NATURE 



285 



THURSDAY, MAY 6, 1920. 



The Cost of Scientific Publications. 



WE have had before us recently the annual 

 reports of the councils of a number of scien- 

 tific societies, and it is evident from all of them 

 that the burden of the cost of publications of 

 these societies has become so heavy that it cannot 

 be borne any longer without additional support. 

 The great increase in printers' charges, and the 

 high cost of paper, make the expenses of publica- 

 tion so considerable that the slender funds at the 

 disposal of most scientific societies, particularly 

 those devoted to subjects having no direct asso- 

 ciation with profitable industry, will often not 

 permit the substantial expenditure now required 

 for the printing and distribution of papers pre- 

 sented at meetings. Few scientific societies have 

 any other source of income than that provided 

 by the subscriptions of their members or fellows, 

 and science workers in general are already suffi- 

 ciently harassed by the problem of their private 

 budgets, with salaries little above the pre-war 

 level, and relatively far below it on account of 

 the rise in prices, that increased subscriptions 

 cannot be contemplated without serious misgiving. 



It has always seemed to us that in the pursuit 

 of their researches and the publication of the 

 results science workers follow principles on a far 

 higher ethical level than that occupied by members 

 of any other profession. The first object of their 

 work is to increase the store of human know- 

 ledge, and the value of any communication to a 

 scientific society is measured by what the explorer 

 has brought back from a known region, or how 

 far he has lifted the veil with which Nature 

 jealously guards her secrets. Nothing must be 

 kept back from the narrative of the discoverer, 

 and the fruits secured must be displayed so that 

 all who wish may enjoy them and be able to go 

 out into the same fields to secure like riches for 

 themselves. 



In presenting the results of his labour to the 

 human race without receiving any personal pay- 

 ment for it, the science worker occupies a unique 

 position. Genius in art, or literature, or music 

 may sometimes be neglected, but usually it secures 

 generous reward, and its products have always 

 a marketable value — high or low — whereas 

 scientific discovery rarely brings direct gain to the 

 genius who makes it. Plutocrats will pay high 

 prices for the pictures they want, and popular 

 NO. 26^6, VOL. lO"^! 



authors and musical composers may amass riches 

 from royalties on their works ; but the science 

 worker is deprived of any such rewards for his 

 discoveries, though all the world may benefit by 

 them. Not only does he bring his rich argosies 

 into port, but he also describes his cargoes fully, 

 and himself pays for the publication of the cata- 

 logue of gifts which he is prepared to bestow 

 freely upon all who care to receive them. Such 

 pure altruism is almost inconceivable to the 

 ordinary business mind, yet it represents the 

 common standard of scientific endeavour and 

 achievement. Altered circumstances, however, 

 make it necessary to reconsider this position, and 

 we urge that it is time the community, through 

 its rich citizens or the Government, provided 

 reasonable contributions towards the expenses of 

 publications which bring honour to them as well 

 as add to the sum of human knowledge. 



There is, indeed, no more difficult problem 

 before our learned societies at the present time 

 than that of the maintenance of their scientific 

 publications. With a limited circulation which 

 cannot be increased by the ordinary methods of 

 enterprising journalism, the additional cost of 

 production can be met only by a higher subscrip- 

 tion. The societies which provide a library of 

 their special subject already find most of their 

 normal income absorbed by the increased estab- 

 lishment charges. As we have said, a very large 

 proportion of the members of these societies are 

 professional men whose incomes have not risen 

 in proportion to the prices of the ordinary com- 

 modities . of life. Any additional subscription to 

 provide for an adequate record of the societies' 

 activities under present conditions thus proves to 

 be a hardship, sometimes an impossibility. 



It may perhaps be admitted that, in the past, 

 scientific publications have sometimes been pro- 

 duced in a rather extravagant style. Some 

 societies have never completely emancipated them- 

 selves from this idea, and although a large format 

 may sometimes be needed both for drawings of 

 natural history and engineering, and for extensive 

 mathematical formula?, there has been less strict 

 regard to such necessities than should have been 

 exercised. Moreover, during the years before the 

 war, with cheap printing, there was an increasing 

 tendency in some departments of science to pour 

 forth the undigested contents of notebooks rather 

 than carefully considered results. 



After all reasonable reform and economy, how- 

 ever, it still remains impossible to continue the 

 serial publications of science with the means that 



