A year ago, with funding from the Mellon Foundation, we began assessing the state of scholarly monograph publishing in the humanities and social sciences with a view to understanding how well the business models employed by publishers and vendors meet the needs of their consumer base, namely libraries and authors. 

Today, we are delighted to announce the publication of our findings. The report considers the areas of alignment and disconnect between the library and publisher communities on academic monograph publishing. 

While the two communities have come together on a variety of important initiatives, including new models for open access publications, they are facing different challenges and do not necessarily share the same priorities. University presses and other academic book publishers are experiencing an enormous squeeze in the transition to digital production and distribution, while libraries are concerned that digital distribution is resulting in acquisition models that are unsustainable or unreliable to manage.

Understanding this landscape of existing business models for scholarly monograph publications and the extent to which it meets the needs of academic libraries and authors is critical in identifying how publishers can further evolve e-monograph business models. With flattening or decreasing budgets, academic libraries often struggle to determine where they should allocate their limited resources to meet the demands of their researchers while aligning strategic priorities with their parent institutions. The continuously evolving landscape of business models, which may include big deals or multiyear, comprehensive contracts, hybrid deals which bundle print and digital content, transformative agreements, and flip to open models, often leave overleveraged libraries trying to understand which models best align with their budgets. 

Key findings of this research include: 

  • For some libraries, a major challenge to acquiring e-monographs is having experienced staff who understand how to navigate the complexities of acquisitions across publishers and aggregators.
  • The majority of librarians interviewed believe that evidence-based acquisition models provide an especially efficient way to allocate money.
  • New business models introduce new challenges—both pragmatic and ideological—for publishers and libraries.
  • Consortia are viewed as increasingly critical by publishers in equalizing opportunities for readership and publication.

Please view the full report: https://sr.ithaka.org/publications/the-current-state-of-academic-e-book-business-models/.