Impact of microfilms on journal costs

The increasing availability of microfilm editions of journals in libraries throughout the world provides publishers with opportunities to reassess the traditional role of the journal in filling a wide spectrum of user needs. Publishers can now select media options which more precisely fit the needs of users and which result in significant cost reduction as well as producing additional revenues. For the American Chemical Society (ACS), the revenues produced are developed from the sale of the microfilm version of its back and current volume and from a photocopying license fee included in the pricing structure. With microfilm versions of journals becoming more widely available, editors and authors are encouraged to put material into the microfilm edition that might otherwise have been carried in the printed version. Every such transfer of a page is a saving of $60 to $100 per page less any page-charge revenue, it is possible to more sharply reduce the printed pages in a journal by moving toward the digest or short-paper concept. The savings in production costs could affect the whole pattern of pricing and lead to the elimination of page charges and to lower prices for individual users of the short form or digest journal.