Pricing of scientific journals and market power

We analyze the empirical relationship between journal prices, their quality measured by their citation counts, their age, as well as conduct of publishers. The database covers 22 scientific fields and more than 2,600 of among the most highly reputed and cited journals in 2003. We show that (a) for-profit journals charge roughly 3 times more than journals run by scientific societies; (b) the number of citations has a positive impact on prices; (c) there are large differences in prices across fields that vary by a factor between 1 and 6; these are highly (and positively) correlated with the degree of concentration in the industry.

Journal of the European Economic Association, 5(2-3), 400410