The pattern of extremely high prices followed by a rapid decline, he contends, reflected normal pricing behavior. It seeks to improve access, address preservation issues of deteriorating paper and reduce long-term costs associated with storage and care of print collections. Several preliminary findings are already evident. The availability of older journal articles in electronic format seems to increase the use of older articles. For example, searches show that scholars are broadening their research by using cross-title and interdisciplinary capabilities to find information in journals that they would generally not read.
Older literature remains valuable in many fields.
Another interesting finding shows that citation data alone does not reliably predict electronic usage. Economics titles are the most heavily viewed or printed. Both components must be considered. The average number for large U.S. institutional members is only 32,000. Current issues will be of value to science researchers as well as backfile that are needed by historians of science and technology.