Journals online are not free to their producers. Here are some
costs: editing to assure quality, setting up the article so it
would be ready either for print or electronic distribution, developing
search engines, indexing, cross-linking with other journals/abstracts,
and perhaps most importantly, archiving the journals and maintaining
the archive as the storage media change.
The American Chemical Society Publications Division has a staff
of 265 all of whom will be needed if we go totally to electronic
distribution. Indeed, under those circumstances more IT personnel
would be required. I hope that my comments clarify the problem
of the publisher in an age when it seems as though electronic
distribution is essentially free. While we may not pay directly
to access the web, there are numerous costs behind the scenes.
Paul Walter