The Serials Crisis Revisited

There are striking parallels between the current serials crisis and the crisis of 1981. Caltech's response was significantly different, however, in large part due to a much better understanding of the effect of foreign exchange rates in subscription prices of scientific and technical journals. Results of a 1981 journal cancellation project are also reported. These reveal that over 40% and 80% of the cited references in the publications of Caltech's biologists and chemists came from only 13 and 80 journals respectively.