Price History for Core Clinical Journals in Medicine and Nursing

Author : Lynn M. Fortney , EBSCO Information Services

Purpose : To measure the rate at which “core clinical journals” have increased in price over the past five years, and demonstrate that there is a difference between prices for journals published in the United States and journals published in other countries.

Methodology : Although NLM no longer produces Abridged Index Medicus as a print publication, the value of the 118 titles as a core list of "selected titles of biomedical journal literature of immediate interest to the practicing physician" is still recognized and can be used on MEDLINE as a search subset limit. The least expensive, annual retail print subscription rates available to non-membership institutions in the United States as of February of each year (2000 – 2004) was recorded for each of the 118 journals in this subset.

Results : The total price increase for the 103 titles published in the United States from 2000 – 2004 was 42.3%. The average price of a “core clinical journal” published in the U.S. in 2004 was $404.70. However, the average price of a title published outside the U.S. in 2004 was $568.10. The total price increase for the 15 “core clinical journals” published outside the United States in the same time period was 33.4%. Overall, for the total sample, the increase was 40.7% and the 2004 average price per title was $425.47.

Discussion/Conclusions : Clinical medicine and nursing titles comprise the majority of a typical hospital library's journal list and are of critical importance to large academic medical and research centers. While high rates of increases are often discussed in relation to the price of research journals, price increases on clinical titles are also part of the problem. It is essential that medical librarians are aware that journal price inflation has a very long history and communicate this to administrators and financial officers.