ALPSP Scholarly Publishing Practice Survey

As you may know, we conducted a survey of scholarly publishing practice in early 2003, which was published by the ALPSP as an industry report (Cox, J. and L, Scholarly Publishing Practice, ALPSP, Worthing 2003).  This survey provided a great deal of information on the ways in which journal publishers have responded to the challenges of online publishing and to the expectations of authors, readers and libraries as the online journal market has continued to mature.  The ALPSP has asked us to undertake a similar survey this year to track any changes in policy and practice that may have been adopted.

Since publication of the original survey the market has continued to change. The ALPSP Learned Journal Collection has provided small publishers with the opportunity to participate in large-scale consortia licences. Pay-per-view has developed as an important revenue generator. The Open Access debate has become a major factor governing publishing policy. We have therefore been commissioned to re-examine these issues. The new survey will update the data available in the first survey, and will be based on a broad, representative range of commercial, society and university press academic journal publishers, both not-for-profit and commercial.

The findings from the new survey, to be carried out in the second half of 2005, will be published by the ALPSP in early 2006.