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This study examines the extent of concentration in the journal publishing industry. A number of aspects are considered: publishers, journal impacts, countries, and languages. For journals indexed in JCR from 1997 to 2009, just 0.2% of publishers produce 50% of journals and articles, and 0.3% of publishers account for the top 50% of citations, impact factors and immediacy indices. More than a half of publishers in JCR are from four countries: USA, UK, Germany and Japan. In addition, more than a half of journals come from the USA and UK. Examining the publishers' interactions in terms of buying and selling journals shows the extent of change by acquisition, and the acquisition links between publishers. The findings confirm that the international market of journal publishing is essentially dominated by a few publishers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The National Information Standards Organization (NISO), in partnership with the Association of Learned and Professional Society Publishers (ALPSP), released a Recommended Practice entitled Journal Article Versions (JAV): Recommendations of the NISO/ALPSP JAV Technical Working Group on 23 June 2008. The article describes the background to this work, some of the key decisions made regarding scope, and the recommended nomenclature and definitions. It also refers to other work in this area. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A survey of the various categories of advertising spend in the United States in the healthcare market is reported upon and the position of the publishing industry within that is described. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We report the results of a survey of tenure and promotion criteria in university departments of literature and language in the US. It is clear that the publication of a scholarly monograph remains a conditio sine qua non for the awarding of tenure. We analyze the language of institutional guidelines and standards: these range from the highly concrete to the intentionally vague. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

How does US copyright law, and especially the doctrine of fair use, impact reusing figures drawn from a previous publication? Does it help if we redraw those figures in an attempt to evade copyright restrictions? [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article offers insights on the bankruptcy of RoweCom in 2002. As a result of the bankruptcy, U.S. publishers lost substantial sums of money, libraries faced uncertainty over journal supply in 2003, and the remnants of RoweCom business became part of EBSCO. The Faxon/RoweCom business had changed hands in difficult circumstances three times before bankruptcy struck. In spite of the evidence, and industry speculation at conferences and exhibitions for years, publishers and librarians continued to trade with Faxon/RoweCom throughout the 1990s. One of the oddities of the journal business is that library customers routinely pay over large sums of money to a supplier well in advance of receiving the goods or services for which they are paying. Most major subscription agents have always operated pre-payment plans to enable libraries to prepay the following year's estimated journal subscriptions, as early as April or May of the prior year. In this way the library can ring fence its serials expenditure by committing it in advance. In return, it earns interest or receives a discount on subscriptions at renewal time that would depend on how far in advance the pre-payment is made. This system has always operated in the confidence that the vendors operating pre-payment plans were impeccably honest and financially sound. The pre-payment monies were never put in trust or in escrow accounts, they simply became part of the subscription agents' normal cash flow.

The article reports on the first annual meeting of the Steering Committee of the North American chapter of the Association of Learned and Professional Society Publishers (ALPSP) on March 21, 2006 at the offices of the American Society of Plant Biologists in Rockville, Maryland. It discusses the history of scholarly publishing. Scholarly publishers face a complex and challenging environment. There has been an increase in ALPSP North American membership. There is diversity of ALPSP North American membership.

This article focuses on the view of the Association of Learned and Professional Society Publishers (ALPSP) regarding open archiving of scientific research in the U.S. Unrestricted access to the results of chemical research, especially that funded by taxpayers, is the aim of those promoting open archiving who believe that publishers restrict or control access to scientific literature by levying charges. ALPSP is wholly in favor of maximizing access to research literature; the various proposal for achieving this, however, raise complex, economic, logistical and sociological questions which differ from field to field as well as between different sizes and types of publishers. Currently, the users of information pay. Most open access models foresee authors paying. The current system is regulated by market pressures, with successful products and services being determined and funded by the customers. Open access initiatives would allow those who can pay to promote their own work, provide industry with free options, and could result in an overall increase in costs and a reduction in quality and reliability. Clearly, scientists could release their work freely on the Internet.

This section presents information on the schedule of several workshops and congresses hosted by the Association of Learned and Professional Society Publishers in the U.S. from July to December 2004.