The Strategic Marketing of Science, Technology, and Medical Journals: A Business History of a Dynamic Marketplace, 2000-2020

ISBN-13: 9783031319631 / Angielski

Albert N. Greco

Opis

This book analyzes the various economic and marketing strategies utilized by the five major STM commercial scholarly journal publishers since 2000. This period has witnessed tremendous economic, marketing, and technological growth including the migration from a print only to a hybrid publishing format. With this growth, the industry has also seen the rise of open access publishing, copyright challenges by websites such as Sci-Hub, the emergence of sharing platforms such as ResearchGate and Academia.edu, as well as the impact of Plan S on publishers, universities, and authors. Given this incredible rate of change across the industry, the author explores the diverse strategies and structures created by the largest STm publishers to decipher their effectiveness in addressing technological, ethical, and copyright issues. Also, he examines how mergers and acquisitions diversified operations, such Elsevier's acquisition of Bepress, SSRN, and SCOPUS, among other platforms. Scrutinizing the different managerial, marketing, technology, and economic-financial strategies crafted by scholarly journal publishers between 2000-2020, this book offers a comprehensive assessment of the industry's attempts to identify, understand, cope with, and minimize or defeat the herculean threats to its business model.

Spis treści

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Dedication 

Preface

Introduction: (N.B.: While the emphasis will be on the U.S. market, major foreign markets will be addressed)

• Definition of the scientific, technical, and medical (STM) journal sector (N.B.: the terms scientific, technical, and medical journals, STM, and journals will be used interchangeably in this book);

• Review of the literature (books; journals; industry reports; blogs; etc.);

• Introduction to the methodological approach in this book:

(a) This is an industry and marketing analysis and a business history of the scholarly journal sector between 2000-2020 (a period of substantive change and disruption in this book category);

(b) An introduction of the key managerial, marketing, economic-financial, and strategic theories of: Alfred D. Chandler; Ted Levitt; Michael E. Porter; Robert H. Hayes &William J. Abernathy; and Clayton Christensen; their theories and observations form the overarching approach to analyzing the competitive strategies developed by: Elsevier; Kluwer; John Wiley; Informa/ Taylor & Francis; Springer Nature; Oxford University Press; Cambridge University Press; PLOS; BioMed Central; and various academic societies (e.g., the American Chemical Society);

(c) A detailed discussion why Porter’s “Five Forces” (i.e., the threat of new entrants; the bargaining power of buyers; the bargaining power of suppliers; the threat of substitutes; and competitive rivalry) will be the primary methodological approach in the book;

(d) In addition, the emergence of the European Union and enticing business opportunities in China, India, the Pacific Rim plus key markets in South and Central America, Africa, and the Middle East clearly sparked interest in global publishing opportunities. 

Chapter 1: The State of the Scholarly Journal Publishing Industry in 2000 

• A review of the number of: colleges; undergraduate (i.e., junior or community college and four-year college students) and graduate and professional school students; and faculty members at U.S. colleges in 2000 (data from the National Center for Education Statistics, NCES; N.B. while data will be collected for both undergraduate and graduate/professional school students, the term “student” or “students” will refer to all students unless otherwise noted); 

• An analysis of the basic business models utilized by the major scholarly journal publishers (e.g., Elsevier; Kluwer; etc.); mergers and acquisitions (e.g., Wiley’s acquisition of Blackwell); and the emergence of large “mega” journals (e.g., PLOS);

• A detailed analysis of scholarly journals and the 4Ps (i.e., product, price, placement, and promotion);

(a) Product: printed and digital-online products in 2000 published by the major publishers; financial data (from public data released by the publishing firms and industry analyses) about these companies and market share data; brief analysis of the major STM journal categories (N.B.: some historical data on the years from the mid-1990s will be included when relevant);

(b) Price: average prices (from The Bowker Annual and The Library and Book Trade Almanac; N.B.: The Bowker Annual changed its name to The Library and Book Trade Almanac in 2008); and net publishers); definitions and analysis of major business,  accounting, and economic terms (e.g., price elasticity and inelasticity); 

(c) Placement: channels of distribution (N.B.: students will be viewed as consumers in this book; and consumer behavior theories will be analyzed when relevant); library reserves; 

(d) Promotion: (e.g., direct mail; online; advertisements; academic conferences).

Chapter 2: The Impact of Disruption: 2001-2012 

• A review of the number of colleges, students, and faculty members at U.S, colleges 2001-2012 (N.B.: the statistical table will also include NCES projections to 2025);

• Analysis of the substantive ideas of Christensen on disruption; and the emphasis on vertical “cascade theories” (i.e., journal portfolio management theories);

• A review of important changes, between 2001-2012, including:

(a) The development of the internet offering students access to digital journals and articles; 

(b) The growth and pricing of digital journals;

(c) The emergence and acceptance of Open Access journals and academic libraries publishing peer-reviewed journals;  

(d) The acceptance of pre-prints, e.g., articles on SSRN and BioMed Central; etc.); and 

(e) An analysis of the financial positions of the major scholarly journal publishers 2001-2012.

