Between 1986 and 1997, members of the Association of Research Libraries (ARL) more than doubled their expenditures on serials -- and purchased 6% fewer subscriptions. The August 1998 issue of the ARL Newsletter reports that "during the last decade, libraries shifted expenditure from monographs to serials to meet some of the demands of increasing serial prices, reducing the number of monographs purchased by 14%, while the unit cost for monographs increased by 62%. Since 1986, the annual average increase for the serial unit cost has been 9.4% [which is] higher than the general inflation trends in North America during the same period."

A significant factor in the extraordinary increase in serials prices has been the prominent role of several large, commercial, scientific publishers, whose titles typically cost substantially more per page than do those journals produced by scholarly societies. The Newsletter article notes further that "...the high prices and steep annual increases charged by some major scientific publishers have forced libraries to cancel thousands of journal subscriptions, prompting publishers to raise prices even higher to make up for the loss." A decade ago, some scholars predicted that the advent of the electronic journal would somehow solve the problem; to the contrary, many publishers charge higher prices for their electronic products than for the print equivalent. Others "bundle" their online journals, so that libraries must license all or none, or require a library to purchase print titles in order to have access to the electronic version. Profit, not concern about the importance of scholarly communication, remains the driving motivation for many of these commercial, scientific publishers.

Hoping to break new ground in solving a problem which has been intractable for so long, the Brown University Library recently became a founding member of SPARC, the Scholarly Publishing and Academic Resources Coalition. SPARC, whose information bulletins along with the August 1998 issue of the ARL Newsletter were adapted for this article, is an alliance of libraries and library associations "that aims to foster expanded competition in scholarly communication [by] creating 'partnerships' with publishers who are developing high-quality but economical alternatives to existing high-price publications." We hope that this initiative will create a more competitive marketplace and reduce the prices of journals. At the same time, it will ensure fair use of the material, and generally facilitate educational and library uses of electronic resources. Hopefully, it will eventually provide a venue for us to apply new technologies to improve the process of scholarly communication and reduce the costs of production and distribution.

SPARC, which currently has more than 100 members, has been endorsed by, among others, the Association of American University Presses (AAU) and the National Association of State Universities and Land Grant Colleges (NASULGC). The organization hopes to achieve its goals by encouraging publishers to enter markets where the prices are highest and competition is most needed -- primarily in science, technology, and medicine. By guaranteeing a subscription base and customers, and in some cases providing start-up capital, SPARC intends to reduce the risk to publisher-partners involved in venturing into the marketplace, while providing faculty with prestigious and responsive alternatives to current publishing vehicles.

The American Chemical Society (ACS), the world's largest scientific society, became SPARC's first publishing partner in June 1998. ACS, which currently publishes 26 peer-reviewed research journals, will collaborate with SPARC to publish at least one scientific journal each year for the next three years. The first new title will publish letters in organic chemistry, both online and in print. Under the agreement, SPARC members advise ACS by identifying subject areas of interest, and the participating libraries will help provide instant market acceptance by endorsing the project and ensuring purchase of the new publication.

More recently, SPARC and the Royal Society of Chemistry (RSC), based in the United Kingdom, have agreed to collaborate on a series of high-quality, peer-reviewed electronic journals that will be offered at prices far below those of competing commercially published journals. SPARC also announced it will be represented in the United Kingdom and Ireland by the Standing Conference of National & University Libraries (SCONUL), which includes 129 leading libraries in its membership. It has also established an affiliation with Denmark's Conference of Directors of Research Libraries, an organization representing 12 major libraries. PhysChemComm, the first product of the SPARC-RSC partnership, provides rapid communication of articles in physical chemistry. With a 1999 price tag of $353 for site-wide, institutional online access, it competes head-to-head with a commercial title priced at over $8000. The RSC title is an all-electronic journal with a system of double refereeing, an esteemed international team of editors, searchable full-text, multi-media presentation features, and Web availability.

SPARC is, without question, an experiment. It can succeed only if academic disciplines endorse its products, faculty find these new journals viable and respected vehicles for publication, and our institutions support them by subscribing. Recognizing that libraries acting alone cannot make a substantive change in the complex ecosystem of scholarly communication, SPARC seeks publisher partners in this important effort -- partners "that are committed to fair pricing, intellectual property management policies that emphasize broad and easy distribution and reuse of material, and the ethical use of scholarly resources." Potential partners may logically include professional societies and university presses, as well as start-up electronic publishers who are already offering journals in subject fields dominated by commercial publishers. They may team up with for-profit enterprises that offer new strategies for controlling prices and improving access to research information or visionary enterprises which seek to create entirely new economic models for scholarly communication.

Brown University faculty members who serve on journal editorial boards and/or who have creative ideas about possible SPARC projects are encouraged to contact me or Frederick C. Lynden, formerly Associate University Librarian, Technical Services, now Director, Scholarly Communication and Library Research. You may also wish to learn more about SPARC from the organization's web site at http://www.arl.org/sparc.


Merrily E. Taylor
Joukowsky Family University Librarian