Following is a section of a letter I sent to Theresa Connaughton of Los Alamos National Laboratory, who, in an earlier issue of this Newsletter, expressed concern about institutions having to pay for page charges and reprints for their researchers and then, on top of that, having to pay full price for journal subscriptions. The distribution of revenue among page charges, reprint charges, and subscription income is an important question that we address every year. Be assured, however, that you are not paying twice. What sets a practical limit on page charges and reprint charges is the competitive market for authors.
Most commercial journals have no page charges and many give free reprints.
If our charges to authors came to be viewed as excessive, we would lose good papers to the commercial journals with which we compete. The quality of our journals would suffer. Pat Berger's presentation at our Publications Board meeting was stimulating and valuable. In Albuquerque, New Mexico, the police have been investigating a local book theft ring. It has hit several libraries in the area including the University of New Mexico Libraries.