Date: Wed, 02 Jul 1997 07:17:29 -0400 (EDT)
From: Albert Henderson <70244.1532@COMPUSERVE.COM>
Subject: Barschall's cost effectivness analysis

In the new issue (28,3 April page 165) of J. SCHOLARLY PUBLISHING Carol Tenopir
and Donald W King have written:

  "Some scientists (e.g. Barschall) have attempted to assess the relative value
of journals by comparing their price (i.e. cost to libraries) and citation
counts .... Some comparisons among journals make some sense, but only if the
potential number of readers is the same for journals being compared ....
dividing 'cost' per 1000 characters by number citations would only distort the
metric further .... Thus, comparisons of this king among journals must somehow
also take into account the size of communities served..."

Albert Henderson, Editor, PUBLISHING RESEARCH QUARTERLY
70244.1532@compuserve.com11