Chapter 3: The Impact of Legal, Intellectual Property, and Copyright Infringement Issues: 2000-2020 

• A review of substantive sections of: Article 1 Section 8 of the Constitution of the United States (i.e., the legal protection of copyrights; patents; and trademarks); and the Copyright Law of the United States (i.e., 17 U.S.C.);

• The importance and wide acceptance of the use of Creative Commons licensing in the journal sector;

• The acceptance of The Impact of the Kirtsaeng decision by the Supreme Court of the United States (e.g., the legal importation of textbooks previously barred by the Supreme Court of the United States in the Bobbs-Merrill Co. v Straus decision in 1908);

• The Impact of the ReDigi decision in the Southern District of New York, the 2nd Circuit, and the decision of the Supreme Court of the United States not to take ReDigi’s appeal (e.g., ReDigi’s request to create a resale market for digital products, including textbooks, was deemed to be a violation of 17 U.S.C. Section 106(1) by both the Southern District of New York and the 2nd Circuit); response of the E.U. regarding the resale of digital products (entertainment andmedia products);

• The impact of the development and wide-spread utilization of Sci-Hub; and the decision in a United States District Court (in the Southern District of New York) that Sci-Hub stole and posted illegally, in violation of 17 U.S.C.,  +1 million books (including textbooks) and +60 million scholarly journal articles;

• The emergence of predatory journal publishing firms;

• N.B.: Any major copyright case involving print and/or digital books and textbooks will be analyzed if information is available during the preparation of the manuscript.

Chapter 4: The Responses of the Major Textbook Publishers: 2013-2020 

• An analysis of the financial positions of the major STM publishers 2013-2020 (N.B. data for 2020 will be added if available; different STM publishers utilize different fiscal years);

• The impact and acceptance of Porter’s “Five Forces” as a workable framework to address the key items listed in the above chapters;

• An update on major changes in the 4Ps;

• Publisher merger and acquisition strategies; the movement toward providing various professional services (e.g., workflow) to the academic community; and the reaction of various “for profit” web sites (e.g., Academia.edu); 

• An Analysis of the positions taken by some of the major industry trade associations (e.g., AAP: Association of American Publishers; ABA: American Library Association/ACRL; regarding the issues raised in the above chapters);

• The development major STM publishing outside the U.S. (e.g., China Science Publishing and Media, CSPM); and 

• The Announcement of Plan S and its potential impact on the academic community and STM publishers. 

• The development of “read and publish” models.

Chapter 5: The Future of STM Journals

• A review of the projected number of colleges, students, and faculty members at U.S, colleges to 2025 (NCES data);

• Evaluation of the growth of online undergraduate and graduate academic programs that rely frequently and/or only on digital (and not printed) “educational materials;”

• Projections of where Plan S and the STM sector will be in the next five years (i.e., 2021-2025) and possible textbook publisher strategies.

Notes 

Bibliography

O autorze

Albert N. Greco is Professor of Marketing at the Gabelli School of Business at Fordham University, USA. He has authored or edited 27 books, mostly in relation to the book and scholarly journal industries, though he has also written extensively on the newspaper, magazine, information, and radio sectors. 

Blurb

This book analyzes the various economic and marketing strategies utilized by the five major STM commercial scholarly journal publishers since 2000. This period has witnessed tremendous economic, marketing, and technological growth including the migration from a print only to a hybrid publishing format. With this growth, the industry has also seen the rise of open access publishing, copyright challenges by websites such as Sci-Hub, the emergence of sharing platforms such as ResearchGate and Academia.edu, as well as the impact of Plan S on publishers, universities, and authors. Given this incredible rate of change across the industry, the author explores the diverse strategies and structures created by the largest STm publishers to decipher their effectiveness in addressing technological, ethical, and copyright issues. Also, he examines how mergers and acquisitions diversified operations, such Elsevier's acquisition of Bepress, SSRN, and SCOPUS, among other platforms. Scrutinizing the different managerial, marketing, technology, and economic-financial strategies crafted by scholarly journal publishers between 2000-2020, this book offers a comprehensive assessment of the industry's attempts to identify, understand, cope with, and minimize or defeat the herculean threats to its business model.

Albert N. Greco is Professor of Marketing at the Gabelli School of Business at Fordham University, USA. He has authored or edited 27 books, mostly in relation to the book and scholarly journal industries, though he has also written extensively on the newspaper, magazine, information, and radio sectors.