ARE CHEMICAL JOURNALS TOO EXPENSIVE AND INACCESSIBLE?
A WORKSHOP ORGANIZED BY THE CHEMICAL SCIENCES ROUNDTABLE
NATIONAL RESEARCH COUNCIL
THE NATIONAL ACADEMIES
2101 Constitution Avenue, NW
Washington, DC
Monday and Tuesday
October 25th & 26th, 2004
This workshop, part of the Chemical Sciences Roundtable (CSR) activity, will provide a
forum to discuss the publication of chemistry journals within the larger context of
scientific, technical, and medical (STM) journal publishing . Issues relevant to the
different stakeholders from academe, industry, and government will be addressed: Are
the needs of users of chemical information being met? How are librarians responding to
changes in STM publishing? What are the economics of publishing chemical journals,
and is the increasing cost of subscriptions presenting obstacles to carrying out research in
chemistry and chemical engineering? As part of this activity, the unique scientific journal
needs of chemists and chemical engineers and the new approaches for addressing those
needs (including “open access”) will be explored.
AGENDA
Monday, October 25th, 2004
7:00
Registration and Breakfast
8:00
Introduction and Opening Remarks
Ned Heindel, Lehigh University
8:15
Session I: Context and Overview
The keynote address will discuss the historical context of chemical journals, current publishing
models, and future directions of the chemical publishing realm.
Keynote Address-Arnold Thackray, President of the Chemical Heritage Foundation
9:15
Session II: What are the Unique Scientific Journal Needs of Chemists and Chemical
Engineers?
In this session panelists will address the unique publishing needs of chemists and chemical
engineers, roles of authors, professional societies, private publishers, and librarians in the realm of
chemical science and engineering journal publishing.
9:20
Overview Presentation-Robert Bovenschulte, President, ACS Publishing Division
10:05
Comments/Presentations by Panel Participants
 Christopher Reed, UC Riverside
 Patrick Jackson –Publishing Director, Chemistry & Chemical Engineering, Elsevier
 Andrea Twiss-Brooks, Chemistry Librarian, University of Chicago
 Gordon Hammes, Duke University
11:25
Break
11:40
Discussion of Issues by Panel and Workshop participants
12:30
Lunch
1:30
Session III: Are Chemists and Chemical Engineers Receiving Needed Access to Chemical
Journals?
In this session the rising costs of scientific, technical, and medical journals, the high price of
chemistry journals in particular, and their impact will be discussed. Also, the accessibility of
chemical science and engineering journals from the perspectives of a panel comprised of large
research oriented universities, small universities, and industrial and university librarians will be
explored.
1:35
Overview Presentation- Ulrich Pöschl, The Online Journal of Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics
2:20
Comments/Presentations by Panel Participants
 LouAnn DiNallo-Industrial Librarian, Bristol Myers-Squibb
 Michael Doyle-University of Maryland
Break
3:00
3:15
Session III (cont’d)
 Stephen Berry, University of Chicago
 Brian Simboli, Lehigh University
 Peter Gregory, The Royal Society of Chemistry
4:10
Discussion of Issues by Panel and Workshop participants
5:00
Reception
6:00
Dinner Speaker: The green and gold roads to maximizing research access and impact: Don't
confuse them!"-Stevan Harnad, University of Quebec, Montreal
Tuesday, October 26th , 2004
8:00
Session IV:What New Approaches Can Be Made to Address Chemical Science and Engineering
Journal Needs?
In this session, alternative models to the traditional publishing methods will be discussed. Topics
such as open access, digital archiving, electronic databases and online vendors will be discussed
by a panel consisting of university and open access publishers, digital archive executives, and
librarians.
8:05
Overview Presentation-Bridget C. Coughlin, Managing Editor, PNAS
Nicholas Cozzarelli, UC Berkeley, PNAS Editor
9:05
Comments/Presentations by Panel Participants
 Michael Keller, Highwire Press and Stanford University
 Martin Blume, The American Physical Society
 Vivian Siegel, PLoS
 Anna Gold, MIT
10:25
Break
10:40
Discussion of Issues by Panel and Workshop participants
11:10
Session V: Workshop Summary
11:00
Discussion of Issues by Workshop participants
11:40
Concluding Remarks
12:00
Adjourn