Culling Journals Time!
It is that time of the year when our librarian asks us to consider whether or not to continue subscribing to journals. In the past, journals have been identified by “percentage increase” with the idea that those whose increase is high need special attention to determine if they are still valuable. This assumes that we had made good decisions in the past: if a “bad” journal keeps its increase low enough, it doesn’t show up on the radar screen. A low priced, but valuable journal with a “big” one-time increase gets special scrutiny. But which should get more attention: a journal going up $60 on a base of $600 or an equivalent quality journal going up $200 on a base of $5000? Ordering by percentage increase means the first gets much more attention but rational budgeting suggests looking carefully at the second. While those values seem extreme, that is roughly what happens when comparing Management Science (as the “inexpensive” journal) and European Journal of Operational Research (whose price to Carnegie Mellon is $5885 per year)...
Comments