The Cost‐Effectiveness of Physics Journals

JUL 01, 1988

A survey of more than 200 journals shows that their cost‐effectiveness, as measured by the ratio of the cost per printed character to the frequency with which articles are cited, varies by three orders of magnitude.

DOI: 10.1063/1.881125

Henry H. Barschall

The rapid increase in the prices of physics journals has forced many physics libraries, in the face of static budgets, to cancel some of their subscriptions. Decisions on cancellations are usually based on the research interests of the users of the library, but the decision‐making process can be improved if a quantitative measure of the cost‐effectiveness of the journals is available. An often‐used measure is the cost per printed character; another is the frequency with which articles in the journal are cited, often referred to as the “impact.” The ratio of these two measures is perhaps the best indicator of a journal’s cost‐effectiveness.

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Henry H. Barschall, University of Wisconsin, Madison.