| Abstract: |
This note discusses the impact of collection sales (i.e., the bundling of
several journals for sale by publishers to libraries) on journals. The advent
of electronic journal distribution implies that bundling is an efficient sales
strategy, and can act to extend the reach of a journal. Current arrangements
are discussed and shown to lead to tensions between commercial publishers and
non-profit journals. The note argues that non-profit journals should not
abandon their participation in collection sales programmes. Rather, non-profit
journals may benefit from withdrawing from commercial publishers which
distribute their own for-profit journals, and from joining together to be
distributed by less commercial publishers who set relatively low prices for
their collections. |