Scholarly publishing plays a pivotal role in the dissemination of research. While a great deal is known about the companies active in this sector, we need to know more about the employees of the firms that edit, produce, market, and distribute today's scholarly books and journals. To achieve this goal, the researchers conducted an international survey in late 2014 and early 2015 of approximately 6,121 scholarly publishing employees in 33 nations. The researchers received 828 usable questionnaires. Some of the substantive findings about the respondents include: 90.79% identified themselves as white;85.07% worked in scholarly publishing for more than 5 years; 60% held graduate or professional degrees; and 49% worked in editorial departments. Key suggestions include the need for annual surveys of this type and that the majority of scholarly publishing firms need to address the issue of diversity.
Scholarly journals play a substantive role in the dissemination of knowledge among academics, and university presses have been exceptionally active as journal publishers. But since 1981 a series of events has affected, and in some instance adversely affected, journal publishing.
This article evaluates the economic structure of academic and non-academic libraries; the impact of the 'serials crisis' on academic and non-academic library budgets and non-profit university presses; the impact of libraries on the academic life of universities; the impact of the electronic distribution of scholarly content on libraries, academics, students, and university presses; the response of the library community to scholarly book and journal pricing structures; the potential impact of changes in library configurations; the possible impact of the Open Access movement; and the potential impact of the 'work for hire' theory.
albert n. greco, robert m. wharton, and falguni sen Drawing on the data collected by Yankee Book Peddler, this article analyses the average prices and title output of books published by university presses and commercial scholarly and professional publishers in 2009, 2010, and 2011. The authors also sought to answer a series of questions that have long perplexed the entire university press community: First, are too many scholarly books being published in North America; second, what are the channels of distribution for these books, and have they changed recently; and third, can university presses develop a strategy that will enable them to maintain their role as the pivotal source of substantive scholarly research?
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