Roles of publishers, subscription agents, and institutional subscribers in the academic journal business : Opinions after reading the “Series: Perspectives on serials crisis and scholarly communication practice”

Abstract

Three parties consisting of publishers, subscription agents, and institutional subscribers have formed a relationship to make a concerted effort to achieve the same purpose in terms of scholarly communication through academic journal subscription. However, price increase of academic journals by publishers has made the relationship unstable. This text examines the feasibility to construct a new relationship among those three parties through reviewing the relation of academic journal business stakeholders i.e. publishers, subscription agents, and institutional subscribers. And it also shows the factors leading to the price increase through consideration of the exceptional market structure inherent in academic journal business. Additionally, through the overview of the actual conditions of academic journal business including the one in the past, it forecasts the future of academic journal business and scholarly communication.