Excerpt

In October 2004, the CSR organized a workshop on the topic, "Are Chemical Journals Too Expensive and Inaccessible?" This workshop provided a forum to discuss the publication of chemistry journals within the larger context of scientific, technical, and medical (STM) journal publishing. Issues relevant to the different stakeholders from academe, industry, and government were addressed, such as whether the needs of users of chemical information are being met; how librarians are responding to changes in STM publishing; the economics of publishing chemical journals; and whether the increasing cost of subscriptions is presenting obstacles to carrying out research in chemistry and chemical engineering. As part of this activity, the unique scientific journal needs of chemists and chemical engineers and the new approaches for addressing those needs—including "open access"—were explored.

This document summarizes the presentations and discussions that took place at the workshop, which have been edited and organized around the major themes of historical perspective, challenges of web publication, cost, access, archives, and open access. In accordance with the policies of the CSR, the workshop did not attempt to establish any conclusions or recommendations about needs and future directions, focusing instead on issues identified by the speakers.

Contents

• The National Academies
• Chemical Science Roundtable
• Board on Chemical Sciences and Technology
• Preface
• Acknowledgment of Reviewers
• 1. Overview
  • UNIQUE JOURNAL NEEDS OF CHEMISTS AND CHEMICAL ENGINEERS
  • ACCESS TO, AND IMPACT OF, CHEMISTRY JOURNALS
  • NEW APPROACHES TO ADDRESS JOURNAL NEEDS
• 2. Historical Perspective
  • THE ORIGINS OF CHEMICAL JOURNALS
  • EMERGENCE OF PROFESSIONAL SOCIETIES AND THEIR JOURNALS
  • THE IDEA OF A “WORLD BRAIN”
  • JOURNALS SINCE WORLD WAR I
• 3. Challenges of Web Publication
  • FINDING INFORMATION
  • TALLYING WEB HITS
  • DATA
  • WEB SUBMISSION
  • ELECTRONIC PUBLISHING
  • EXISTING ELECTRONIC PLATFORMS
• 4. Cost
  • THE PRICE TAG FOR BUYING JOURNALS
  • EFFECTS OF PRICE INCREASES ON COLLEGES AND UNIVERSITIES
  • THE ROLE OF PROFESSIONAL SOCIETIES
  • MODELS FOR FINANCING SCIENTIFIC JOURNALS
  • THE COST OF ARCHIVING
  • AN INDUSTRY LIBRARIAN'S APPROACH TO ACQUIRING CONTENT
  • COST STRUCTURE OF STM JOURNALS
• 5. Access
  • THE DEVELOPING WORLD
  • AMERICAN UNIVERSITIES
  • CHEMISTS AND CHEMICAL ENGINEERS
• 6. Archives
  • DATA REGISTRIES
  • THE FUTURE OF ARCHIVES
• 7. Open Access
  • GENERAL COMMENTS
  • THE OPEN-ACCESS MOVEMENT
  • OPEN-ACCESS PUBLISHING MODELS
• Appendixes
  • Appendix A Workshop Agenda
  • Appendix B List of Participants
  • Appendix C Biographic Sketches of Workshop Speakers
  • Appendix D Origin of and Information on the Chemical Sciences Roundtable

This study was supported by Research Corporation under Grant GG0066, the U.S. Department of Energy under Grant DE-AT01-04ER15535, the National Institutes of Health under Grant N01-OD-4-2139 (Task Order 25), and the National Science Foundation under Grant CHE-0328197.

NOTICE: The project that is the subject of this report was approved by the Governing Board of the National Research Council, whose members are drawn from the councils of the National Academy of Sciences, the National Academy of Engineering, and the Institute of Medicine. The members of the organizing committee responsible for the workshop summary were chosen for their special competences and with regard for appropriate balance.

Any opinions, findings, conclusions, or recommendations expressed in this publication are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the organizations or agencies that provided support for the project.