Mathematical Sciences Publishers

Dear Subscribers,

As we release the 2012 Mathematical Sciences Publishers price list, we feel compelled to explain to the community our pricing policy, and justify certain price increases. Our most popular product, the MSP All-Journals Package, is actually staying flat at $1,210 in the electronic version. But due to a combination of factors including an increased number of pages per issue for some journals and the need to address long-standing issues for others, we have made the tough decision to raise some of our other prices.

The main change is that previously we had been unwittingly subsidizing print, due to a low price differential set years ago. To continue to offer a viable print choice for those libraries who like it, we are forced to make adjustments. Thus the print premium on the All-Journals Package, for instance, will be $785 in 2012—just enough to cover printing and shipping at current subscription levels. Though this represents an unsavory 10.8% rise in the total E+P price for the package, please keep in mind that it's a one-off increase.

Some noticeable price increases in individual journals generally have to do with the growth in the number of pages. For instance, the four-year old Analysis and Partial Differential Equations, which got its first Impact Factor this past June—an impressive 1.280—has been growing fast, even as the quality bar is raised even further. Such is the support in the research community for the idea of high-quality, reasonably priced journals. Reluctantly, then, we're forced to raise the price a whopping 16.7%—that is to say, from $120 to $140! (This applies to the electronic subscription only; E+P is going from $180 to $240, for 1500 large-format pages). Similar forces have caused us to increase the price of print subscriptions to Algebra and Number Theory and Algebraic and Geometric Topology as well.

It may seem silly to feel defensive about a $20 or even a $60 price increase, but at MSP we recognize that “tight budgets” has long been an understatement, and many libraries are under a mandate to examine and question all price increases.

Fighting against price increases is of course a good trend. The main point of this letter is to let you know that MSP is on your side in this fight. Please don't apply the “no price increases above X%” policy unthinkingly. If we don't support good nonprofit journals, we'll end up paying more for the same articles in for-profit ones.

For your convenience, we've attached a PDF of this letter that also contains a comparison between 2011 and 2012 prices, with percent differences already calculated. It also gives prices per page, which are generally several times lower than those of comparable commercial journals.

Best wishes,

Rob Kirby, Chair of the Board

Alex Scorpan, CFO

Silvio Levy, Scientific Editor