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7 Rev. Econ. Rsch. on Copyright Issues 1 (2010)

handle is hein.journals/rvwoecrh7 and id is 1 raw text is: Review of Economic Research on Copyright Issues, 2010, vol. 7(1), pp. 1-6 INTRODUCTION: COPYRIGHT AND THE PUBLISHING OF SCIENTIFIC WORKS RICHARD WATT The issue of exactly how copyright affects the output of scientific works has been of interest for some time (see, for example, Gienas 2008, and Bachrach et al. (no date), but very recently there has been a revived interest in this topic. An important catalyst for the revival was the circulation, in late 2009, of a working paper by Prof. Steven Shavell (see Shavell, 2009), in which it is argued that copyright in scientific works should be abolished. Because of the radical thesis that is so blatantly put forward in Shavell's paper, it has generated quite some controversy among economists (and, most likely, further afield also). The present issue of RERCI is a response to this controversy. In this issue we present a symposium of papers on the topic of the journal publishing market, and in particular on the role played by copyright in that market. The symposium is offered to our readers, not as a critique or rebuttal to the ideas of Prof. Shavell, but rather because the thesis that social welfare might be advanced should copyright in scientific works be abolished should certainly not be scoffed at or taken lightly - it is an idea that warrants careful analysis. I hope that the three papers in the symposium add valuable insights to this young but vibrant literature, and perhaps might also cast some light upon the appropriate way forward on this most interesting debate. 1. SCIENTIFIC PUBLISHING The markets in which scientific works are currently dealt with are quite different from other markets, even other markets for creative outputs. The very motives for the production of, and the consumption of, scientific papers are themselves rather special. It is well known that it is likely that the primary motive of academic authors is not direct financial gain from sales of their works, but rather the secondary or indirect gains that accrue through reputation and CV effects. Similarly, one of the primary reasons that academics consume papers is to gain inputs to their own future writings. Thus the scientific writing market is highly sequential, and consumption is not an end-point, but rather simply another step along the process of evolvement of a particular theory or general area of research. What is more, most academics live in a publish or perish environment, and so are willing to exert significant efforts in writing scientific works with the sole

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