Report R1.13 Academic Publishing in India Seminar Leader: Tejeshwar Singh Academic publishing in India is quite new, in comparison to the West, where a lot of books and journals are produced every year. Before independence, there were only three publishers who used to publish in India: Macmillan, Longman, and Oxford University Press. There were also other players who were publishing books but these were mainly related to the freedom struggle of India. After fifty years of independence, academic publishing in India has not come up to global standards. The quantity of scholarly publishing in the West is far higher than that of India. India produces only around 20 standard scholarly journals, whereas USA produces around 150 every year. The process of refereeing and quality evaluation are also much more stringent in the West. Normally, a publisher of books would send manuscripts to independent and competent evaluators who review the material and suggest necessary changes. In India, this is not yet a common practice. Indian readers must demand certain minumum standards to be followed, in order to improve the quality of academic publications in this country. Mr Singh said that Sage Publications is the only publishing house in the private sector, which is seriously publishing scholarly journals and books. He said that there are two types of publishers. The first type invests its own money to publish if it finds material of required quality. The second type of publishers regardless of any quality, publish at the authors’ cost. The latter type of publications are found to be rising in India. The most important role played by publishers is dissemination (i.e., helping authors reach a wide audience). Given that academic readership is limited and spread over a large territory, a publisher's task is to select the right market segment--only then can it make some profit. This is especially true of scholarly journals. The different steps, which go into the publishing of a journal are editing, proof-reading, type-setting, printing, and distribution. This requires a lot of financial resources and human resources. Not all publishers can handle this. Mr. Singh discussed the various processes Sage undertakes to publish a book. First, Sage looks for good quality manuscripts from authors. Deciding to publish something is essentially decision-making under uncertainty. Naturally, it is influenced by certain value-based commitments of the company, apart from the usual commercial considerations. Independent evaluations of the book are sought from experts. If there are some modifications to be made, then the author is requested accordingly. After the necessary changes, a reevaluation is made before publication. The discount factor has become a growing concern for most publishers now. Distribution channels ask for around 40% discount; various libraries also bargain for around 25% discount. Naturally, this leads to a hike in price, which becomes a major concern for both publishers and consumers. There was some discussion about the buying behaviour with respect to books. There are important differences between how people buy a book and how they buy, say, a car. It is a pity that, sometimes, academic libraries are judged by the number of books they have, irrespective of the quality of those books. Another practical difficulty for publishers lies in the process of securing orders for books. Generally, a sample copy of the book is given to an institution to give a feedback within fifteen days, but it takes around sixty days to get a feedback. Many also ask for a sample copy and in return, just order two to three copies for the library. For a publishing unit, each book is like a new product, or in fact, a new project. The minimal aim is to recover the investments in a book and maximise profit during its useful life-cycle. There are various subsidies offered by different parties when the book is introduced in the market for the first time. But this works for a shorter period, as it becomes difficult in the later editions (or reprints) to maintain the same subsidised price. So, although subsidies are available on certain types of books, many publishers are reluctant to take up such books that are not viable themselves. There was also a discussion on the peer review process and plagiarism. Participants gave their own views on these points. Mr. Singh also threw some light on e-books as well as different modes of business such as direct marketing. Reported by Srikant Panigrahy, with inputs from D. P. Dash and Jacob D. Vakkayil. Editor's Note (March 26, 2008): Tejeshwar Singh, founder of Sage Publications (India), was a man of multiple talents and a researcher in his own right. He was a publisher, theatre actor, and television personality. He passed away on December 15, 2007. We cherish his contributions to the academic community in India. Copyleft Xavier Institute of Management, Xavier Square, Bhubaneswar 751013, India Research World (ISSN 0974-2379) http://www1.ximb.ac.in/RW.nsf/pages/Home |
