ISSN: 1046-3410

		NEWSLETTER ON SERIALS PRICING ISSUES

		     NO 241 -- January 27, 2000
			Editor: Marcia Tuttle


			      CONTENTS

  241.1 FROM THE EDITOR, Marcia Tuttle
  241.2 COST OF JOURNAL OF MOLECULAR STRUCTURE, Albert Henderson
  241.3 MOLECULAR MEDICINE JOINS THE JOHNS HOPKINS UNIVERSITY PRESS;
      YEARLY SUBSCRIPTION RATE REDUCED, Press Release
  241.4 PROFITS COMING OUT OF LIBRARY SPENDING, Albert Henderson
  241.5 ACTA CHEMICA SCANDINAVICA, Christopher Marshall

Once again it has been a long time since the last pricing newsletter issue. Sometimes both the gym and the gift shop where I work are easy to place ahead of composing an issue and especially doing html coding. I am told that it is worthwhile publishing even old messages, including press releases, because the newsletter has archive value. Thus, I am going to use the next few issues to catch up with the waiting mail and use the messages in the order in which they arrived. Thank you for your patience and your support. Is it too late to wish you Happy New Year? No!

Also, the University of North Carolina has recently installed new listserver software and things are VERY different. If you have trouble subscribing and unsubscribing, please let me know and I will do my best to help.

241.2 COST OF _JOURNAL OF MOLECULAR STRUCTURE_
Albert Henderson, Editor, Publishing Research Quarterly, 70244.1532@compuserve.com

[Received November 28, 1999]

In issue 239, a group of academic librarians attacked the content of a highly specialized journal, suggesting it was padded. The editors disagreed.

I agree with the editors in more general terms. The major challenge to researchers is the growth and scattering of useful information. The solution is secondary publications, such as bibliographies that are specialized and inclusive, festschrifts that comment and summarize, reviews, etc. (cf Herring. C.PHYSICS TODAY 21,9:27-33. Sept. 1968)

On-line databases are not available to everyone. Perhaps more important, they require special skills and determination. Some scientists cannot retrieve their own articles by keyword! (J. Hallmark. COLLEGE & RESEARCH LIBRARIES. 55:199-209. 1994) A good bibliography with a narrow, sharp focus may be far better for current awareness than even SDI services that require a profile of soon-obsolete buzzwords.

The inclusion of conference papers is also very much in the interest of the audience for a specialized journal, since considerable research is never "published." The editors who attended the 1997 conference on peer review made it clear that they admit a bias against publishing negative results. (JAMA 15 July 1998). The peer review conference also included a study (not the first) indicating considerable research activity aired at conferences is never reported in any journal. While researchers cannot go to every meeting, they can read and pick up the phone.

Bibliographies, conference papers, comments, abstracts, and other news items typically not cited will dilute the impact factor. But then, information scientists have always cautioned that use of the impact factor by itself is unwise. If I recall correctly, a warning is posted right in the front of JOURNAL CITATION REPORTS.

News is valued by serious researchers, even if it may be considered ephemeral by archive-minded librarians.

241.3 _MOLECULAR MEDICINE_ JOINS THE JOHNS HOPKINS UNIVERSITY PRESS;
YEARLY SUBSCRIPTION RATE REDUCED Press Release dated December 1, 1999, submitted by Todd A. Carpenter, Journals Marketing Manager, tac@mail.press.jhu.edu

The Johns Hopkins University Press and the Picower Institute Press are proud to announce that beginning January 2000, _Molecular Medicine_ will be joining the JHUP journals program. First published in 1994, _Molecular Medicine_ has quickly become one of the most highly respected research journals in medical research and molecular sciences. _Molecular Medicine_ is the official journal of the Molecular Medicine Society.

_Molecular Medicine_ focuses on understanding the molecules that are key to the normal functioning of the body and those related to the fundamental mechanisms of disease. It also focuses on the manipulation of these molecules to improve the diagnosis, treatment, and prevention of disease.

Elaine Jones, Chief Operating Officer of the Picower Institute for Medical Research, said the shift of _Molecular Medicine_ to The Johns Hopkins University Press will be a great benefit to the journal. "We are extremely excited to be joining the Hopkins journals program. Their long history of publishing top-quality journals, as well as the obvious ties that Johns Hopkins has to the medical community make this a perfect fit."

