Dr Jekyll and Dr Hyde: author-reader asymmetries in scholarly publishing

The fundamental asymmetries of the journal system are reviewed and an examination is made of the differences between author and reader behaviour at both a quantitative and a qualitative level. Author productivity and so-called "salami-style" publishing practices are examined, An estimate of global author numbers is made. Reader and readership studies combined with bibliometric analysis allow the proposal of a means of estimating reading rates of journals.