THE PUBLICATION AND AVAILABILITY OF SCIENTIFIC AND TECHNICAL PAPERS: AN ANALYSIS OF REQUIREMENTS AND THE SUITABILITY OF DIFFERENT MEANS OF MEETING THEM

Any system of making scientific and technical articles available must meet a reasonable number of the requirements of the main players in the system: authors, publishers, libraries and consumers. Among the requirements are high visibility (authors), profit (publishers) and affordable costs (libraries). Consumers need inter alia exposure, ready access and ease and flexibility of use. They have most requirements but least power. Needs differ for current and older journals. Of the various single modes of publication none performs very well for all parties. Combinations of modes are more effective but payment has to be made twice. Much depends on authors' willingness to accept less visible forms of publication, but the ultimate deciding factor is publishers' assessment of the economics.