The ASA seeks to maintain a friendly and constructive relationship with all publishers' organisations, especially the Association of Learned and Professional Society Publishers (ALPSP) the Association of Subscription Managers the Periodical Publishers Association the Publishers Association - Serials Executive and the STM.
The common aim must be the right journal to the right reader at the right time at the right price. The need for specialised knowledge is well illustrated by the various rules different publishers have for starting new subscriptions. They can be:
Once a subscription has been ordered various things can happen to a title. It can:
Any library with a substantial number of subscriptions probably orders well over 80% through agents. The remainder are received free, on exchange or must be purchased direct.
While standards of service are still a very important yardstick, it would be naive to assume that prices and service charges are still a low priority in librarians' minds. This is why agents' terms with publishers are of such vital importance and why the steady erosion of discounts is causing so much concern. Certainly agents are not growing fat at the expense of either librarians or publishers. It is a very real blow when a publisher cuts discounts, particularly if it involves a large number of primary journals.
Inevitably, every time a publisher reduces or abolishes discount ( and many now give a miserly 5%) the average margin is eroded a little bit more, the agent's mark up increases and so do the library's costs. The ultimate end to this process of atrophy is no discount at all and a minimum service charge of 10%. Nothing is gained by this since the service charge to agents will be paid out of the journals budget. To cut agents' discount as a short term expedient to hold down prices can appear virtuous. However, the so called "benefit" only lasts one year after which the normal effects of inflation have to be faced. It also has no beneficial affect on the majority of libraries who order through agents, who will have received an additional service charge to compensate for loss of discount.
It should be clearly understood that agents are free to charge any prices they wish. The great regulating factor is that they are all in competition with each other. The terms given by many periodical publishers - particularly the learned societies - are very small or non-existent. There can be few trades where the producers offer no financial incentives to their suppliers, who are then expected to make a service charge to their customers. The publishing trade has always been noted for its eccentricities. Most agents would probably hope to achieve an overall gross profit of around about 10% to 12% but we know that world-wide publishers discount averages out at around %. The agent is bound to make a service charge.
Practice varies but generally there are two methods for calculating prices. One is to look at each title to see what discount is allowed and if need be to adjust the price by adding a percentage. Obviously this percentage is scaled down the more expensive the journal becomes. The second method, much favoured by American agencies, is to list all the journals at the prices announced by the publishers, and then to add an overall service charge at the end of the invoice.
What factors does the agent use when deciding a pricing policy?
Can the agent help the publisher, or is it really one way only, i.e. just for benefit of the librarian?
The ease with which agents enable publishers to sell journals to the library market provides publishers with an efficient distribution service for academic journals at a very small percentage discount on retail prices. Without the distribution system the purchasing of academic journals would be inefficient, haphazard, subject to error, and more costly to the customer leading to greatly reduced sales and increased administrative costs to the publisher. The efficient agent can offer the following benefits:
The acceptance of electronic journals will only happen if a similar distribution system exists which guarantees payments and levels of service in a way similar to the paper journals. Specifically agents will be required to handle the payments, manage the currencies, provide an easy and economical channel for the sale and purchase of the journals. In addition agents may well have to adapt to provide a range of other services to both the publishers and customers to ensure that the level of service and accessibility remain acceptable on an international basis.