Chemistry Journals: Cost-Effectiveness, Seminal Titles and Exchange Rate Profiteering

The cost-effectiveness of STM journals has been compared within several subject areas, beginning with Henry Barschalls's work with the physics literature in the late 1980s. A new use-independent cost-effectiveness metric is proposed and calculated for journals in several chemistry subdisciplines. Publisher and year-of-publication data for seminal journal articles assigned in a graduate-level organic synthesis class are presented. The effects of publisher policies in establishing and enforcing differential subscription prices for European and non-European customers on the rise of journal subscription costs and also on possible exchange-rate profiteering are discussed.