If a two sided market place is functioning well we would expect price sensitivity and market forces to drive efficiencies, using classic economic analysis we might conclude that google operates in a distorted marketplace where one side - the users - pay nothing, and google dominates attention to operate an effective monopoly on the other side - the advertiser side. Using a similar analysis look at what the consequences are for scholarly publishing where both side of the market place are the same people - authors and readers, and the commerical publisehrs are the intermediary. Take into account brand affinity for key journal titles, and provide an anlysis of what an economic view would be of scholarly publishing.
1 | Scholarly publishing as a two-sided (really “same-side”) platform • Platform sides: the very same community—researchers—appear as authors (supply the content) and readers (demand the content). • Intermediary: commercial publishers provide peer-review workflow, brand signalling and discovery