Exploring the Determinants of Scholarly Book Prices in the Fields of Science, Technology, and Medicine

Liu, Lewis G.; Gee, Harold; Terng, Charles

doi:10.1353/lib.2018.0036

Cited by 3 publications

(2 citation statements)

References 17 publications

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“…However, Liu et al (2018) found that in the 14 science, technology and medicine subject areas they looked at, the price differential between print and electronic formats was greatest in the medical, nursing, health and psychiatry category (2.33 times) compared to 1.88 for all categories.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Liu, Gee and Terng (2018) compared ebook and print book prices in 14 subject areas within science, technology and medicine, but did not compare the prices for the ebook and print book formats of the same title nor did they separate out medical books from other health sciences titles. They found that ebooks in the field of ‘medical sciences, nursing, health sciences and psychiatry’ were on average, 2.33 times as expensive as print books.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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A comparative study of medical ebook and print book prices

Watson

2020

Health Info Libraries J

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Background Although most medical libraries buy ebooks, there has been little discussion of the comparative costs of medical ebooks and print books. Objectives To determine whether individually purchased medical ebooks cost more or less, on average, than the same titles in print format and, if so, to calculate the price differential. Methods The author searched the platform of monograph vendor YBP for the 1095 titles in the ‘Clinical Medicine’ category of Doody’s Core Titles 2018 edition. For each title, the print price and the lowest ebook price were noted; the ratio of ebook price to print book price for each title was then calculated. Results On average, ebooks cost 2.20 times more than their print equivalents, though the size of the price differential varied greatly with the publisher. For some publishers, ebooks cost nearly the same amount as print books, while for others, ebooks cost three or even four times as much as the print. Discussion The greater price of some ebooks may make them unaffordable for libraries or mean that those titles cannot be purchased as ebooks even when that format would be preferred. Conclusions Buying ebooks, at least on a title‐by‐title basis, can be very costly for medical libraries.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%