Scholarly Communications: A History from Content as King to Content as Kingmaker traces the development of scholarly communications from the creation of the first scientific journal through the wide diversity of professional information services today. Unlike any other book, this work is an authoritative history by the past President of Elsevier and current Professor at Long Island University, which examines the changing nature of scholarly communication throughout its history, including its research importance as well as its business value.
It specifically covers four key themes:

the value of scholarly content and information at various stages of it development and use;

the role that technology has played on the use, importance, and value of scholarly information and research communications;

the changing business models affecting the system of scholarly communication from the way it is produced to how it is distributed and consumed; and

some of the implications of mobile, cloud, and social computing technologies on the future of scholarly communications.

Attention is paid to analyzing the structural changes that the professional publishing community now faces. Regazzi examines research content as an economic good; how technology and business models have greatly affected the value of scholarly publishing; and the drivers of the future sustainability of our system of scholarly communication.