Keeping Science Costs in Check: A Cost per Use Review of Chemistry Journals

Abstract The sciences librarian and the electronic resources & serials librarian at Colorado College identified chemistry journal subscriptions for further investigation of usage and cost. Out of 14 chemistry-related journal titles on the renewal list from the library’s subscription agent, 8 journal titles were found to have high cost per use, based on the previous year’s price divided by number of articles downloaded. The authors considered the American Chemical Society guidelines for approval for Chemistry Departments and made sure other journal and journal package subscriptions outside these 8 titles fulfilled the ACS journal requirements. The authors then attended a Chemistry Department meeting to present these findings. Faculty agreed to cancel 6 of these titles and to add an inexpensive chemistry journal package for a newer faculty member; the net savings was $39,016.23.