of costs, but we don’t think that’s always the best approach,” she said.
But Carver said she is hopeful about emerging alternatives, such as publishing on the Web.
“Up until now the commercial sector has had a lock on some of the most prestigious and expensive journals,” she said. “But the faculty has gotten fed up and is looking for solutions to solve the problem.”
James Schombert, an associate physics professor who teaches astronomy, said his department has been able to avoid publishing companies altogether by publishing on the Web. But he said he is aware that some University departments often need the journals.
“All the journals are just too expensive,” he said.
While Schombert agreed the price of academic journals is a problem, he said he does not think publishing companies are purposely trying to swindle money out of college libraries. He said their production costs have increased because they now publish both on paper and on the Internet.
“Even though this is a problem, it’s not like someone is gouging someone else,” he said.
Schombert said the real problem is that the companies are aware of the situation but aren’t taking action to find solutions to lower the costs.
“Publishers are showing no desire to change this because they have a captive audience,” he said. “Libraries have to buy the journals.”