Scholarly Publishing on the Electronic Networks:
A Synopsis of the Conference


by Jinnie Y. Davis, Assistant Director for Planning & Research,
North Carolina State University Libraries

Each fall, university press publishers, librarians, and other academics 
interested in electronic publishing turn to the annual symposium on 
Scholarly Publishing on the Electronic Networks for a stimulating and 
information-packed venue.  The 160 symposiasts attending the fourth such 
symposium, held in Washington, DC, from November 5-7, 1994, continued 
the tradition of trenchant information exchange established by its 
founders, the Association of American University Presses (AAUP) and the 
Association of Research Libraries (ARL).  With the collaboration of the 
University of Virginia Library, the Johns Hopkins University Press, and 
the American Physical Society, the associations focused this year on the 
areas of cost recovery and electronic fair use.

At the 1993 symposium, librarians and publishers stressed the importance 
of working together to resolve common problems.  For 1994, the emphasis 
shifted to the creation of order out of the information chaos.  The 
attendees stressed the importance of experimentation with new models of 
cost recovery that allow profitability and fair use, while fully 
exploiting the potential of electronic publishing to increase 
accessibility and utility.  Presenters of the latest research and 
development from the not-for-profit sector demonstrated a willingness to 
plunge into new multimedia projects with diverse collaborators, even 
without solutions to the economic conundrums.

School's Out?

The keynote speaker was Lewis Perelman, author of School's Out.  
Perelman's views of how education is changing and must change are 
provocative and have been widely discussed.  The author commented that, 
since its publication in 1992, he has been surprised at how cautious and 
modest his vision has become.  Things have moved faster than he 
expected, and the learning revolution by and large is taking place not 
in schools and colleges, but in the workplace.  Perelman also admitted 
that he now finds inexplicable how little he had to say about the role 
of libraries, possibly because their role is so obvious.  He welcomes 
comments about the book via Internet at pearl@media.mit.edu.

Frankenstein Redux and Medieval Shopping

Michael Eleey, Associate Vice Provost, University of Pennsylvania, 
offered a multimedia presentation of his institution's electronic 
publishing project.  The Committee on Electronic Publishing and 
Interactive Technologies, which organized the project, is composed of 
representatives from all aspects of the university:  faculty, library, 
university press, computing, university relations, business, and museum 
staff.   One campus initiative, the Freshman Reading Project, offers 
students from four University of Pennsylvania schools a shared 
intellectual experience through reading and discussing a common text.  
The text selected for discussion in 1993, Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley's 
Frankenstein, provided an exciting opportunity for electronic publishing 
with faculty and student involvement. 

Martin Irvine and Deborah Everhart, both from Georgetown University, 
presented a multimedia demonstration of The Labyrinth, a project that 
makes medieval resources available to scholars over the Web. The 
Labyrinth is also intended as a model for collaboration among scholars, 
university presses, librarians, and WWW developers.  Irvine proposed 
ways in which the Web can be used for cost recovery, offering scenarios 
for merging the goals of wide access and profitability. 

Cost Recovery in an Electronic Publishing Environment:  Issues and 
Perspectives

A panel of five speakers offered unique perspectives on cost recovery in 
electronic publishing.  Sandra Braman, Institute of Communications 
Research, University of Illinois, delivered a brief introduction to the 
emerging field of the economics of information.  Braman predicts more 
competition among academics and that academic publishers will continue 
to be gatekeepers, fulfilling their primary roles as certifiers of 
knowledge.  After a period of turbulence, there will be far fewer 
academic scholars, fewer producers, and fewer people to give copyright 
to publishers.  Braman recommends unbundling and re-thinking our 
commitment to the stages of the Internet production chain:  creation of 
new thought, followed by the generation, collection, and processing of  
information.

Colin Day, University of Michigan Press, addressed the difficult 
problems of pricing electronic publications Òin a context of remarkable 
unclarity.Ó  Cost recovery is usually seen as a minimum requirement for 
pricing.  As examples of pricing schemes for electronic journals, Day 
cited those of the Johns Hopkins University Press, the MIT Press, and 
Mathematical Reviews.  All three show the merit of simplicity, with 
Mathematical Reviews the best example of differentiation between first-
copy costs (a data access fee of $3,595) and incremental costs for 
differing delivery modes.  Day noted the need to have incentives for 
both supply (to encourage innovation and investment) and demand (to make 
materials available to all who need them).

Andrea Keyhani, Electronic Publishing, OCLC, offered a corporate 
perspective in the electronic journal arena.  Publishers can create new 
products by recombining clusters of journals (e.g., by extracting all 
reviews from existing journals to construct a review journal).  Keyhani 
noted that publishers and librarians are in a position to know what 
appeals most to users.  She sees new opportunities in the sales (and 
online billing) of 	individual articles.  With centralized systems, the 
user can create new pathways to information, be connected to 
bibliographic databases, and receive instant delivery.  

