Albert N. Greco

Market Concentration Levels in the U.S. Consumer Book Industry: 1995–1996

While many scholars have studied the impact mergersand acquisitions have had on market concentrationlevels in various industries, few have addressed theconsumer book market, an important U.S. culturalindustry. This paper: (1) defines the consumer bookmarket; and (2) using consumer book mergers, salesdata, the U.S. Department of Justices 1992 mergerguidelines, the Herfindahl–Hirschman Index, andfour-firm and eight-firm concentration ratios testswhether an illegal level of market concentration or aviolation of Justices antitrust guidelines wereevident in 1995 and 1996. Data on market entrybarriers, outputs, and prices are also analyzed.

Shaping the future: Mergers, acquisitions, and the U.S. publishing, communications, and mass media industries, 1990–1995

Between 1990 and 1995, a substantive reconfiguration took place within the publishing, communications, and mass media industries in the United States. These changes were triggered primarily by five pivotal developments: (1) the direct impact of strategic planning theories and practices on a relatively small number of U.S. and foreign media executives; (2) a dramatic technological convergence within the entire communications industry; (3) a quest to gain hegemony over the creation, production, and distribution of electronic and print information and entertainment products and services in the United States and the global marketplace; (4) a sharp increase in media usage and expenditures in the United States; and (5) the impending passage of a massive, revolutionary telecommunications bill. This legislation (the Telecommunications Act of 1996) changed drastically the ground rules created by the Communications Act of 1934, lifted restrictions on the ownership of media properties, allowed media companies to enter formerly forbidden markets, and reduced or eliminated governmental controls over the burgeoning communications business.The deeply etched lines separating “newspapers” from “books” and “magazines”, or “television” from “telephone”, “radio”, “film”, and “video” became hazy, and, in some instances, disappeared. Media scholars and industry experts realized that the communications landscape had to be viewed as a totally interconnected industry, albeit a rather diverse one.

A Bibliography of Books and Journal Articles on Scholarly Publishing

No matter how hard we try, it is almost impossible to keep up to date with the relevant published literature on scholarly communications. This problem has plagued publishers and editors of scholarly books and journals, and scholars keenly interested in this growing scholarly subject area, for decades. In the past few years, however, this dilemma has been exacerbated by a staggering proliferation of books (more than 195,000 new hardbound and paperbound books were published in the United States in 2004); in addition, the stunning outpouring of print and open-access scholarly journals has also made this task immensely difficult. To address this problem, the Journal of Scholarly Publishing is launching a new bibliographical section (listing significant articles, books, and working papers published in the last few years) of specific interest to readers of this journal. Those great standard works (e.g., Peck and Newby’s Scholarly Publishing or Coser, Kadushin, and Powell’s Books: the Culture and Commerce of Publishing) have been excluded from the bibliography because they are well known to working professionals in scholarly publishing and to scholars. In addition, articles published in the Journal of Scholarly Publishing are not included, since the journal publishes an annual index of its articles. As might be expected, the bibliography includes an array of works published in library science as well as in various humanities and social science publications. What is significant, however, is the broad range of important publications in the scientific, technical, and

Recent Trends in Scholarly Communications: 2001-2005

A review of the impressive outpouring of journal articles and books on scholarly communications, covering the years 2001–2005, provides readers with a substantive understanding of the pivotal issues, concerns, and problems confronting a wide array of academics, administrators, and librarians in North America, Europe, Asia, Africa, and Latin America. While much of this scholarly literature addresses ‘traditional’ issues and problems confronting academics in the humanities, the social sciences, and the diverse scientific–technological areas, an extraordinary number of these papers deals with the nature of ‘change,’ specifically the changing world of research and libraries, the transformation of information, and the rapid emergence of the Open Access movement. Some of the major research studies and themes in this bibliography include the following: Numerous papers confronting the often daunting (if not downright convoluted) problem of the price of information were rather intriguing. Anglada and Comellas pondered the issue of ‘‘fairness’’ in the prevalent pricing models of journals in an electronic era, issues also addressed successfully by Ball as well as Lawal; McCabe’s work on this issue is especially noteworthy because of his analysis of substantive issues. The evaluation of a scholar’s output was a frequent and intriguing thread in the literature. Baumgartner and Pieters evaluated the use and usefulness of journal citation indices, issues also addressed: by Hamermesh and Oster; by Norris and Oppenheim; and by Goodrum, McCain, Lawrence, and Giles. Erkut seeks to evaluate the research output of Canadian academics. Cronin, on the other hand, grapples with the thorny issue of effective academic writing. While Peters studies usage statistics and Rowlands concentrates on research

