Electronic journal publishing: economics of production, distribution, and use

Abstract

This paper analyses economic aspects of the scientific scholarly journal publishing, based on production costs and use data. It compares the production of traditional journals with electronic journals, discussing price policies for subscriptions and providing a guide to assess breakeven points, helping libraries to face the option of subscribing to journals or obtaining separate copies through interlibrary borrowing or document delivery.

Scientific scholarly journal publishing; Eletronic journals versus traditional journals