Open Access facts from Peter Suber

David Weinberger:

I'm enjoying my friend Peter Suber's small book Open Access. He's a very clear and concise writer, and of course he knows this topic better than anyone.

Here are some facts Peter mentions:

In 2008, Harvard subscribed to 98,900 serials. Yale subscribed to 73,900. "The best-funded research library in India...subscribed to 10,600." And, Peter points out, some Sub-Saharan universities cannot afford to subscribe to any. (pp. 30-32) Way to make yourself smart, humanity!

"In 2010, Elsevier's journal division had a profit margin of 35.7 percent while ExxonMobil had only 28.1 percent." (p. 32)

The cost of journals has caused a dramatic decrease in the percentage of their budgets research libraries spend on books, from 44% in 1986 to 28% now. "Because academic libraries now buy fewer books, academic book publishers now accept fewer mauscripts..." (p. 33)

Posted by Jim Zellmer at August 7, 2012 2:18 AM
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