Are Chemical Journals Too Expensive and Inaccessible?: A Workshop Summary to the Chemical Sciences Roundtable

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.