The journals crisis: redirecting the blame.

Publishers and librarians are the usual culprits blamed for the "journals crisis", typically defined as an ever-tightening spiral of increasing serial prices and decreasing number of subscribers. An alternative viewpoint is expressed in this article-the author community bears the brunt of the blame for this situation. The glut of published articles, the surplus of journals, and the growing publication rate per academic chemist drive the crisis. Therefore, any global publication paradigm change must originate from within the author community.