Are Your Technical Journals an Endangered Species?
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lishers' costs."2 Although the situation has improved temporarily, price increases above the rate of inflation are still the rule rather than the exception.
Are Your Technical Journals an Endangered Species?
Characterizing the Problem
Garry W. Warren and Kebede Gessesse tutions and research laboratories, it became apparent that similar efforts were underway across the U.S. Trimming the fat is always productive, but reductions of the magnitude mentioned above represent amputations of muscle and bone. Ironically, we considered ourselves lucky Introduction to be able to limit the actual reduction in Greetings from your librarian. Due to severe financial constraints in our budget and subscriptions to roughly half of those price increases significantly higher than infla- anticipated. tion, we must cancel as many journal subWith each budget year and renewal scriptions as necessary to achieve a reduction period, an increasingly vicious circle is in expenses of at least $500,000. Your assiscreated, as indicated by Barchall, "When tance in identifying journals for cancellation libraries are forced to cancel subscripwill be appreciated. tions, publishers have to raise prices, forcing libraries to cancel more subscripThis was the gist of a memorandum cirtions."1 This undoubtedly has a bearing culated to the faculty at the University of on the results of a recent study of journal Alabama in 1992. The most expensive pricing by the Association of Research journals (i.e., technical, scientific journals) Libraries that indicated "price increases were prime targets for cancellation. From cannot be attributed to increases in pubdiscussions with colleagues at other instiReprinted with permission from JOM (for-
merly JOURNAL OF METALS) Vol. 47 (1995), pp. 12-3, a publication of The Minerals, Metals & Materials Society, Warrendale, Pennsylvania 15086.
40 Actual Cost
Adjusted 1983 Cost
18 Private Journals 30
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