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- Comments: Gated by NETNEWS@AUVM.AMERICAN.EDU
- Path: sparky!uunet!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!darwin.sura.net!paladin.american.edu!auvm!PSUVM.BITNET!GMP
- Message-ID: <VPIEJ-L%92073112562444@VTVM1.BITNET>
- Newsgroups: bit.listserv.vpiej-l
- Date: Fri, 31 Jul 1992 12:56:00 EDT
- Sender: "Publishing E-Journals : Publishing, Archiving,
- and Access" <VPIEJ-L@VTVM1.BITNET>
- From: GMP@PSUVM.BITNET
- Subject: Copyrights and profit motive
- Lines: 75
-
- I am an author and editor. It is my full time profession now, but I have
- been working for publishing houses for the last 25 years. I know authors of
- all kinds, from threadbare poets to high powered "self help" book writers.
- I know that scholarly writers do not do it for profit. Although a first year
- academic publishing in a quality journal can expedite promotion and tenure,
- raise salary, which in turn raises TIAA contributions which, according to
- an accountant colleague of mine, could make an article worth about $60,000
- over a lifetime in 1990 dollars. Electronic publishing can appeal to this
- kind of motivation.
-
- I have just begun a stint as editor of an electronic journal. I have my
- accountant friend keeping very close track of the costs of "publishing" and
- distributing a Ejournal. I suspect they are somewhat less than a paper
- journal (about $15,000 and issue), but we will know soon. Figuring out how
- to make a profit on scholarly publishing is silly. No one makes a profit
- on journals except for companies who contract with associations who guarantee
- a certain number of copies sold to the membership. That plus standing orders
- to libraries covers the cost and adds a margin of profit. For some houses, this
- can be considerable.
-
- Protecting copyrights is not as complicated as you think. For one thing,
- academics violate copyrights all over the place. Academics steal chapters
- from their colleagues and xerox them for "student packets." They do not even
- bother asking permission. There are several lawsuits going on about this
- matter. Used book publishers make money on someone else's authorship. There
- is a national organization working on this, too. There are very few authors
- who make a living at it. A good text will sell for the first two years, but
- if it does not hit 50,000 copies, everyone loses money. A scholarly mono-
- graph can get by with a sale of 750, if you price it high enough and have
- some libraries as regular customers. It doesn't matter who you steal with,
- if theft is the norm, an I assure you, there are few academics who haven't
- "borrowed" text without paying the fee and most of the time with precious
- little acknowledgment.
-
- At the moment, those who want to do Epublishing are eleemosynary and
- there is nothing to be done about it. But it will probably be no worse than
- in print publishing. When some major trade publisher decides there is a buck
- to be made on electronic publishing, they will, no doubt, contract with
- Compuserv on a fee basis and do it like pay-per-view cable. The technology
- for this already exists, but it is expensive. On the other hand, it is
- no more expensive that chopping a thousand trees, producing paper pulp and
- turning it into newsprint, cutting it, printing the pages, and binding them
- and then shipping them to individuals and dealers. How many of us can afford
- this?
-
- Now, the final issue -- Epublishing could mean a lot to academics seeking
- promotion and tenure. We have yet to document the credibility of Epublication
- and so electronic journals do not attract contributions. I would argue that
- it is absolutely necessary to distinguish between genres of publication. There
- are some Epublications that qualify as newsletters; some as op-ed bulletins;
- some as calendars of events. Some are quasi-scholarly, like the ones that
- feature an article with several commentaries and a rejoinder. This is an
- exciting form of publishing, but it doesn't make it with the "dean's promo-
- tion and tenure review committee."
-
- In the Ejournal I have been asked to edit, we are going to try to qualify
- for promotion and tenure consideration on a reasonable level. I suspect
- Harvard and Princeton would ignore us, but I think we could make it in the
- Big Ten given our editorial board and review policy (and if you can make it
- there, you can make it anywhere).
-
- In sum, we must do our best to maintain scholarly standards, post a
- copyright notice, and hope for the best. We have been doing this in print
- publishing for several years. You would be amazed at the number of companies
- that have taken Chapter 11, and I suspect a number of Epublications will go
- under. Piracy and copyright violation play a major role, but unless you
- want some form of thought police, or imposition of complex and expensive
- controls, you are stuck with doing the best you can.
-
- I hereby release rights to this text and acknowledge that it was
- inspired by the contribution of Kimberly Parker.
-
- Gerald M. Phillips
- Editor: _Interpersonal Computing and Technology: A Journal for the 21st
- Century_
-