Crystallographic publishing in retrospect and prospect.

This memorandum is based on an invited talk at the August 1987 International Congress of Crystallography in Perth, Australia and analyzes the publishing patterns of crystallographic papers in physical science journals. The number of these papers has increased annually at a rate of 3% since 1979, about double that of all other papers. The breadth of crystallographic coverage in the I.U.Cr. journals exceeds that of other leading journals, but several important areas are under-represented. Subscription costs for the 15 journals publishing the largest number of crystallographic papers without page charge varies from 2.3 to 11.8 U.S. cents per 1000 characters: by contrast Acta Cryst. costs 3.5 U.S. cents per 1000 characters. Evolving relationships with the numerical databases are presented and innovative publishing methods are discussed.