Abstract
THE high prices of German scientific publications, to which reference has been made in NATURE (132, 34 and 540; 1933), are again discussed in Angewandte Chemie of March 9. The chief factors in the increased cost are the decreased demand, increased cost of paper, binding, type and setting and illustrations, as well as overhead charges, decreased revenue from advertisements resulting from diminished circulation, the publication of smaller editions to avoid getting out of date, with consequent heavier on-costs, and the high discounts afforded to German booksellers. It is asserted that every effort is being made at compression to compensate for the 15-20 per cent greater space normally required for a German book as compared with the same work in French or English, and that the ‘Minister Agreement’ of 1933 (between librarians, publishers and the university unions, representing the authors) has in this way already resulted in an estimated decrease of 2,000,000 gold marks in costs of publication.
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Cost of German Scientific Publications. Nature 135, 843 (1935). https://doi.org/10.1038/135843a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/135843a0