Between a rock and a hard place: the big squeeze for small publishers

The combination of decreased income as a result of the RoweCom collapse, cuts in library budgets internationally, and the success of ‘Big Deal’ bundling arrangements has serious repercussions for smaller and society publishers. This paper argues that the scholarly communications environment is going to become increasingly hostile for these publishers and that their best chance of survival may be to adapt to new business models, in particular open access. Learned Publishing (2004)17, 17–22 David C. Prosser Between a rock and a hard place: the big squeeze for small publishers 17 L E A R N E D P U B L I S H I N G V O L . 1 7 N O . 1 J A N U A R Y 2 0 0 4 (at least). Worryingly, these cuts are being seen in all of the major STM markets.