Confirming Suspicions: An Analysis of Original Communication Studies Journal Price Data

ABSTRACT

Journal publishers are marketing experts who leverage every advantage when selling to academic libraries. Using 10 years of raw price data for 137 communication studies journals, the author documents the increasingly profitable relationship that academic publishers have with the field of communications. The data show that subscription costs in communication studies have outpaced those of all U.S. journals, tripling during the period studied. The much slower growth in library budgets signals a crisis for libraries that cannot hope to keep pace with these trends. By addressing rising journal costs and publisher practices, the study serves as a tool enabling librarians to better manage their journal budgets and collections and plan for future challenges.

KEYWORDS:

• Academic publishers
• communication studies
• journal prices
• periodicals
• scholarly publishing

Notes

∗Tied rankings.