U.S. book returns, 1984–1989

Between 1984 and 1989, the U.S. book industry drowned in a recorded

The War and Its Impact on Research: 1943–1945

7.88 billion of returns: 23.87 percent of all books published during those years were returned to publishers by wholesalers and booksellers for full credit. This massive return of books undermined the stability of the book industry, causing many publishers to question the efficacy of a system that failed to operate successfully during a period of exceptionally stable business conditions, free from high rates of interest and inflation, recession, or a war. In this study the author addresses the book return phenomenon by: (1) analyzing statistics about the U.S. book industry and its twelve key market segments; (2) evaluating possible causes of the increase in returns; and (3) proposing some suggestions to reduce returns.

The Impact of the Depression and Nuclear Research on Universities, Research, and Scholarly Publishing: 1929–1941

Researchers at the atomic research facilities at Los Alamos and elsewhere needed access to scholarly information, and this was a problem because of the impact of the war and the severe security policies at these “atomic cities.” This chapter describes the work of Professor Langer at the Office of Strategic Services to launch a program to acquire secret German scientific research, the government’s seizure of German copyrighted scholarly publications and the republication program, the decision to consider killing Werner Heisenberg (who led the German atomic research during the war), the creation of a secret research library at Los Alamos, the development of plans for the atomic bomb, and the G.I Bill. President Truman’s decision to use the atomic bomb ended the war, and the Bretton Woods conference set the stage for the growth of scholarly publishing in the sciences and the social sciences.

The Impact of World War II on American Society and Scholarly Publishing: December 7, 1941–1942

Before 1939, Europe was the center of scientific research, including major atomic research projects in Germany. Albert Einstein, Leo Szilard, and others became concerned about the potential threat posed by Germany if it developed an atomic bomb. This chapter addresses Einstein’s 1939 letter to President Franklin D. Roosevelt requesting that the U.S. ratchet up atomic research, Roosevelt’s response to Einstein’s letter, the role played by the National Bureau of Standards (and its impact triggering 227 scientific journals to “censor” the publication of atomic research in the U.S.), the creation of the Office of Scientific Research and Development, and ultimately the Manhattan Project’s impact on scientific research.

1946: A Turning Point in the Growth of Scholarly Publishing

America entered World War II on December 7, 1947, and the nation underwent a dramatic mobilization. Scholarly publishing was impacted by a series of presidential executive orders and governmental regulations resulting in the rationing of paper, ink (that contained oil), and supplies needed to print books and journals and the creation of a censorship office. This chapter analyzes these events and the creation of the Manhattan Project’s secret research operation under the leadership of General Leslie Groves. A positive development was the G.I. Book Program, which distributed +122 million books, including some scholarly books, to military personnel during the war.

Introduction to Scholarly Journal and Book Publishing in the U.S.

After the war ended, the U.S. was the global center of higher education and the military and financial power in the world. This chapter outlines the G.I. Bill’s impact on higher education and scholarly publishing, which was monumental: enrollments surged, libraries expanded, and there was a pressing need to provide more scholarly books and journals for faculty, students, and libraries here and abroad. Dynamic managerial and marketing strategies were created, setting the state for growth. Truman signed the Atomic Energy Act creating the Atomic Energy Commission that impacted research for decades.