I'm not certain of the situation elsewhere but here in Australia increasingly it is the preference for university libraries to purchase books in its electronic form - with many of the older physical books being liquidated or placed into storage. Many Humanities librarians are directed by university policy to purchase the electronic rather than the physical copy.

This purchasing policy direction seems irreversible and seems to weaken the notion of a beautifully produced physical book that will last 100 years on a library shelf somewhere. This purchasing model also makes inter-library loan much more difficult as the library's purchase of that particular book is bound only to registered users of that particular book.

It's no surprise to me either that often the electronic copy is as expensive as the physical copy. We also shouldn't forget that University libraries are having their budgets cut (especially in the Humanities) at precisely the same time as some publishers like Brill are increasing their prices.

Academics don't exist in an ethical bubble. If academic authors choose publishers that are simply unaffordable to individuals and libraries then they participate in a system that is putting valuable research in the hands of fewer and fewer people - at a time when the Humanities are under unprecedented threat from politicians and university administrators.

On 16 Apr 2016 7:56 am, "Dominik Wujastyk" <wujastyk@gmail.com> wrote:

I have a lot of sympathy for all the views expressed here about the high prices of Brill books. I'm ambivalent myself, about being an editor of a series published by Brill. When I founded the series (with Paul Unschuld and Larry Conrad) we argued strongly about keeping prices down. And at first that seemed to work, sort of. But now prices are extremely high, and we're in a problem situation. €299 for Zysk's book is very much, although one does get two volumes, and there is a huge amount of work in the volumes, both Zysk's scholarly labours and multiple refereeing, proof-reading, good paper, typesetting, binding, marketing and distribution. It's a very nice physical object, it has to be said. And it will be on the shelves in a century, when many books less-well produced may no longer be useable. That sort of thing has to be paid for. Nevertheless.

I have advocated Open Access publishing for journals. I'm less sure about books. It's worth discussing. Books are very different animals (usually). I'm not sure the OA model translates to books, although I am sure it's very good for journals. I especially advocate authors keeping their copyright. The idea of Open Source, mentioned by Antonio, doesn't apply to academic writing, although I also like the concept.

Antonio also mentioned that Brill hasn't endowed a professorship in Indology. It would be interesting to know what they do fund, academically. I know one colleague personally who edits a series for Brill, and whose university receives an annual payment of several thousand dollars from Brill that buys him out of some teaching because of his editorial duties. Perhaps Brill pays for more that we're not aware of? It would be worth asking them.

It's always been clear that Brill's business plan is to market to academic libraries, and only incidentally to individuals. With modern inter-library loan, it's normally not too difficult to get hold of a volume one wants to read.

Best,
Dominik

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