Their low circulation journals are not primarily journals in small fields, but low-quality journals in fields where there are better, some published by them, most by others. They are the sort of journals libraries would be very tempted to discontinue, and the journal packages were in part intended -- among other things -- to make it impossible or ineffective to do so.
The argument is made by them that it is necessary to maintain outlets in which second-rate scientists can publish, because even second-rate universities require publications. From the point of view of the progress of science, this is irrelevant, for the contributions there are essentially ignored and in most case rightfully so by those actually doing significant research. To the extent this is a real need, the availability of some very low cost Open access journals has solved the problem. After all, the second-rate colleges that have this requirement do not usually care about the quality of the journal, just that it be technically peer-reviewed. From the point of view of the higher education system as a whole, the difficulty is raised by the unrealistic expectations of the colleges, which they are able to enforce because of the super-abundance of faculty produced by some of the PhD programs, which care mainly about maintaining their own enrollment without regard to the employability of their graduates.
Most of my carer was in places with elite scientists, but some was in second or third rate institutions, so I think I'm unbiased. .
On Sun, Sep 23, 2012 at 10:49 PM, Risker risker.wp@gmail.com wrote:
Remember that they bundle the less popular journals with the popular ones, to defray those costs across several publications. Thus, the scientist in the little-known field whose professional journals are read by hundreds doesn't pay significantly more for "processing" than the scientist whose professional journal is read by tens of thousands.