A subscription costs HOW much?

My work is done for the semester and I have officially reached the halfway point. During the last bit of course project polishing yesterday, I got an email from one of my subscription discussion lists about Elsevier. The email pointed to an article criticizing Elsevier's subscription prices. Now, I'm not naive; I know that libraries pay lots of money for subscriptions to journals and databases that they provide to their patrons. For universities, this cost is huge (for my university, knowing how many databases I have access to--well over one hundred--I cringe to think what the cost is) because of the need for research material for students and faculty, and it's even more if the university provides both print and digital access. But finding out what the cost is for some of the journals that Elsevier provides was, in a word, shocking.

One of the titles mentioned in the above article is Biochimica et Biophysica Acta, a journal with a subscription price of a mere $20,930 to US subscribers (the libraries in Japan must pay $31,000 a year for the same title). I took a look at the subscription list that is available to view to verify the price and to see how many issues that annual subscription pays for. It looks like there are 100 issues, as this subscription includes several titles, not just one; however, that still amounts to $209 per issue. And I found a few other gems: Analytica Chimica Acta for 1 year is $11,994 (48 issues which amounts to about $250 per issue), Annals of Nuclear Energy for 1 year is $4637 (12 issues which amounts to about $383 per issue), and Atherosclerosis--a medicine journal--for 1 year is $5955 (12 issues which amounts to about $496). This was just from skimming through the list of titles beginning with an A. Take a look for yourself; you can find the librarian subscription list here: http://www.elsevier.com/wps/find/journalpricing.cws_home/subscrippricelistlibr/description.

I find it hard to justify these exorbitant costs especially since, as Rob Kirby said in a letter to his colleagues, "We mathematicians produce the papers, serve as editors, and serve as referees, all for free (except of course for our support by our universities and employers). Then with relatively small improvement to the product, publishers turn around and sell it to our libraries at (in many cases) a very high price" (view the full letter). Those academics in the field do the groundwork, and Elsevier (and other publishers of scholarly work) take the final product and sell it for a huge mark-up. And for the most part, they've done it with impunity. Libraries bow their heads and find ways to shoulder the subscription prices, sometimes having to make cuts in other areas in order to continue receiving a title considered "vital." This is exploitation, and it is wrong.

Tim Gowers very eloquently explores this issue in two posts on his blog. The first post, from late January, notes four of the biggest criticisms of Elsevier's business practices and explores ways in which academics and libraries could take a stand, but the key to both solutions relies on strength in numbers to gang up on the "bully" and tell Elsevier that the academic community will not put up with their exorbitant subscription prices. The second post was made in response to Elsevier's open letter defending their practices. Gowers addresses the points that Elsevier tries to make and raises some valid questions.

One thing that I question is the legality and ethics of this. The public is essentially paying twice for the research being closely guarded by Elsevier and other publishers. #1 The public pays the taxes that helps to fund the research grants that universities apply for to fund the projects that allow the faculty to do the research that's used to write the articles sent to the journal for publication. #2 The public pays the taxes or tuition that help to fund the libraries that purchase the published journals with the articles written to explain the research. Still with me? It's criminal to force libraries to pay through the nose for information the public served by the library has already paid for. I agree with Gowers in that it is time for a change--this system is broken and it's long been time for us to throw it away. Research is done with the intent to provide important/new/meaningful knowledge for the field its done for and to help make advances that better us--not to help publishers line their pockets.

If you're an academic and wish to show your support and protest against Elsevier's practices--and hopefully send a message to other journal publishers--please consider adding your name to The Cost of Knowledge, a website for researchers who are taking a stand and promising to refrain from publishing, refereeing, or performing editorial work on any Elsevier publication. Once I receive my degree and/or begin submitting my work for publication, I will be adding my name to this list as well.