THE MAGNITUDE OF CONFERENCE PROCEEDINGS PUBLISHED IN PHYSICS JOURNALS

This study measures the magnitude of occurrence of conference proceedings published as parts of physics journals. Problems associated with publishing conference proceedings in journals are discussed. The journal collection of the Purdue University physics Library was used as ct sample representative of physics journals that are commonly held by research libraries, Two separate time intervals were used in this study. One interval covered journals from 1986-1990, while another interval covered 1990 only. The study measured the percentage of titles containing conference proceedings for the 1986-1990 interval, The percentage of pages devoted to conference proceedings for titles containing conference proceedings was determined for the 1986-1990 interval, The percentage of pages devoted to the entire population of physics journal literature is measured for 1990. The extent to which major publishers of physics literature include conference proceedings is also shown for each publisher. Reasons for and against publishing conference proceedings in journals are discussed, Potential directions for future publication of conference proceedings are discussed.