The year's work in serials, 1989.

Articles on any aspect of serials in library and information science journals published since the last review were scanned for possible inclusion in this bibliography. While information on serials, especially serials pricing, has begun to appear in other fields, space considerations restricted my focus and prevented a comprehensive listing. Nevertheless, this year's work on serials is as varied as serials themselves. There is a lot of good reading ahead ! SERIALS PRICING Once again the literature was dominated by the discussion of serials pricing, as well as related issues of scholarly communication, journal publishing, and the question of access versus ownership. Several continuous sources of developments in this area are of note. Ivins' regular columns in Serials Review bring together reports on various meetings, conferences, studies, and other related topics. Two publications made their debut in 1989. The electronically disseminated Newsletter on Serials Pricing Issues, edited by Marcia Tuttle, is essential reading for up-to-the minute news. It, along with Katina Strauch's Against the Grain, a well-put-together newsletter on all aspects of acquisitions, often contains references to articles on serials pricing outside the field of librarianship. While beyond the scope of this article, these other citations merit investigation. Astle nicely summarizes the problems, questions, and alternatives available regarding the increasing article output of the scholarly journal and its associated high costs. Tuttle provides a basic and brief overview aimed at. nonlibrarians in Library Issues. Current activities on serials pricing are capsulated in another article by Astle. However, the really significant development of 1989 was the release of two reports commissioned by the Association for Research Libraries. Okerson and Economic Consulting Service prepared separate reports for the ARL Serials Project that should be read by librarians at all levels. Okerson has summarized both reports in the Serials Librarian. Whether or not you agree with the methods used or conclusions reached in these reports (read the many point/counterpoint communications appearing in the Newsletter on Serials Pricing Issues), they must be regarded as truly noteworthy for the strong stances their authors have taken on this issue. The impact of serial costs on library budgets was the focus of several articles. Lynden finds both negative and positive effects and advocates reviewing collection development policies. A very fine bibliography can be found in Hamaker's examination of pricing by the top six publishers. He draws a number of interesting conclusions that cannot be adequately summarized here. The special problems of research libraries are discussed by Dowd. Information that can be used by librarians to educate their constituencies on the magnitude of the serials problem is insightfully prepared by Thompson. Differential pricing by geography is treated in an article by Grinell. Non-U.S. libraries are paying more for U.S.-produced journals from Springer-Veriag, according to his findings. The effects of exchange rates on journal pricing are well explained by Strauch and Strauch. They present techniques the business world uses to protect itself from loss due to fluctuations in the currency market and suggest libraries do likewise. Moline conducted a study to compare the cost per thousand characters of scholarly journals in the humanities, social sciences, and sciences, as well as other variables to determine what effect various factors have on journal prices. Multiple regression analysis is used by Petersen to isolate the effects of individual factors on prices. Speaking as an economist, he offers a new and refreshing perspective on the topic. Ribbe offers a model to judge, in terms of cost, the relative quality of scientific serials in general. Some of the criteria he considers are citation data, sources of funding for research, circulation statistics, and subscription price. …