New: Allen Press Releases 2012 Study on Scholarly Journal Pricing | LJ INFOdocket

Use the link to access the full text study.  “From the News Release: ‘The study, published regularly, has evolved as a result of the current economic climate and the changing nature of scholarly publishing. The study summarizes data on historical prices over the past two years from approximately 220 publications appearing in the Allen Press Buyer’s Guide to Scientific, Medical, and Scholarly Journals as well as more than 20 society/association publishers who were surveyed about pricing trends and future plans for their publications.  A new component provides an overview of the challenges facing libraries with potential impact on scholarly publishers. This includes insights into how libraries make purchasing and cancellation decisions in the 21st century. In addition, the study reports on industry trends pertaining to content distribution and subscription models.’  From the Study: ‘For all titles in the study, price increases in 2012 averaged 5.8%, down from 7.5% in 2011.  The average price increase of non-US-based journals surpassed US-based titles in 2012. Since 2010, the average annual increase of non-US- based journals has been nearly two percentage points higher than that of US-based journals.  The majority of the titles in the study are peer- reviewed journals. In 2011, the average annual price increase of peer-reviewed journals from 2010 was 7.6% compared to 6.3% for non-peer-reviewed journals. The average price increase for peer-reviewed journals dropped by more than two percentage points in 2012 compared to 2011; however, the average price increase for non- peer-reviewed titles was down by more than 4%, further widening the already significant price gap between peer-reviewed and non-peer-reviewed journals (Table 2).  Average prices increased in nearly all subject categories in 2012. Physics, Music, and Technology had the highest average price increases, with more than a 10% change. Chemistry, Engineering, and Technology titles were the highest priced of all journals in the study. History, Education, and Philosophy & Religion titles were the least expensive. Agriculture was the only subject reflecting a reduction”