ABSTRACT
The most obvious facts about scholarly journals published in the US in the 1990s are how many exist and how few are profitable. What actually took place is best described as an illustration of American pragmatism: criteria for the promotion of scholars did not change, rather the expansion of journals and publishing programs to satisfy that criterion of academic excellence did the changing. The normal fiscal or market checks on growth of journals-at least in some areas-are either irrelevant or non-operative in some definable short-term duration. The problems may have been exacerbated by the exponential growth of such journals, but also eased in part by desk-top publishing, and the refinement of publication technologies that afford a measure of quality control without a corresponding expansion of costs. In times of high growth, such claims and costs as are imposed by the specialized journal can be readily absorbed. Specialized journals are usually the first to be told that they are superfluous.