Jean-Claude Guedon, Department of Comparative Literature, Universite de 
Montreal, noting the specifically American context of the discussions so 
far, stated that his paper would take a global perspective of the 
economics of learned journals.  The economic model of traditional print 
journals is well known, and the trend toward imminent collapse is clear.  
With scholarly publishing of electronic journals, savings may reach 25 
to 30 percent, as the costs of printing and mailing disappear.  Guedon 
suggested separating individual monies from collective, institutional 
monies:  sales to individuals constitute about 25 to 30 percent of 
profits, so in the electronic publishing environment, savings would 
equal revenues from individuals, and library subscriptions could balance 
accounts.  By adding subsidies to library subscriptions, one can make 
them available universally.  Scientific research would become a truly 
worldwide enterprise, with more opportunity for participation by Third 
World countries.

Hal Varian, Department of Economics, University of Michigan, referred 
the audience to Web address http://gopher.econ.lsa.umich.edu for 
materials on economics and the Internet and for FAQs (Frequently Asked 
Questions) about Internet pricing.  According to Varian, the benefits of 
usage pricing are more efficient use of bandwidth and capacity, revenue 
generation for growth and expansion, and more effective support of new 
applications.  

What will the effects of multimedia be?  With the large file sizes 
required, Varian foresees a dramatic increase in gopher and Web traffic, 
with demand out of sync with bandwidth growth.  Because different 
services tolerate delay differently (e.g., delay is more tolerable with 
electronic mail than with real-time video), users will have to declare a 
priority for usage but need an incentive to do so.  Fixed costs would 
cause usage prices to recover only the fixed costs of network capacity; 
capacity-based connection fees would be a better approach.  Varian 
suggested a two-part tariff of a subscription fee and a congestion fee.  
He calculated current ASCII text costs at an average of $1.20/year, 
given current traffic, going up to as much as $100/month, if everyone 
moves to use of video.  The point of usage-based pricing is not to cover 
current costs through connect fees, but to match use to capacity. 

Like Trying to Patent Sunlight:
Fair Use in an Electronic Environment

In ÒCreating Multimedia:  Intersections Between Teaching, Scholarship, 
and the Copyright Law,Ó Fred T. Hofstetter, Director, Instructional 
Technology Center, University of Delaware, used examples from his own 
PODIUM hypermedia application generator to demonstrate the ease with 
which text and media can be linked.  He delighted the audience by taking 
a picture of audience members, digitizing it, and immediately inserting 
it in his multimedia presentation.  Hofstetter noted, however, that 
under current guidelines of fair use, his actions in linking text with 
graphics and editing them would often be considered illegal. He 
proclaimed it a great tragedy if we create new guidelines that will 
continue to make these types of uses unfair.

Four panelists with long experience in this field offered their 
perspectives on fair use in the electronic environment.  Terri 
Southwick, U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, described the process 
whereby the Administration Working Group on Intellectual Property in the 
National Information Infrastructure (NII) solicited responses from the 
public before writing its draft Green Paper.  Patrice Lyons, Law Offices 
of Patrice Lyons, suggested a different approach to copyright issues by 
setting the framework for legislation Òat the envelope level rather than 
the content.Ó  Lyons noted how little attention has been paid to the 
role and implications of communications law, where a different set of 
constructs may be relevant for fair use.  Just as communications law 
provides for viewers to pay a set monthly fee for broadcasting and cable 
TV without regard for fair use of performances, it might offer a more 
appropriate way to frame the issue of public access to the NII. 

John Lawrence, H-Net and Morningside College, brought the perspective of 
fair use administrators, who are Òalso prepared to squabble our way into 
the future.Ó  H-Net is a history network composed of fifty-two moderated 
discussion lists served by host computers at the University of Illinois 
at Chicago and at Michigan State University.  Following the corporate 
model, H-Net has executive officers, a board of directors, and uniform 
policies for several lists.  

Georgia Harper, Office of the Counsel, University of Texas System, 
represents a major university that is drafting a comprehensive copyright 
policy.  In the electronic environment, if transaction costs come down, 
fair use may be unnecessary.  Alternatives in the new environment 
include market options suggested by many at this conference.  Legal 
options are also available in the form of case law development and 
legislation, but they are long and expensive processes.  Contracting 
among the parties involved is another option. Publishers and users need 
not be adversaries, and no one should expect one side to unilaterally 
give up its right to be unreasonable.  Harper urged both sides to work 
out a mutual compromise.  If the same benefits can be achieved without 
fair use, we will no longer need it, she maintained.

***

Filling the Pipeline, Paying the Piper: The Proceedings of the  Fourth 
Symposium is available from ARL on a prepaid basis for $32 (US and 
Canada) or $47 (others).  Orders should be sent to ARL Publications, 
Dept. 0692, Washington, DC 20073-0692.