Scholarly Communications

A variety of economic forces and effects surrounds the issues of copyright and licensing. As is now generally known, serials, most conspicuously Science/Technical/Medical (STM) titles, have exhibited 8-10% annual subscription price increases for almost 2 decades. These increases have brought considerable pressure upon academic libraries resulting in widespread serial cancellations.

Monograph publishers, in turn, have felt the effects of serial subscription inflation. Whereas the typical university press used to publish around 1500 scholary titles, that number has dropped to around 500. Their printing runs have declined as well, down to around 500 or so copies. As a result, scholars, especially those in the first phases of their careers find a much reduced market for their manuscripts. The presses find it ever more difficult with lowered print runs to meet their "first copy costs" - essentially the combined costs of getting to the point of actually printing a copy. With fewer copies the presses have to increase the price per copy to meet inelastic first copy costs. Libraries, with reduced acquisition budgets, are faced with increased costs for books. They decrease the number of books purchased and the publishers then increase the unit price yet again to make up for decreased sales --- which then pressures the libraries to purchase even fewer titles.

Meanwhile the ongoing conglomeration of commercial, for profit publishers continues apace. These publishers have enjoyed enviable profit margins for several years, providing ongoing motivation for cornering ever more of the STM markets.

The current tenure system both causes part of the scholarly publishing crisis and suffers from it. In response to the well known mandate to "publish or perish" and the collaborative nature of research, many scientific papers list almost more authors than pages. This kind of science also tends to promote the publication of the smallest unit of research so as to increase the scholar's publication list. The current status of quantity over quality does little to restrain publication prices. Some attention has begun to be paid to changing the balance to one of significance over number, but much room for change remains.

Intermixed with the evolving technological and economic environments affecting scholarly communications is the arena of copyright/license. Recent changes in copyright law bring with them potentially disruptive changes. Most recently, the Supreme Court has upheld the extension of copyright duration which by postponing the enlargement of material in the public domain brings with it certain restrictions in use.

This extension of copyright was driven my commercial interests. It's often called the Mickey Mouse extension as the Disney corporation's efforts to protect Mickey's trademark value rather than any consideration of freedom of inquiry drove the debate. Increasingly we see information as subservient to entertainment. That is, the entertainment's product is considered, in terms of copyright, just like any kind of information. The end result is economic, commercial interests dominating the statutory action.

The Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) extends this commercial interest into the burgeoning field of digital communications. Other efforts, such as the Uniform Computer Information Transaction Act (UCITA), would, if enacted, restrict many behaviors scholars and teachers have long considered fair use.

Also affecting scholarly communications is the growth of information licensing by commercial ventures. Libraries increasingly rely on licensed access to information as a means of enlarging their available resources. However, licensed access is not the same as purchased ownership. Vendors attempt to control the use of the licensed information which can result in restrictions that would normally be permitted under the copyright statute's provisions for educational use. Licensing practices also hold the potential of complicating preservation of digital resources efforts.

Locally, the Libraries' web page offers orientation and guidance through its web page: http://www.lib.washington.edu/help/guides/copyright.html.