Abstract
Open access: What price affordability?
Highlights
The affordability problem has its roots in the dramatic growth in research after World War II, a problem made worse by the constant above-inflation increases in the cost of journal subscriptions—which led to what librarians call the “serials crisis” [1]
While the accessibility problem is clearly a consequence of the affordability problem, we should view them as separate issues, not least because solving one of the problems will not necessarily solve the other
It goes without saying that the affordability problem is most serious for researchers based in the developing world. Their institutions have never been able to afford more than a handful of journal subscriptions, and the more prices rise the fewer the number of journals they are able to subscribe to, and so the greater the accessibility problem becomes for them
Summary
The affordability problem has its roots in the dramatic growth in research after World War II, a problem made worse by the constant above-inflation increases in the cost of journal subscriptions—which led to what librarians call the “serials crisis” [1]. Scholarly publishers are as good as able to charge whatever they want for their journals.
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