Study on the economic and technical evolution of the scientific ...

4. SCIENTIFIC PUBLISHING
IN THE ELECTRONIC
ERA: INSIGHTS FROM
INDUSTRIAL ECONOMICS
The previous section has documented the
significance of price differences across scientific
journals. The next sections discuss the
evolutions of the market implied by the
‘electronic revolution’. After stressing the key
features of this industry which are relevant in
this current context, the report turns to pricing
policies and access issues.
4.1. TWO-SIDED MARKETS,
NETWORK EFFECTS AND
BUSINESS MODELS
As stressed earlier, a key feature of the
“traditional” reader/library-pay scientific
publishing model is its ‘two-sided’ nature and
the presence on each side of the same agents,
with publishers being intermediaries between
authors/producers and libraries, which represent
readers/consumers: 49
• Upstream: authors want to be published and
therefore view publishers and journals as
substitutes, possibly imperfect substitutes
when journals carry different reputations.
• Downstream: readers want to have access to
the stock and flow of knowledge and therefore
view publishers and their journals as
complements (it is not enough for them to
have only a subset of the top journals for
example).
Publishers fulfill a double mission for individual
researchers:
• Dissemination of good research: distribution
and production of journals
• Certification: in fact provided by upstream
and downstream segments: researchers
provide services as referees and editors for
peer review, and also “vote with their
writing” by citing other researchers’ works.
Technological evolution has a different impact
on the two missions of academic journals,
dissemination and certification. Indeed, while
the Internet is not currently affecting the
certification process (except for the fact that,
with the computation of impact factors and the
increased reliance of such indicators in academic
incentive schemes, the ‘unavoidability’ of
highly-cited journals has been strengthened in
recent years), it is making dissemination of
existing research much easier (through individual
homepages and search engines).
Recent evolutions suggest that certification
could be done through other means than journal
publishing. 50 It is an open question at this
point whether future business models will
continue to bundle these two activities, or
whether a separate certification service will
emerge, distinctly from dissemination.
The ability of authors to post their articles on
web pages or within repositories modifies the
role of intermediation. Traditional intermediaries
(publishers) are not really needed for publication
of these articles (since they are produced by
the authors) nor for the diffusion of these
articles (which is performed via the www).
But even in this ‘open access model’ (hereafter
OA model) there is a role for intermediaries to
facilitate access to information, to certify it and
to ensure that the flow of knowledge that is
embodied in the articles posted on the www will
be preserved. These activities are costly (see the
chapter on preservation of archives in this study)
and will be provided by commercial intermediaries
only if the return on the activity is positive.
In either model (the traditional reader/library-pay
model and the OA model), some intermediation
is needed and the sustainability of the business
model will reflect the ability to generate network
effects, that is, to attract both authors and
readers in such a way that both find a benefit of
participating. Authors because their reputation
benefits from participating and readers because
they have access to quality information.
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