Journal Prices
An article entitled "Serial Wars" by Lee C. Van Orsdel & Kathleen Born appears in the April 15, 2007 Library Journal. The authors survey the market, and found "for the second year in a row, academic libraries saw overall journal price increases just under 8%, U.S. titles rose 9% on average; non-U.S. titles were up 7.3%. The authors expect overall price increases to be in the seven to nine percent range again next year." The article is full of revealing information, including average prices for STM subjecs. Chemistry wins with the highest average price per title - $3,429. Other subject's average price per title are physics - $2,865; biology - $1,676; geology - $1,424; mathematics and computer science - $1,313; general science - $1,139. My guess is that this will translate into another budget reduction next year. Faculty and students should give serious thought to publishing in open access journals and other alternatives.