In keeping with its mission to provide quality publications at a reasonable price, The Johns Hopkins University Press is also pleased to announce that the subscription price for the year 2000 will be reduced to $495 for institutions. This is a 30%% reduction from the previously announced subscription rate.

Founded in 1991 with an endowment from The Jeffry M. and Barbara Picower Foundation, The Picower Institute for Medical Research is an independent not-for-profit research organization. The mission of The Picower Institute for Medical Research is to apply the insights gained from basic laboratory and disease-oriented research to the improvement of human health.

The Johns Hopkins University Press is the oldest continuously operating university press in America. Its journals publishing program is among the largest with over 55 journals currently in print. The Press publishes journals in the humanities, history, political science, philosophy, and medicine.

The Johns Hopkins University Press will begin publishing _Molecular Medicine_ (ISSN: 1076-1551) in January 2000 with volume #6, number 1. The journal is published monthly.

Librarians, library advocates, and reviewers may receive a sample issue of _Molecular Medicine_ by submitting a written request to "Attn: Sample Requests - MM/tc" at the address below.

For more information, please contact The Johns Hopkins University Press, Journals Division, 2715 North Charles Street, Baltimore, MD 21218-4363, U.S.A. Fax: 410-516-6968. Toll-Free: 800-548-1784. E- Mail: jlorder@jhupress.jhu.edu Web site: www.press.jhu.edu.

241.4 PROFITS COMING OUT OF LIBRARY SPENDING
Albert Henderson, Editor, Publishing Research Quarterly, 70244.1532@compuserve.com

[Received November 28, 1999]

Deliberately poor financial support of libraries affects publishers' sales and forces them to raise their prices. Over the last 30 years, the numbers of copies of research books and periodicals dropped by more than half.

For years, we have been told that "there is no money" by university administrators. Can that be true? The economy has been booming for a decade.

The Nov. 29 issue of the CHRONICLE OF HIGHER EDUCATION reveals the huge profits of private universities. (A44+) Using its data, I determined that 39 Research Universities' average profits were up 4 points, to about 25%% of mostly tax-exempt revenues -- at the expense of library spending and excellence.

ARL statistics show MIT and Northwestern, each with hundreds of millions of dollars in profits, chose to cut their library spending. The previous year such cuts were made by Duke, Chicago, Miami, and Princeton.

241.5 _ACTA CHEMICA SCANDINAVICA_
Christopher Marshall, Royal Society of Chemistry, marshallc@rsc.org

[Received November 30, 1999]

At the end of this year _Acta Chemica Scandinavica _will no longer be published as a journal in its own right.

_Acta Chemica Scandinavica_ will be merged into _Perkin Transactions _1 and _Perkin Transactions 2_ and _Dalton Transactions_, published by the Royal Society of Chemistry. This collaboration will strengthen Perkin 1 and 2 and Dalton through increased representation in these journals from authors from Denmark, Finland, Norway and Sweden and will provide subscribers to the three journals with added value.

The Editors of _Acta Chemica Scandinavica_, Professor Lennart Eberson (Lund) and Professor Christian Romming (Oslo), will continue in this capacity for an interim period, so that chemists from Denmark, Finland, Norway and Sweden will have the option of submitting their work directly to the Royal Society of Chemistry's Cambridge Editorial Office or to the appropriate Scandinavian Editor.

Should you have any questions about this, please direct them to: Sales and Customer Care Department, Royal Society of Chemistry, Thomas Graham House, Science Park, Milton Road, Cambridge CB4 0WF, UK. Tel: +44 (0) 1223 432360; Fax: +44 (0) 1223 423429; E-Mail: sales @rsc.org

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Statements of fact and opinion appearing in the Newsletter on Serials Pricing Issues are made on the responsibility of the authors alone, and do not imply the endorsement of the editor, the editorial board, or the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
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The Newsletter on Serials Pricing Issues (ISSN: 1046-3410) is published by the editor through Academic Technology and Networks at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, as news is available. Editor: Marcia Tuttle, Email: marcia_tuttle@unc.edu; Telephone: 919 929-3513. Editorial Board: Keith Courtney (Taylor and Francis), Fred Friend (University College London), Birdie MacLennan (University of Vermont), Michael Markwith (Swets Subscription Services), James Mouw (University of Chicago), Heather Steele (Blackwell's Periodicals Division), David Stern (Yale University), and Scott Wicks (Cornell University).

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