The Bundling of Academic Journals

Academic journal publishing has evolved rapidly in the past two decades.Prices, ownership concentration, the number of journals, and the means of distribution have all changed dramatically.Substantial price increases have been the norm.Average prices have risen severalfold over this period, with prices climbing the most at forprofit journals, where these prices are now as much as 500 percent higher than nonprofits (Gail Yokote, 2003).The price difference between forprofit and nonprofit academic journals is particularly striking, given that these journals are generally similar in format and editorial processes, and that for-profit journals do not appear to be of higher quality (Theodore C. Bergstrom, 2001 p. 183).Increased concentration provides one possible explanation for why prices of for-profit journals are so high.To take one example, measured by revenue, in 2001 Elsevier Science had a 22.9percent share of the Science, Technology, and Medicine (STM) industry, with Kluwer at 11.7 percent, and Thomson at 10.7 percent. 1 But concentration offers at best only a partial answer.Bundling offers another, potentially more significant explanation, particularly for recent increases.The prices of for-profit journals could not be high and increasing without significant structural barriers to entry.